Snooker Best Shots German Masters 2025 Recreated

This week at the German Masters, Barry Hawkins tries a double. Anthony McGill tries to control his cue power. And Mark Selby tries my patience with this ridiculous exhibition shot. Because as usual, we're going to be attempting to recreate these shots as accurately as possible, and then play them in the fewest possible attempts, if that is even possible. And it's not exactly like we can start with anything easy, as the first shot is this challenging red from Judd Trump, as he pots it and screws the cue ball back down the table safe. Not that this would go on to help him out too much in the frame, as he would go on to lose it. But then he would win the following 4 frames, taking the match by 5 frames to 2 against David Grace. I was surprisingly close with my first attempt, and I seem to have made the adjustment with my second. The white hasn't quite gone in the right place, but unfortunately I can't cue the ball any better than this. Well, I don't think that could have gone any better, which means we can move on to Masters champion and future YouTube influencer, Sean Murphy. Controlling the positional shot on the black here, around 2 cushions to land perfectly in position on the next red. This allows him to go on and make 106 break, winning the match against Liam Graham by 5 frames to nil. After finishing in position on the top red, Sean pots it with an angle to cannon the second red off the cushion. So I'm looking to get the cue ball in exactly the same place, so I can pot the top red and remove the second red from the cushion, and at the moment I seem to be hitting it a fraction too hard. This one looks a lot better though, and it might stop in time for the corner pocket, but unfortunately I've just overrun it, so I need to try again. The pace here is really difficult to judge, as I'm using a small amount of right-hand side to ping it around the two cushions, but I think this has stopped absolutely perfectly, so can I get the cannon? It's all gone well, and I've got the red out into the middle of the table, and I think I'm on a colour. Of course it was Kyron Wilson who was the champion, picking up his third tournament since winning the World Championships back in May, and with potting like this against Zhao Gedong in the semi-finals, you can see why. Although the shot itself seems fairly straightforward, when you're playing it with this much pace, you really need to strike it well, and I'm just not quite doing that well enough to be able to pot the ball, although I'm getting very close to it. Even though I've got it, I've actually struck it with a small amount of left-hand side, which straightened the cue ball up, but I've just about got topside for the blue. Barry Hawkins ran Kyron Wilson incredibly close in the final, but before he got there, he had to take on the informing Ansarjian in the semi-final. This was the key pot at 3-2 up, because from here, Barry would go on to take the frame, and then eventually the match by six frames to two. The green's just a little bit in the way, which has caused me to misjudge my first attempt, although I've got it right for my second, and I'm nicely in position on the blue. Couldn't have gone much better. At 5-2 down, Yu Ansarjian was still fighting, and was able to knock in this great long red, giving himself position on a bolt colour. From here, he'd only be able to make a 22 break, however, and Barry would end up winning the frame with an 83. I didn't expect to pot this one first time, but unfortunately, I haven't got into the cue ball enough, and I've just lost it behind the bolt colours, so I'm going to have to try again, which is making the shot harder, because I've got to put more force into it. I've got it right though, and this is more or less perfect. Mark Allen's able to win the fourth frame of his first round match, with this perfectly played cannon off the blue. Spinning the cue ball around two cushions with side, he couldn't have got the contact on the black any better. He'd go on to win this match by five frames to nil, and lose a close second round match to Wu Yizhe by five frames to four. It's taken me by surprise just how much right-hand side I need for this shot. It's about twice as much as I was expecting, although I've got the cannon perfectly on the black there, that couldn't really have been recreated much better. Right, so now we come to the Mark Selby question. The question being, why would you even try this in the first place, and how unlikely is it going to be to get it? I mean, the black's nowhere near the pocket, and he's hit the black perfectly around three cushions to knock it in. This is going to be almost impossible to get right, so I dread to think how many attempts this is going to take me before I even get the black to rattle in the jaws. Although I almost never do this, I'm going to have to speed the video up here, because I'm only striking the black about two out of every three times, and even if I hit the black, that's no guarantee it's going to go anywhere near the pocket, as I need the perfect contact. And the shots themselves look pretty much identical. There's not too much in it between a shot I'm getting and a shot I'm missing. I am getting pretty close here though, so hopefully... Just go in! No, it doesn't want to, and I'm worried now. This could genuinely be 50 to 100 shot territory, even if I hit the black right every single time so I get a fairly thick contact. If I'm really unlucky, I could still miss about 50 of these in a row, and unfortunately I keep missing the black altogether on a lot of these. And unfortunately now, I've completely run out of things to say about this shot, other than the fact that Mark Selby took the match in the end by five frames to two. Hang on a minute, we've slowed everything back down. All things considered, I think I've actually done quite well there. That could have taken me twice as long easily. Another great opener, this time from Sean Murphy in the second round. He knocks in this long red and screws the cue ball back for a colour. He'd go on to win this frame and take the match again by five frames to nil, although Sean would lose in the next round by five frames to four against Yan Shijun. I've been playing these types of shots fairly well so far in this video, but unfortunately with this one, I'm finding it difficult to convince myself I need to cut the ball enough, and that's why I keep playing it far too straight. And it needs about a three-quarter ball contact instead, and I finally trusted myself enough to do it there. The cue ball's about right as well. We usually have a bit of fun with doubles on this channel, but this Kyron Wilson double couldn't be any more crucial as he gets it and he's able to take the sixth