Shaun Murphy Blog – Practicing with Peter

I had a great day yesterday as Peter Ebdon came up to practise with me at the club.

We go back a long, long way and I can recall my first ever experience of the Crucible Theatre was when I went to watch him play there in 1992.

Peter and I lived in the same part of the country for a long, long time and I’ve known him since I was 12 or 13.

Countless times, I used to ask if I could practice with him, pick the balls out for him, when I was a teenager but he’d always turn me down.

I suppose he had his own practice partners and routines and there wasn’t time to practice with a teenager.

I didn’t mind, but I did think it was a bit ironic when he rang up asking me to practise with him after all those times when he’d said ‘no’!

We’ve always got on really well and he is one of the guys who I’ll have a spot of dinner with or share a glass of wine whenever we’re away at a tournament.

People might not know it but Peter’s actually a really good singer and is always ready to blast out a bit of U2 or something if we find ourselves in the vicinity of a karaoke. He, Ali Carter, myself and maybe a couple of others might go along together.

There’s some who have watched him play that may think he is a bit intense but he’s not. He’s well educated, well spoken and knows what he is talking about. He has worked his nuts off for the last 20 years or so, giving his all to the game and his career and I really respect him.

So, it was really good to see him for a bit of a practice together. That said, if we end meeting each other at next week’s PTC or the UK Championship, our good friendship won’t stop us trying to put one over on the other on the table!

Thanks for reading…

Shaun

Tags: Ali Carter, Crucible Theatre, Peter Ebdon, PTC