Huge snooker war of words erupts as Mark Allen fires back at Shaun Murphy’s ‘amateurish’ swipe

MARK ALLEN labelled Shaun Murphy’s opinions “irrelevant” following a back-and-forth between the pair.

Pals Allen and Murphy have been known to take public swipes at each other.

In 2022, Allen joked that Murphy must have a “chip on his shoulder” – before the former world champion posted about his mate getting “pumped” in a recent match.

Their recent public exchange followed Allen’s rant about the quality of conditions at the British Open last week.

Following his 4-3 victory over Gary Wilson in round one, the Northern Irishman claimed the conditions were “embarrassing” – even going on to claim that the table should be “burned”.

Amazingly, Allen went on to hit a 147 on the very same table later in the week, on his way to reaching the semi-finals.

The 2005 world champion Murphy, 42, sits on the WPBSA Players’ Board.

Last Saturday, as per the Irish Daily Star, he hit back at criticism, saying: “I must defend the staff. I think some of the criticism from fellow professionals has been nothing short of rude and amateurish.

“There’s a real misconception about playing conditions – people either refer to them as good or bad. The truth of the matter is they’re either difficult or more difficult.

“It’s about time players understood that. They’re either difficult or get more difficult with the weather and humidity.

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“A lot of players don’t understand that once humidity hits a table, it becomes very difficult.

“It’s nothing to do with the table fitter or their skill. They get a table off the back of a lorry and fit it, they do a great job.

“It’s about time some of our players educated themselves and maybe visit the factory. Maybe they wouldn’t say such silly things.

“Criticising members of staff who are just doing their job – and they do it brilliantly all around the world week in and week out – was a step too far.

“I hope it’s something that we see the back of.”

Following Murphy’s comments, Allen wrote on X: “Anyone taking @Magician147 opinions seriously I seriously question their judgement or quite possibly their sanity, not gonna lie.

“Anyway, maybe I’ll take 3 cues to my next match.”

‘IRRELEVANT’

A social media user hit back at Allen, writing: “He’s played in 4 world finals, his opinions are perfectly valid.”

To which Allen, 38, responded: “You misspelled irrelevant.”

Murphy delved deeper into the subject on his OneFourSeven podcast.

In the latest episode, he claimed that there had been a big “misunderstanding”, and that the public need to be “educated”.

He then went on to add: “The staff, there’s been a lot of talk that there are new fitters, and a lot of that is true.

“Their job is to take a table off a lorry on a pallet, and they put the table together. Their job is to put that table together, have it installed, and get them as level as possible.

“That’s what is in their control. How a table plays, whether it’s heavy or not, whether we can spin the ball properly – that’s nothing to do with them.

“Some of the comments and criticisms about the staff, I find extremely distasteful.

“I thought they were bang out of order. These guys do an immense job.”