Maximum break

Joe Davis compiled the first officially recognised maximum break on 22 January 1955, in a match against Willie Smith at Leicester Square Hall, London. The Billiards Association and Control Council initially refused to accept the break since the match was not played under their rules. At the time, the professional game used a rule (now standard, see rules of snooker) whereby after a foul a player could compel the offender to play the next stroke. It was not until a meeting on 20 March 1957 that the break was officially recognised and Davis was presented with a certificate to commemorate his achievement. The match between Davis and Smith was played as part of a series of events marking the closure of Leicester Square Hall; known as Thurston's Hall until 1947, the venue had hosted many important billiards and snooker matches since its opening in 1901, including twelve World Snooker Championship finals. John Spencer compiled a maximum break in the 1979 Holsten Lager International, but it did not count as an official maximum, however, as the break was made on a nontemplated table used during the event. The following year, Cliff Thorburn became the first player to make a maximum at the World Championship in the fourth frame of his second round match against Terry Griffiths. , On 7 December 2023, Murphy made a maximum break in his firstround match against Bulcsú Révész in the 2023 Shoot Out, the first ever compiled at the Shoot Out, which is played under a variation of snooker rules, with a shot clock and fouls awarding . Michael White, Thepchaiya Un-Nooh (twice in the 201516 season and once in the 202425 season), Liang Wenbo in a qualifying match at the 2018 World Championship, after he had already made a maximum earlier in the same match, and both Joe O'Connor and Jack Lisowski at the 2025 Championship League. Breaks above 147 are possible when an opponent fouls and leaves a with all 15 reds still remaining on the table. A break greater than 147 has happened only twice in professional competition, first when Jamie Burnett made a break of 148 at the qualifying stage of the 2004 UK Championship. Alex Higgins is said by some players to have attained the same feat. ==Records==

First maximums The first known maximum break in practice was made by Murt O'Donoghue at Griffith, Australian Capital Territory, Australia, on 26 September 1934. Joe Davis compiled the first official 147 against Willie Smith in an exhibition match on 22 January 1955 at Leicester Square Hall, London. Rex Williams made the first maximum break in a competitive match against Manuel Francisco, Professionals v. Amateurs, on 23 December 1965 in Cape Town. John Spencer made the first maximum compiled in professional competition on 13 January 1979 at the Holsten Lager Tournament against Cliff Thorburn, but it was not officially ratified due to oversized pockets. The first official maximum break in professional competition was made by Steve Davis in the 1982 Lada Classic against Spencer. In March 2019, Mink Nutcharut made a 147 during a practice match at the Hi-End Snooker Club in Thailand. She is believed to be the only woman to have made a maximum break, either in practice or in competition. World Snooker Championship maximums There have been 15 maximums made at the main stage of the World Championship—staged at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England—by 11 different players. Thorburn made the first, The first time that two maximum breaks were made in the same ranking tournament was at the 1999 British Open, where Jason Prince made one during qualifying and Graeme Dott at the main event. Two maximum breaks (by Neil Robertson and Noppon Saengkham) were also televised at the 2019 Welsh Open. Three official maximums at the same professional tournament have been achieved six times. The first was at the 2012 UK Championship, when Andy Hicks and Jack Lisowski both compiled one each in qualifying and John Higgins compiled one in the televised stages. The second time was at the 2017 German Masters, where Ali Carter and Ross Muir both compiled one each during qualifying and Tom Ford during the televised stages. In the third round of the qualifying stage for the 2025 World Championship, Jackson Page made two maximums in his 102 win over Allan Taylor, with the first in the eighth frame on 13 April 2025 and the second in the twelfth frame the following day. On 15 August 2025, in his 63 win over Chris Wakelin in the semi-finals of the 2025 Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters, Ronnie O'Sullivan made maximums in the first and seventh frames of the match, becoming the only player to make two maximums in a one-session match or on the same day. and later in the same year Mark King and Joe Jogia are said to have replicated the feat at the Grove Open. The only known instance of more than two maximum breaks being compiled at a single event on the same day is during the Buckley's Bitter Challenge; three 147s were compiled on 8 February 1998, by Matthew Stevens, Ryan Day and Tony Chappel, but were not officially ratified. The only player known to have made more than two maximum breaks on a single occasion is Adrian Gunnell, who compiled three maximums in four frames at a club in Telford in 2003 while practising against Ian Duffy. John Higgins, Ronnie O'Sullivan and Thepchaiya Un-Nooh are the only players to record maximum breaks in consecutive ranking events. Higgins made maximums at the LG Cup and the British Open in 2003, However an investigation undertaken by Deadspin in 2017 revealed that the time recorded by Guinness was incorrect because the timer was started too early on the BBC footage. Breaks are not officially timed in snooker and the official rules of snooker do not specify how they should be timed, instead leaving the timing to the discretion of the broadcaster. The only timing methodology World Snooker sanctions in its events is the one employed in shot clock events where timing for a player's shot begins when the balls have come to rest from his opponent's previous shot. Under this convention the break would have been timed at 5 minutes and 15 seconds. World Snooker has since suggested that a break starts when the player strikes the cueball for the first time in a break which would result in a time of 5 minutes and 8 seconds; this is the time that both World Snooker and Guinness World Records now officially acknowledge. Youngest and oldest The youngest player to have made an officially recognised maximum break in professional competition is Thanawat Thirapongpaiboon, who compiled a 147 at the 2010 RheinMain Masters aged . Sean Maddocks is recognised by Guinness World Records as the youngest player to make a maximum break in any recognised competition. Maddocks was old when he achieved the feat at the LiteTask ProAm series in Leeds on 9 July 2017. Judd Trump is known to have made a 147 at the Potters Under16 Tournament in 2004 at the age of ; however, this break is not recognised by Guinness World Records. The oldest player to have made a maximum in professional competition is Ronnie O'Sullivan, who made two 147 breaks in his 2025 Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters semi-final against Chris Wakelin, when he was aged 49 years and 253 days. ==Prize money==

