Rotherham snooker pro Ashley Carty eyes 147 after high-scoring exit from Northern Ireland Open

ASHLEY CARTY has got Judd Trump’s 147 break-building heroics in his sights after going out of the Northern Ireland Open.

The Rotherham potter succumbed to 4-1 defeat against world No.96 Andy Hicks in his second round clash in Milton Keynes after taking the lead with a majestic visit of 141 – his highest ever break on the professional Tour.

World No.1 Trump made a maximum against Gao Yang later in the day and Carty, the world No.113, says he’s well on the way to snooker perfection himself.

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“I got off to a great start with my highest break on Tour so far with a 141 and it took me by surprise, as the last week I’ve been struggling to score,” said the 25-year-old from Thurcroft.

“Even in practice, I’ve not been scoring great so to set off with a 141 I felt really good out there and felt great.

“It’s a big positive – it was one of my goals for the season to make a 140-plus break, so to do it quite early on is a really good achievement for me.

“You look at all the top players and it’s more or less most frames in one visit, so that’s where I aim myself to get to.

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“Obviously it’s a lot of hours on the practice table but it’s something I’m working on. I know it’s there, it’s juts doing it consistently – that’s the main thing.

“That [147] would be a dream come true if that ever happened, especially in front of a big audience in an arena.

“It would still be special obviously [behind closed doors] but in front of a live audience in a big arena would make it a lot more special.

“The second frame I missed a pretty easy red and after that everything seemed to punish me a bit. A little bit of luck went against me and I couldn’t seem to get going.”

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Carty, who memorably made his World Championship debut at the Crucible in the summer, got off to a flyer under the Marshall Arena lights but a steady performance from Hicks dashed his hopes of progression.

The Yorkshire potter was forced to watch his opponent rattle off four consecutive frames as Hicks made a solid fifth frame break of 63 to book his place in the last 32.

Next up for Carty it a tilt at the UK Championship, one of snooker’s Triple Crown events, starting next week, when he will face world No.19 but out-of-sorts Ali Carter in the first round.

Watch the Northern Ireland Open live on Eurosport, Eurosport app, and stream on discovery+

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