frame to make it three frames all against Anthony McGill. From here, the two would go on to have a close match before Kyron would pip it in the decider. This shot made a big difference. Even though I got it straight away, I completely forgot to screw the cue ball back. And for whatever reason, when I'm playing this shot with a lot of backspin, I keep horribly misjudging it. I've got it there, not quite got into the cue ball enough, but it's nearly right. And up against that, it's the Barry Hawkins double from the final, which is in fact a very clever shot. Although initially, it's not obvious what he was playing, but you can see him looking at the double before he goes and plays it. By playing the red up into this area, it was likely to be safe if he missed it, and he was advancing the black over the pocket, forcing Kyron to play safe on the only loose red in the middle of the table. But as he got it, he was able to make a sensational clearance and take the frame. It really isn't too bad as long as you get as close as possible to avoiding the double kiss. So which of these doubles was the cheekiest? Kyron's shot was crucial and gets four, which is normally enough to get the win, but I'm sure you agree that Barry's gets five and is this week's winner. Of course, Barry was only able to take that frame after making a successful positional shot on the next black. He spins the cube all around three cushions here and he gets a little bit fortunate with the cannon, but you wouldn't want to play this slow and risk the chance of snookering yourself behind the brown. So he's a little bit fortunate here, but let's see exactly how difficult it is to get that cannon off three cushions. I initially started playing this just with side spin, but I've realized I need to stun it a little bit, which is going to make it harder to control the cube all around the angles because I've got to stun the cube all to exactly the right place in order for this to work. And as you can see, it's incredibly easy to just fall through that gap between the brown and the red. And there really isn't that much room on the side cushion between that gap and the middle jaw. You almost have to narrowly miss the middle jaw in order for this to work. I'm getting a little bit closer and that would actually have been quite good had I not have missed the black there. So let's see how close I can get with this one. I think I've been massively lucky there. I've got the perfect cannon and I'm on the red. After knocking in a long plant, Kyron Wilson ends up on the bolt cushion, but instead of just playing safe, he decides to attack. Slow rolling the green the length of the table into the corner pocket, with the idea being it blocked the pocket if he missed. However, it wasn't necessarily guaranteed to do this, so it's still an incredibly attacking shot. However, Kyron wouldn't end up winning this frame, as Barry would eventually take it with a 68 break. I'd initially thought I got this on my first attempt, but it turns out my table isn't quite as straight as I first thought. So with my second, I played it to the far jaw and it just about went in. Neil Robertson's making an impressive clearance against Yuan Sijun, which requires him to play the cue ball between the pink and the black here, and get in position on the blue. He was able to make this clearance, but unfortunately the attempt in the next frame was a little bit too much for him, and he lost the match by five frames to four. Initially, I'm struggling to understand this one, because it's a really thin cut, but at the same time you've got to dig into the cue ball quite a bit to avoid the middle pocket. So I'm having to do that, and doing that is making it very difficult to get around the back of the black. I'm getting closer, but I seem to have a bit more room than I think close to the middle pocket. If I can work this out, I should be able to get around the back of the black like that. I've just overhit it and the cue ball's gone way too far. The good news is now I've just got to find a way of playing the same shot slower, as I'm having to play at quite a bit of pace to dig into the cue ball enough and get the right angle, and I'm starting to work it out. In the end, I don't think this one was actually too difficult. It's just taken me a long time to work it out. That's gone a little bit too far, and now I feel I've got the weight of the shot and I can play it more or less every time, but it was just one I had to learn. Before the next one, let's just find Gerard from Clermont Bras in France, which is there. Earlier in the same match, Juan took on this long red into the corner pocket off the top cushion. This is a great pot, but did he actually play it? I'm not sure, but we're going to give him the benefit of the doubt and the fact that he lost the frame. It doesn't really matter anyway, so I'm not even sure why I bothered including this shot, but it's a decent pot. And initially, one I'm just struggling to find the potting angle for. I'm just not seeing where I need to hit the object ball right in order to knock this in, and I found it here. That was actually pretty good for such a tough shot. A good pot for Judd next, as he's finally able to shake off David Grace in his first round match here, as he knocks the red into the corner pocket, despite having to bridge over the other reds. Being right-handed made it harder on a previous Barry Hawkins shot, as I had to bridge around the green in a way that Barry doesn't. But here, because I'm right-handed, I've got an advantage, so that shot was a lot easier for me. Anthony McGill needs to screw this one back halfway down the table in order to get in position, but ends up overdoing it with a cue ball in bulk. Still from this position, he goes on to make 114 break, winning the frame, taking the match by five frames to two against Luca Brussel. After my first attempt, we can see this is going to be a bit of a problem. The green is making things a little bit awkward for me, so I can clearly screw the cue ball back more, but when I pot it, it's very difficult to even get past the pack of reds. Unfortunately, even if I cue this shot as well as I can and use every single trick I know, like I have there, that's about as good as I can play it, and I'll need a new cloth to get it further. That's the German Masters nearly over and done with, but you still need to vote for the winning shot for free using the link in the description. Next time we'll be catching up on some tournaments we missed out on from last year, but if you can't wait for that, we've got two previous videos that include the Masters. And remember, don't just watch, play, and make the commitment to becoming a better player by subscribing to the channel and visit the website. See you later!