In professional tournaments, a 147 break traditionally carried a substantial prize; for example, Ronnie O'Sullivan was awarded £165,000 for his maximum break at the 1997 World Championship. That prize was composed of £147,000 for making the 147 break and £18,000 for achieving the highest break of the tournament. In the 201112 season World Snooker introduced a rollover system for the maximum break prize money, the "rolling 147 prize". A maximum break earned £5,000 during the televised stages of major ranking events, and £500 in non-televised stages or at Players Tour Championship events. If no player achieved a maximum break at an event, the prize rolled over to the next event until it was won. Since the start of the 201920 season, individual prizes for a maximum break have generally been phased out in the vast majority of tournaments; during that season, a £1 million bonus was offered if 20 or more were made during the season. The prize would be split among all players who had made at least one qualifying break, with each player receiving an equal share for every break made. Since the 202425 season, the bonus has been extended to include any maximum breaks made at the Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters. As of 2025, this prize has been awarded twice: first when Jackson Page made two maximums in the same match during the 2025 World Snooker Championship qualifying; second when O'Sullivan made two maximums in the same match at the 2025 Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters. ==Breaks exceeding 147==

A break higher than 147 can be achieved when an opponent before any reds are potted and leaves the incoming player on all 15 reds. The player can nominate one of the other as a red, known as a , which carries the same value as a red for just that shot. If the free ball is potted, the referee places this coloured ball back on its original location, de facto creating a setup as if there were 16 reds in total, thus creating a potential maximum break of 155 if a player starts from a free ball position. Some breaks exceeding 147 have been reported in nontournament settings: • A 151 is reported to have been compiled by Wally West against Butch Rogers in West London's Hounslow Luciana snooker club during a club match in 1976. After Rogers fouled, West took the green as his free ball followed by the brown. He then took 14 reds and blacks and a pink off the last red. He then cleared up to make the 151. • In April 1988 Steve Duggan made a 148 in a practice frame against Mark Rowing in Doncaster. • In 1993 Stephen Hendry made a 148 in a practice match against Alfie Burden. • In August 2021, Thepchaiya Un-Nooh made a 155 break in a practice match against Hossein Vafaei. The feat was filmed by a security camera. • In March 2022, Marco Fu made a 149 break in a practice match against Noppon Saengkham at the Ding Junhui Snooker Academy. ==List of official maximum breaks==

Note: If the table is sorted by anything other than "'", "Date", or "Season'", then using the Table of Contents above could produce unexpected results. } Note: (Q) indicates maximums made during qualifying stages of events. (F) indicates maximums made in tournament finals. (L) indicates that the match was lost by the player who made the maximum. ==List of players with five or more maximums==

Below is a list of players who have made five or more maximum breaks, . ==See also==