Snooker stars Mark Allen and Shaun Murphy ’s war of words has raged on ahead of the Scottish Open. The pair went at it on Twitter this morning, when the Northern Ireland Open champion tweeted: “Looking forward to getting my Scottish Open campaign underway. Andy Lee up first at 1pm. Let’s keep the good run going.” Murphy then quipped: “Good run? You got pumped a few days ago."
Allen fired back with a sharp jab of his own, saying: “It’s all about blocking out the bad as if it never happened mate. I know that’s harder for you these days as there’s so much bad but you should give it a go. When you getting beat? I mean when you playing, sorry?”
A fan who was following the conversation, let Murphy know it was Allen that had the upper hand as they threw verbal jabs back and forth. “I love how hard you are trying to get one up on @pistol147, but you are failing miserably mate,” the fan chuckled. The 2005 world champion conceded: “I’d love to let my cue do the talking but it’s been letting me down."
Their verbal spat began a fortnight ago when Murphy spoke on his podcast, criticising Ronnie O’Sullivan for the way the seven-time champion of the world talks about the game. "Ronnie, in particular, has one of the biggest platforms in the world. I hope he uses it to make the game better," he said.
“Sometimes it feels like most of the Tour are going in the same direction, and others – and he’s not alone – are just going it alone. I don’t have O’Sullivan’s resume, I don’t have what I presume must be incredible wealth.
“He comes from an incredibly wealthy background and grew up in an incredible wealth. Most of the tour is not from that world.” Before a day's play during the UK Championship, Murphy tweeted out about suffering from back, neck and shoulder pain.
To which Allen replied: “Must be that chip on your shoulder doing the damage". Allen completed a remarkable comeback against Ding Junhui to secure the UK Championship title last weekend.
The new world number five stunned the York crowd coming from 6-1 behind to defeat his rival 10-7 to win the crown. It has been a phenomenal year for Allen, but things have not quite gone so well for Murphy recently.
He made it to round two of the Northern Ireland Open, the quarter-finals of the UK Championships and round three of qualifying for the German Masters. Allen defeated Andy Lee in his opening match at the Scottish Open, while Murphy will commence his campaign against Lei Peifan this evening.
