Hot-headed snooker star Matthew Selt reveals he’s getting advice from John Terry to keep his cool at the Crucible
VOLATILE Matthew Selt has thanked former Chelsea captain John Terry for giving him advice on how to control his emotions on and off the table.
The world No.34 – who faces Xiao Guodong in round one of the World Snooker Championship from 10am on Saturday – can often lose his temper if results go against him.
In February, Selt was handed a three-month suspended sentence and slapped with a £21,000 fine for abusive and aggressive behaviour.
This followed incidents at the 2024 Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters in Riyadh where he is alleged to have been rude and abusive off the table towards a Matchroom senior executive.
Prior to that, he came under fire for yelling at a teenager and the referee in a stunning outburst last December in German Masters qualifying in Sheffield.
Selt, 40, shouted “oh my God!” when Latvian Artemijs Zizins, 18, fluked a match-ball red in the final frame of their contest and he also told the ref to “shut up” amid a back-stage commotion.
The Romford-born cueist is close pals with Terry, 44, and the pair often play golf together, though Selt jokes the five-time Premier League champion is a “cheat” for playing off the wrong handicap.
And it appears that “lots of chats” with former defender Terry – who played 78 times for England – have encouraged him to not internalise his feelings.
Selt explained: “I show my emotions. I spoke to John Terry a couple of years ago about whether to keep it in or let it out.
“He said: ‘I’ve known you long enough. Get it out and move on. Otherwise it’s just going to build up inside you – and you’ll explode.’
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“John was someone when I met him I was in awe of. But the first person to message or ring me after the Zizins outburst was him, checking in to see if I was okay.
“To have someone of that calibre, in terms of what he’s done, to be able to speak to is great.
“John’s a great guy, who has been good to me over the last ten years.
“But John takes the money on the golf course because he’s a cheat! He plays off the wrong handicap.
“One minute he’s off scratch and the next he’s off six, it’s an absolute liberty. He’s an unbelievable golfer who fluctuates tremendously.”
Selt was chuntering to himself and “commentating” on his own display as he came from 8-3 behind to beat Jimmy Robertson 10-9, the contest settled on the final black ball.
Yet Robertson – who missed the pink to qualify for the Worlds for the sixth time – had a go at Selt, claiming he was distracted by his antics.
Selt, who has lost on his last four visits to the Crucible, said: “Jimmy pulled me to one side after one of the frames and said: ‘What are you doing? You’re putting me off.’
“I obviously wasn’t trying to do that. Ultimately, it got to him. I feel genuinely gutted to be honest.
“I’m happy to win but not to the point where my actions resulted in the decline in his performance. That’s sport I suppose.
“I wasn’t doing anything completely out of order. I want to send my apologies to Jimmy.
“I do what I do all the time. I just commentate on my shots.
“If a ball’s going towards the hole, as happened numerous times during the match, I’d say: ‘There’s another one going towards the hole.’
“But it wasn’t as if I said anything after the balls had come to rest deliberately trying to put him off and that kind of stuff.
“I don’t like doing it to the detriment of my opponent, especially someone I’ve classed as a close friend since the age of 13 like Jimmy.
“I don’t know what he’s going to feel. But I feel pretty c*** right now.”