Alan McManus served another reminder of his talent by beating Ken Doherty at the Crucible – and then revealed he has been remembering to enjoy his renaissance by writing himself messages.
In a carbon copy of McManus’s last win at the world snooker championship in Sheffield nine years ago, the 43-year-old Scot beat former Crucible champion Doherty to reach the quarter-finals.
World number 35 McManus looked on course to wrap up victory in style at 10-3 up but was to eventually edge over the line after winning just three of the last eight frames to take the tie 13-8.
However, win or lose at the Crucible McManus is making sure he relishes every last second of his world championship run by scrawling out reminders to take with him into the famous arena.
“I’ve been writing down little phrases and taking them out there which no one obviously knows about,” he said.
“They say a couple of technical things but at the end of it the last couple of words are ‘enjoy it’.
“There are a lot worse things going on in the world than me or anyone else losing a snooker match and it’s easy to forget that sometimes. You only need to look at the TV for about an hour, there’s some not so pretty things going on.”
Elsewhere on Saturday, Ronnie O’Sullivan staged a remarkable comeback to beat Joe Perry 13-11, while Barry Hawkins beat Ricky Walden by the same scoreline.
British Eurosport is the home of snooker, showing 19 tournaments per season including the world championship, UK championship the Masters and all other ranking events. Available on Sky, Virgin Media & BT TV or online/mobile via eurosportplayer.com #eurosportsnooker