LEE Richardson has been telling himself to calm down and not get too carried away - after winning what has been described as the best match ever seen in the Benson & Hedges Championship at Malvern.

The Thame professional defeated Ireland's in-form Leo Fernandez 5-4 in a match of three centuries and three other breaks in excess of 80 in reaching the fourth round of the championship.

"It was unbelievable, such a high-quality match," Richardson said. "People there were saying it was the best match they've ever seen.

"Leo has been in brilliant form and he had breaks of 100 and 112, but I came back with a 139 in frame four to level it at 2-2 and in the fifth I had an 88 break.

"Because we were playing at a club rather than in a hall, and I had the centre table as that was the way the draw fell, there were players all around, and some big-name players, watching.

"It was such a high-quality match and it became a big crowd watching, but I didn't feel intimidated.

"At times that was the best I'd played for a while. The only problem is that I tend to get carried away and go for stupid balls when I'm on a hot streak, and that happened in this match.

"Because the breaks were so high I felt I had to do something special to win each frame.

"It was also very hot in there and when I get hot and a bit flustered I get a bit erratic. If I can cut out the silly shots I can play a lot stronger and my concentration was a bit better than before because I've had some sleep since then."

Richardson is a bit unlucky because his 139 would normally have won him the highest break.

However, Karl Burrows, the 30-year-old world No 91, recorded only the second ever maximum 147 break in the tournament's ten-year history with his perfect clearance against West Midlander Adrian Rosa, collecting a £5,000 cash bonus in the process, though he ended up losing 5-3.

"The 139 break was pretty A-B-C," Richardson said. "I didn't lose position at all and when I potted the first long red I was thinking what I would have to do to get a big break because the standard was that high, you needed something special to win it.

"It was a good scalp beating Fernandez and I just hope I can keep up my form," he said.

Story date: Saturday 06 November

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.