Watch Liam Highfield continue snooker's remarkable 147 gold rush at British Open with first maximum of career
Updated 25/07/2026 at 12:17 GMT+1
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Another day, another 147. The 2026/27 snooker season is still in its infancy, getting underway with qualifiers for the China Open last month, but the game has already witnessed another rampant splurge of maximums, with four being produced across the first two months of the campaign.
WATCH: Chang sinks 147 for potting perfection at Shenzhen Open
Video credit: TNT Sports
Liam Highfield became the latest player to join the exclusive club of maximum men when he produced the first competitive 147 of his career in a 4-1 win over Stephen Maguire, in the opening round of British Open qualifiers in Leicester on Friday.
The world No. 69 from Swindon first turned professional in 2010, and qualified for the World Championship in April, losing 10-7 to defending champion Zhao Xintong in the first round.
It is the 245th maximum of the modern era and comes only two years after Joe O'Connor compiled the 200th 147, at the Championship League in February 2024.
To put this into perspective, it took the professional game 31 years to reach a century of 147s, between Steve Davis' first maximum in 1982 and the 100th produced by Mark Selby in the 2013 UK Championship.
The next 100 have taken only another 11 years to arrive, with the magnitude of the maximum - once the holy grail of the ancient sport - suddenly becoming a common occurrence amid rising standards and better table conditions.
Chang Bingyu made the third 147 of his career and third of the season in the fourth frame of a 5-0 whitewash of Chatchapong Nasa in Shenzhen Open qualifying at the city's Mattioli Arena earlier this week.
At the age of 23, Chang is the second-youngest player to achieve three maximums, with Ronnie O'Sullivan only 30 days younger when he managed his treble at the Grand Prix in Preston in 1999.
Michael Holt (China Open qualifying) and Si Jiahui (Championship League) have already both weighed in with the perfect clearance this season.
A total of eight were made in the 1980s and a further 26 across the entire 1990s.
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But there is already the possibility that the all-time record of 24 - set last season, which also witnessed the first competitive 153, produced by Ronnie O'Sullivan at the World Open - could be under threat in the months ahead.
Elsewhere in British Open qualifying on Friday, two-time women's world champion Bai Yulu completed a 4-1 win over Sahil Nayyar to reach the last 64, but Jimmy White, the 1992 winner, suffered a 4-1 defeat to Sean O'Sullivan.
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