Century break


In snooker, a century break is a score of 100 points or more within one at the table without missing a shot and requires potting at least 25 consecutive balls. The ability to score century is regarded as a mark of the highest skill in snooker, while the first career century has been described by Ronnie O'Sullivan as the "ultimate milestone for any snooker player".
Over 20,000 century breaks have been recorded by snooker players throughout professional tournaments. In 2014, Neil Robertson became the first person to have scored over 100 century frames through a single season, a number that only some 60 other players have surpassed throughout their entire careers. Ronnie O'Sullivan holds the record for the most career centuries with more than 1,000 century breaks; his 1,000th century break was achieved in the final frame of the 2019 Players Championship in Preston.

Rules

A century is a score of 100 points or more within one at the table, without missing a shot. The player does this by potting and alternately, where the coloured balls are repositioned on their starting locations. After repositioning the coloured ball paired to the last red on the table, the six coloured balls are potted in order of their increasing value. Because a break is defined as series of consecutive by a player during a single, scoring 100 points over the course of a whole frame does not necessarily constitute a century break, as it must be done on a single turn at the table. Points for a foul shot by the opponent do not count in a player's break.
Under normal circumstances, the highest possible century in snooker is 147, composed of 15 reds, 15 blacks and the six remaining colours; yellow, green, brown, blue, pink and black potted consecutively. If for example only the least-valued colour would be used instead of the black ball, the break value would only be 72 points. This means that only a single century break is possible in a of snooker under a limited number of combinations, but it requires the potting of at least 25 consecutive balls. To score one, there must be at least ten reds on the table when the player comes to play since if there are only nine reds left, only 99 points may be scored. An exception exists if the opponent and leaves the incoming player on all the remaining reds. In such a situation, the player can nominate one of the other as a red, known as a "", which carries the same value as a red for just that shot, and therefore, a century break is still possible with only nine reds left.
Breaks above 147 are possible when an opponent fouls and leaves a with all fifteen reds still remaining on the table, creating a situation identical to as if there were 16 red balls on the table. This has happened only once in professional competition, when Jamie Burnett made a 148 at the qualifying stage of the 2004 UK Championship.

List of players with 100 confirmed century breaks in professional competition

A "century of centuries" refers to a total of 100 breaks of at least 100 points each. By December 2001, only 15 players had reached this milestone in professional snooker tournaments. With the increased occurrence of centuries compiled in professional competition in the past decades, another 27 players had achieved a "century of centuries" by October 2011, bringing the total to 42. By the end of the 2013–14 season, the total number of players reaching the 100 centuries threshold had increased to 52. Only Neil Robertson has achieved one hundred centuries in a single season, during 2013–14. By the end of the English Open in October 2018, there were 66 players that had reached the 100 century breaks marker.
The following players are reported to have passed 100 breaks and at least the given threshold above this.
ThresholdPlayerRef
1000
750
750
700
700
600
500 Ding Junhui
450
450
450
400
350
350 †
300
300
250
200
100 †
100 †
100 †
100
100

Exact tally for a retired player

Secondary list of players with 100 century breaks in professional competition

ThresholdPlayerRef
1000
750
750
700
700
600
500 Ding Junhui
450
450
450
400
350
350 †
350
350
350
300
300
300

ThresholdPlayerRef
100 †
100 †
100 †
100 †
100
100 †
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100

Records

Career