A local amateur snooker player has made history after recording a maximum 147 break - in a Conservative club in north Manchester.

Lenny De Griffa, 48, potted 15 reds, 15 blacks and the six colours in his one-frame game in the North Manchester Snooker League last week.

It is the first time in its sixty-plus year history that anyone has come close to the feat, which is extremely rare in the amateur game.

And remarkably, Lenny says he has barely practiced and he even started the frame with a foul after nudging the white as he tried to break off.

Video shot by a fellow player shows Higher Blackley Conservative club erupt into raptures as he pots the final black to complete the maximum.

Lenny, who plays for the club's D team, was starting with a 70-point deficit due to the handicap system in operation in the league.

And that became 74 when he accidentally nudged the white before he broke off.

However after his opponent Mark Ogden broke off, he proceeded to make the history-making clearance.

(Image: Chris Gleave)

Speaking to the M.E.N, Lenny, who flirted with pursuing a career in the game in his early twenties, said: "It's not something you ever dream of doing in a match situation.

"I have knocked one in before many, many years ago but that was just a knockabout.

"They are rare at professional level never mind this level.

"I've watched a lot of snooker and from where the balls were, it was one of the best I've seen.

(Image: Chris Gleave)

"I had no right to make it."

Dad-of-four Lenny, who lives with his partner Debbie in Blackley, says it was only around half way through he realised the feat was on and that he might get the chance to emulate some of his childhood heroes such as Alex Higgins.

"It's a bit surreal really cos obviously I fouled straight off, just touching the white and said to my opponent 'well I've never done that before'.

"So he broke off and it all went from there.

"There was a moment when I was on about 32 when when I could have gone for the blue but screwed back off the red for the black.

Watch the first televised 147 break by Steve Davis in Oldham in 1982:

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"Then there was a moment in the 70s where there were two reds near the pink but I managed to get on the black from both of those.

"That's when I realised I had to go for all blacks at that point.

"It's weird cos I've hardly practiced really. But I was just in the zone and they all went in.

"The place went mad at the end, with everyone cheering.

"I'm obviously really, chuffed. My phone hasn't stopped going since."

According to the Guinness Book of World Records the first officially ratified maximum break was made by Joe Davis in 1955.

(Image: Chris Gleave)

The first televised 147 was made by his namesake, the legendary Steve Davis in 1982 at the Lada Classic at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in Oldham.

There have been reported maximums in amateur leagues in other parts of the country.

However Scott McDougal, Records Secretary at the North Manchester League, said it was unquestionably a first for them and said it was almost unheard of in the Greater Manchester and North West Region.

Scott, 49, said: "I've been playing since I was 17 and I have never heard of it.

"The biggest break we have had in my time is about 120 so nowhere near a maximum really.

"It's just incredible, almost unheard of in the amateur game.

"I started to get messages and stuff on the night as people couldn't believe it.

"We're just dead proud of him for making history in the league."