Matt Selt's cue chaos and new plan to take him to the top

01/09/2024 11:04

Turning up at one of the biggest events of the season with a cue snapped in two is the nightmare scenario that Matt Selt is dealing with, but he seems pretty fine with it.

Selt flew in for the Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters and was met with the grim news that his cue was badly damaged on the flight, somehow broken in its case.

This happening at any time is something of a disaster, but ahead of the new mega-money event in Riyadh, it is meltdown-inducing stuff.

However, the world number 33 and his coach, Chris Henry, came up with a plan and they reckon all will be well thanks to a local carpenter and some magic glue.

‘It snapped in two,’ Selt told Metro of his cue. ‘I had some cues sent from back home and one from Thailand but I found a local carpenter here who has filed some of the wood away and used some extremely strong adhesive to put it back together, so I'm going to use it.

‘I played with it for a few hours earlier. It looks terrible, but the balls are going in the direction they were going in before it broke. Hopefully that will keep happening and it won't break during the game. He's done a very good job in terms of keeping me going until I can get it to Thailand after here and get it completely rebuilt.

‘My old cue I had for 20 years, Anthony Hamilton is playing with that now, so I practiced with that. My intention was to use that. Then I had a look at my cue and thought, I reckon I can sort this with a nail file and some glue.

‘Chris got us to this carpenter and he did exactly what I thought I was going to do. Got a file out, obviously a bigger one than a nail file, and this adhesive that dried in about 25 seconds. He sprayed it with some more adhesive and we manipulated it into being straight. We'll see how it plays.

‘It was funny, I was zero per cent bothered, which sounds ridiculous, but I wasn't that bothered. I had the whole cue rebuilt three days before I played in China [at the Xi’an Grand Prix] anyway. A titanium ferrule, it was thicker, it was longer, so I had to get used to all that anyway, so I thought I'll just get used to something new.

‘I've found it entertaining, in a way. Listen, I'll be seriously p***ed off if it breaks during my game, but I think it's playable, I think I'll be alright.’

Selt has had a very solid start to the season, with a good run in Xi’an only ended in a deciding frame by Ronnie O’Sullivan in the quarter-finals.

The Rocket felt Selt was the better player in that match and the 39-year-old is taking confidence from those words and how he performed despite the narrow loss.

‘I've played particularly poorly for the first six matches of the year, very ordinary,’ he said. ‘The only game this season I've really played well is against Ronnie.

‘It was nice, the first time I've played him and had zero nerves and loved every second of it. I outplayed him, I just didn't win. He said some nice words afterwards which I take a lot of confidence from.

‘In the past I've been close and pally to him and other times I've said some silly things towards him, not really seen eye-to-eye the last few years. We spoke on the way out, he said some good stuff and in his interview he said some nice stuff.

‘It's a step forward because next time I play him I won't be worried, he's the only person on the tour I've played and struggled with getting over the occasion. Another step in the right direction.’

Selt is at number 33 in the world rankings but with designs on climbing much higher than that, with the recent run to the last eight in Xi’an showing he is perfectly capable of doing so.

His plan for making that move towards the elite of the game is to come out firing a bit more, get on the front foot and play with the attacking mindset that he feels all the great players have.

‘I do hope and believe that a big run is coming because I'm playing particularly well,’ he said. ‘I think one of the reasons I haven't jumped up the rankings is that I'm good cautiously, I win a lot of matches by outmanoeuvring people. But you can't do that all the time, you can't beat top players regularly like that, you have to batter them.

‘Look at Luca [Brecel], the perfect example, he won the World Championships by just battering people. The consistent winners in history are all attacking, all score heavy, they're all brutes.

‘They don't care if they miss because they know if one goes in then they'll pretty much win the frame. It's hard to commit to that because your initial instinct is that if you miss you're going to lose. In reality, I played Ronnie the other day and missed all sorts of balls, but when I potted one I won the frame.

‘You don't beat people like Ronnie trying to tie him up, he will overpower you. That's why [Shaun] Murphy's so good, he's so reckless. He's the easiest top player to beat, in a way, but when he's on he'll completely overpower you.

‘I'm trying to move to a more attacking stance in everything. Don't be stupid, but just attack.’

Selt will be trying to put that into practice in Riyadh, starting with a third round clash with Allan Taylor on Sunday afternoon.

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