SHAUN Murphy won the PartyCasino.com Premier League Snooker competition for the first time in his career in front of a capacity crowd in the International Arena at Potters Leisure Resort in Hopton-on-Sea.

SHAUN Murphy won the PartyCasino.com Premier League Snooker competition for the first time in his career in front of a capacity crowd in the International Arena at Potters Leisure Resort in Hopton-on-Sea.

Murphy claimed the trophy with a 7-3 victory over defending champion Ronnie O'Sullivan.

Murphy raced into a 3-0 lead but O'Sullivan won the next three frames to go in at 3-3 at the interval but Murphy clinched four successive frames to take the title.

"It feels amazing," said a delighted Murphy, who earns �51,000 for his success and ends O'Sullivan's hopes of winning the tournament for the sixth successive year. "It would have been a great achievement for Ronnie to win it six years in a row and he deserves a lot of credit to win it five years in a row. After losing a 3-0 lead I was about to go into panic mode had it not been for my manager Brandon who said the right things to me and I might've twitched up had it not been for that. To go 3-0 up against Ronnie is almost the position you don't want to be in as you know he will hunt you down."

A downbeat O'Sullivan added: "I'm disappointed but Shaun was strong, scored very well and looked confident around the table so he deserved to win.

"It goes to show that the 25-second shot-clock doesn't mean much if you're not feeling well or confident in your own game."

Murphy's victory completes a remarkable turnaround as he had started his league campaign with two defeats, was bottom of the table for a number of weeks and only scraped into the semi-finals by winning one more frame than Stephen Hendry.

The trophy was presented to Murphy in front of an appreciative crowd by Brian Potter, chairman of Potters Leisure Resort.

RONNIE O'SULLIVAN 3-7 SHAUN MURPHY

(O'Sullivan's scores first)

9-119 (Murphy 111), 36-87 (O'Sullivan 35, Murphy 38, 32), 11-100 (Murphy 40, 31), 65-51 (O'Sullivan 34), 88-0 (O'Sullivan 88), 67-61 (O'Sullivan 49, Murphy 34), 27-75 (Murphy 33), 3-126 (Murphy 47, 75), 0-63 (Murphy 63), 67-75 (O'Sullivan 67, Murphy 67).