Northern Ireland Open: How two players won matches with the same stick

Noppon Saengkham arrived in Belfast for the event but his signal did not come through, leaving the Thai star stranded ahead of his debut game against compatriot Thepchaiya Un-Nooh.

Luckily for him, he ran into Murphy the night before the game and the former world champion offered his stick if needed.

Noppon had a total of 10 minutes of practice with the new stick and managed to beat Thepchaiya 5-4 in a dramatic contest.

Murphy then got the stick back and rallied to defeat Zhou Yuelong 4-2 on Tuesday night.

Explaining the situation to WST, Murphy said: ‘I just met him last night at the hotel and he looked distraught, he looked in trouble and I asked him if everything was okay and he said his cue hadn’t come.

‘Listen, this week it was me, but this sort of thing is certainly on offer whenever a player is in trouble like this. I can’t think of a player on tour who wouldn’t offer to help another player if they were in such a need.

— I said if you don’t show up, let me know. He warned me at breakfast this morning. He said, “it didn’t show up, can I use your cue?” I said: “yes, no problem, there it is”. I think he could have used it better than me today, to be honest!

‘My tip is almost up so an extra best of seven wasn’t really what was needed, but luckily it got us home today.’

With Noppon wielding Murphy’s blade, it meant the Englishman could not train before his own game, but he said it was not vital.

“Yeah, I couldn’t hit any balls, but I’ve been hitting balls since I was eight, so an afternoon off isn’t going to kill me,” he said. ‘I was really happy to be able to help you, as I said, this week was my turn, but these kinds of offers happen all the time.’

Murphy is already in the round of 16, where he meets Stuart Bingham in the top half of the frame, while Noppon faces Mark Williams in the bottom half, so the pair would have to face each other in the final for stick-sharing to become a real issue.

“So he’s in trouble,” Murphy said of a final meeting with Noppon. ‘Let’s hope for everyone involved that wherever the bat comes from it gets there, but if he needs it again when I’m not playing he can use it.’

“Ironically, I only brought one with me this week,” he posted on X.

Williams awaits Noppon in the next round on Wednesday night after the three-time world champion defeated Jamie Clarke 4-0 on Tuesday.

The Welshman is getting used to a new cue and has been playing more Chinese snooker than snooker in recent weeks, so he is not sharp but is never far from a brilliant performance.

“It’s slowly improving,” he told Eurosport. ‘New suggestion, so it takes a little time to get used to it. Like that great movie Roadhouse, says Dalton, it gets worse before it gets better.

‘I’ve been playing more snooker than snooker in the last few months. I know my snooker will suffer, but it doesn’t matter. I got to the final in Saudi Arabia, which is probably a bad thing because I’m boiling, I haven’t touched my cue, I’m just playing more pool.

‘I’m not practicing once a week, that’s the truth. But if I didn’t get to the final in Saudi Arabia, I would play every day.’

On Noppon defeating Thepchaiya, he said: ‘I was watching that game, it was a good game to watch. He potted an unbelievable last red, 50 ago, served. All difficult players. In fact, they are the favorites to beat me, but you never know.