Furthermore
By Gerry Moran
Things are hotting up on the green baize in Sheffield as I write. The Snooker World Championship final is about to take place in the famous Crucible Theatre which is to snooker what Croke Park is to Gaelic games and what the CYMS Hall was to us young snooker players back in the day. And I’m still smarting over the heart-breaking School Boys Snooker Final I participated in, in the CY as it was known, in the mid-1960s.
I wrote about this before (and I’ll write about it again until I get it out of my system, which may be never). In brief, it all came down to the final black ball which my opponent (Billy Loughman) left hanging over the pocket. All I had to do was tap it in. And I did. But I also let the cue ball in after it. A foul. End of game. End of final. End of my adolescent dream of being Kilkenny’s School Boy Snooker Champion. (Billy I hope you revelled in your new-found fame).
And that final always reminds me of the famous 1985 Black Ball World Snooker Final between Denis Taylor and Steve Davis which also went to the black ball, the very last ball of the match which Steve Davis had led throughout. At one stage Steve led 7-0. Denis made an incredible come back and, unlike yours truly, potted the black to secure victory and a place in snooker history. That final has been described as ‘The Greatest Snooker Final of All Time’ and was watched by 18.5 million viewers including my pregnant wife who had no interest whatsoever in snooker!
To this day it’s one of my all-time favourite sporting moments (after Kilkenny’s All Ireland victories, of course). In the meantime what’s this our parents used to say about snooker? Sign of a misspent youth. Well tell that to the following gentlemen, the eight richest snooker players in the world: 1. Steve Davis £26.5 million. 2. Stephen Hendry £25.5 million. 3. Denis Taylor £18.2 million. 4. Jimmy White (the best player never to have won the World Championship) £18.2 million. 5. Cliff Thorburn £.12.2 million. 6. Ronnie O’Sullivan £ 11.2 million. 7. John Parrot £9.1 million. 8. John Higgins £8.8 million.
The players’ wealth comes not just from prize money but endorsements, appearances and commentary. Mentioning prize money – when the famous, or rather infamous, Alex Higgins first won the World Title in 1972 the prize money was less than £500. When he won it again, 10 year later, it was £25,000. This year’s first place prize money is £500,000.
Alex, ‘Hurricane Higgins’, ‘The People’s Champion’, was the wild man of snooker – he threatened to have fellow Irish man Denis Taylor shot. Cliff Thorburn, now 77, floored him with a punch while his girlfriend stabbed him three times during an argument. Alex died of throat cancer, aged 61. Jimmy White, a drinking buddy of Alex, talked about his cocaine habit which cost him £10,000 a month. In 1980 Canada’s, the late Big Bill Werbeniuk, all of 20 stone, caused one hell of a laugh when he bent over to pot a ball and split the arse of his trousers revealing a very hairy backside.
And so to Ronnie O’Sullivan, seven times winner of the World Snooker Championship (a record he holds jointly with Stephen Hendry) and the most successful snooker player of all time. At the 1997 World Snooker Championship Ronnie made the fastest maximum break (147) in history. He did it in 5 minutes, 8 seconds and received £147,000 for making the max. Ronnie who used to indulge in all-night binges, drinking 15 pints of Guinness, and smoking cannabis. started rehab in 2000 and turned turned his life around.
He is now reformed and is very much into running and pilates; he has even written a recipe book: ‘Top of Your Game, Eating for Mind and Body’.
Asked about the best advice he was given, Ronnie replied: “Life is fickle, so don’t take it too seriously.”
Touché, Ronnie. And now I must phone my great friend, Jimmy ‘Brewery’ Rhatigan, for a long overdue game of snooker in the Home Rule Club.
