Shaun Murphy shocked the sporting world when he won the World Snooker Championships as a 150/1 outsider. Soon afterwards people discovered the 23 year old was a Christian. Here he tells his story.

SHAUN: I met a family on holiday and I got very, very friendly with them. I was going through a bit of a rough patch at the time, where I'd just turned pro but my friends where I lived at the time had dropped me really. Because I used to spend so much time away. So I met this family on holiday and grew very, very friendly with them very shortly and they invited me to stay with them the following year. They came to watch me at some qualifiers in the period between and I went to their house the following summer.

It came to the Sunday and the mother, Linda, said, 'Well we're off to church this morning. Do you want to come?' So I said, 'Yeah okay. No problem.' On the way I said to them, 'Do you have to genuflect at this church?' For those people reading this who don't know what that is, in Catholic church when you walk in, before you take your seat, you're meant to go down on one knee and do the sign of the cross in front of the altar and then take your seat. So I said to Linda, 'Do you have to do that?' And she said, 'I don't know what that means.' And I thought, 'Oh! What type of place are they taking me to here?!' And we walked through the doors. It was called Holy Trinity Church in Weston-Super-Mare and the place was buzzing. There was something in it that I'd never seen before. It was kind of real and tangible. What got me immediately was the music. I'd been used to the old-style hymns and things. Music is something that's a big passion in my life. So once the music kicked off that was me gone! I didn't understand why people's hands were in the air. I didn't understand why people were jumping around. But I very quickly cottoned on that there's something these people had. I now know what it was but I didn't at the time. Very soon after that when I'd returned home I found where there was a local youth group that I could get involved with and very shortly after got saved."

MIKE: How did that change your life?

SHAUN: Well I started going to youth group every Thursday night and Friday night. We had a Bible study on Thursday and we had the group on the Friday and I started going to church on a Sunday. What happened after I'd became a Christian was that I realised why I'd been given a talent to play snooker. I realised where that had come from and why, at 8 years old, I innately knew how to play; and understood that. I understood my role that I'm now trying to fulfil as an ambassador for my sport but as an ambassador for God really in a world to all intents and purposes that has never had that 'light' in it before. I understood very quickly that I've got this talent from God. The best way I can repay Him is to work as hard as I can at it and use it to its full extent. So that's what I did. And to be fair, I used to work hard at my snooker anyway. But having the fact in my mind that God had given me that talent and I was now working for him, it kind of spurred me on to work even harder.

MIKE; When you then went on to win the world championships, you were pretty firm at nailing your colours to the mast by giving credit to God for helping you win.

SHAUN: "Well you know, people win an Oscar, they've got a long list of people they want to say thank you to. I couldn't win the biggest tournament in my life and not thank the person who made it possible. God gave me the talent to start with. If it hadn't have been for him who knows where I'd have been?! I certainly wouldn't have been lifting up the World Snooker Championship trophy. And I certainly wouldn't, at 23, be in the position that I'm in now, being able to provide for my wife. She doesn't go to work anymore. We have a nice lifestyle. I'm in a very, very privileged position and I can touch other lives whilst I'm doing it. I wouldn't have that if it wasn't for him.

MIKE: I know there are some snooker players who can't pot a ball until they've drank 8 pints of beer. When you're at the table, do you experience God whilst you're playing?

SHAUN: "I remember some very vivid moments. Once it happened in a qualifying event for the very prestigious Masters Tournament which takes place at Wembley every year. I remember being sat in my chair in one of the rounds and my opponent was at the table and a complete calmness came over me and God said to me, 'Don't worry about it, you're going to get your chances. I'm with you, don't worry about it. Enjoy watching him play because you are going to get your chances.' And I felt exactly the same at The Crucible sat in my chair. There's 1000 people sat in the room, there's 2 professionals knocking it out of each other and several million watching it on the Telly. But it can be very alone. You can feel very alone at times. And I just remember being sat in my chair and thinking, 'You know God, I could do with your help right about now. I could do with just knowing that you're with me. Whether I win or lose, I really need to know that you're here.' And I had the same feeling come over me that said, 'Just soak it all up. Enjoy yourself because you are going to get your chances. Make sure, regardless of what he does, make sure that when your chance comes, you're ready.' So yeah I've definitely experienced God whilst I've been playing.

MIKE: Now that people know that you're a Christian, are people interested? Do you get into those kinds of conversations?"

SHAUN: "I think it helps to a certain extent because people already know and I don't have to start on level zero and say, 'Do you know that I'm a Christian?', because they already do. I certainly don't go ramming it down people's throats because I don't think that's very effective. We've just done a series at our church where our pastor, John Andrews, called it "Mission is like a box of chocolates." That's his title! It's all about the idea of sharing, and every day you step out your door you're on the mission field really. He says, and I believe him; 'It's not our job to get people to like the chocolates that we have, it's just our job to share them.' So in and around snooker venues and wherever I go, I'm not plastering it all over the place. But if people are wanting to know and talk about it, then I'm more than willing to talk with them. And that goes for anyone anywhere I go.

MIKE: And I guess the snooker world needs Christians in the midst of everything that's going on just like any other profession or any other job?"

SHAUN: Snooker isn't any different to any other walk of life. I get up in the morning, I go off to work. It just so happens that I love what I do. And however many percentage of the people in this country hate what they do, I'm one of the lucky ones. I love it. That doesn't mean it's any less hard or any less different from all the others. And God's needed in that environment as much as any other. Whether you're Mr Computer Programmer working in the office, that office needs God. Whether you're a footballer playing in the Premier League, that league needs God. And my snooker world needs God as well and I'm trying to be the light for God in quite a dark world."