¡Hola! Yo espero que gustáis el snooker, porque pienso que este artículo es muy interesante.
Very interesting indeed. You may remember a countdown I did a few weeks back on the most controversial moments in snooker and looking at the things that split fans down the middle. Now, these are ‘shocking’ moments. This is self-explanatory but things that are surprising, unexpectedly harsh, out of the ordinary, a bolt from the blue and all of those lovely things (before I reach for my thesaurus!) Even though the image above is slightly blurry, a lot of snooker fans know exactly what happened that match.
6. Quinten Hann’s War of Words
Quinten Hann was a very decent but fiery player who is easily agitated. He is a man who sparks controversy, gets drunk before matches and is probably one of the last ‘bad boys’ of the game. Shame we don’t get those type of players nowadays but even so, matches are dealt with care, sportsmanship and gentlemanly behaviour; a place where most grievances are put behind them. The World Championship match between Quinten and Andy Hicks wasn’t one of those matches.
Tensions were rising high, as a lot of people knew that Hann would be out of the snooker’s elite if he loses the grudge match. Hann had beaten Hicks in the past three occasions and wasn’t shy in pointing that out to Hicks during the match, gloating that “I’ve enjoyed the last three times I’ve beaten you.” The Cream of Devon (yes, that is his nickname) beat the Aussie 10-4 and couldn’t resist letting it slip to Hann ‘that’s you out of the top 16’ while shaking hands, which provoked Hann like a wildebeest on fire until the referee Lawrie Annandale in the most British way possible shhhhed the pair away.
Hann later threatened Hicks ‘You’re short and bald and always will be, and I’ll fight you in the street for 50 grand any time you like.’ which of course led to the informous boxing match with Mark King. Andy Hicks later admitted regret retorting after the match but by god wouldn’t he enjoyed that – wiping away any smug grin would be so satisfying.
5. Ronnie O’Sullivan’s Accusations of Bullying
There are many things that bring the game into disrepute and Ronnie is usually the main person who’s somehow involved, no matter how trivial. But this one took the biscuit. Not only he revealed how World Snooker allegedly treats certain players but also how he feels unfairly treated. This is shocking because “bullying” and “intimidation” are serious issues that shouldn’t be allowed in any game and because this involves the poster boy and legend Ronnie O’Sullivan, it opens all sorts of speculation as to whether World Snooker played any part in his mental health and/or deterioration of form that season.
Rewind back to the 2017 Masters, when Ronnie O’Sullivan criticised referee Terry Camilleri’s performance in a match against Marco Fu and also a photographer who kept moving while he was in his eyeline and snapping photos when he was down on the shot. He says it “almost feels like you pay the price for getting further in tournaments when there is inevitably more interest.” This is why he didn’t speak in press conferences because he feels as if he gets more scrutiny and punishment than the other players and his words get taken out of context. He also feels his offences get more coverage than similar ones made by other top flight players. Furthermore, he revealed the poor tone and etiquette of when World Snooker sends letters confirming his penalties in the form of monetary fines. Ronnie argued that he “received them one day before I’m due to play a big event. How is that helpful to a player preparing for a tournament?”
This was all brought up after he beat Gary Wilson 10-7 in the World Championships in the same year, the tournament where everything gets the most attention. Barry Hearn retaliated that his comments were “unfounded” and “inaccurate” and instead left the issue under the carpet in a battle between their respective lawyers.
4. Ronnie O’Sullivan’s Lowest Moment
A moment no-one saw coming.
Ronnie O’Sullivan was facing Stephen Hendry in the quarter-final of the 2006 UK Championship. Since 2003, Hendry was whitewashed twice and was thumped 17-4 by Ronnie in the 2004 World Championship semi-finals and in this match was punishing every mistake to go 4-1 up. After Ronnie made a rubbish positional shot and missed a red and opened up the cluster, he shook the hands of a shocked Hendry and a beweildered Jan Verhaas as he left the arena. This led to a very awkward conversation between Hazel Irvine and John Parrott as to what the hell happened, why Ronnie would do the unthinkable and if that was the straw that broke the camel’s back of Ronnie’s career.
To my memory, no-one else has done this to this day and unfortunately if ever there was a public sign of Ronnie’s depression reaching low levels or signs of being completely and utterly wiped out, this is it. Not many people understood these signs and on the other side of the arena, Graeme Dott thought after hearing the audience reaction that Hendry and O’Sullivan were having a scuffle of their own. O’Sullivan later described this as one of the lowest moments of his career and thankfully, he has gone from strength to strength since then.
3. Alex Higgins’s Death Threat
Probably one of the darkest moments in snooker history was during the 1990 World Cup, when Northern Irish Catholic Dennis Taylor and Protestant Alex Higgins were part of the Northern Ireland team, alongside Tommy Murphy.
A fiery dispute came to a head when Alex Higgins told Dennis Taylor how to run the team after they lost to Canada 9-2. This led to a very foul-mouthed tirade, considering Taylor was the designated captain at the time. Higgins then threatened the 1985 champion: “I come from Shankhill and you come from Coalisland, and the next time you are in Northern Ireland I will have you shot.”
In the same year, the Irish Masters reached its zenith when the pair met up in a grudge match in the quarter-finals, where journalists were all over it like a tramp on chips. Apparently, 50 reporters waited for Dennis Taylor to claim victory 5-2 and to see Higgins apologise for his comments. Taylor went on to lose in the final to Steve Davis 9-4.
2. Stephen Lee’s 12-Year Ban
We all heard the story before with Stephen Lee but there is no way it shouldn’t be on this list. We had a number of match-fixing bans with Peter Francisco (5 years) and Quinten Hann (who is also currently banned from working in the finance industry so some things never change, do they?) Lee match-fixed in his group matches at the 2008 Malta Cup, two matches at the 2008 UK Championship, his match at the 2009 China Open and one in the 2009 World Championship.
There are a number of shocking things about this entire kerfuffle (to put it kindly) so I will break it down why:
- The person who was found guilty of match-fixing is a player of tremendous quality. He was blessed with a tremendously smooth ‘Rolls Royce’ cue-action (whatever that means), great cue-power and the ability to break-build, reaching 176 century breaks. He won five ranking titles beating the likes of Marco Fu, Shaun Murphy and Neil Robertson in the finals and reached up to No. 5 in the rankings. Especially when he earned over £2 million in prize money it makes you think why would he even feel the need to taint the game to get more money when he wins so much? Greed can poison men’s souls, I suppose. Here is a compilation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgq-fvQKt7Y&t=1231s
- He match-fixed at the World Championship. Most players would kill to get to the Crucible and relish every moment of its atmosphere. The place is so solemn that no one thought that anyone ever could disrespect it and cheat under the glaring camera lens of the BBC watched by millions of people. Perhaps that is why Stephen Lee chose to do so against Ryan Day in 2009, losing in the first round 10-4, where it was later revealed that a lot of bets were placed on him losing 10-3, 10-4, and 10-5. No one had an inkling, despite some questionable shots from Lee during the match and even Day had no idea. Of course, he match-fixed in many matches before, but this you’d agree match-fixing here is almost a sacrilege.
- Barry is blunt, no nonsense and through his idea of flat draws and ‘everyone playing in a level-playing field’ you know he wants everyone to be treated the same, regardless of the punishment. No-one is expecting leniency no matter how many titles you won in most cases, like in tennis and athletics for example. Don’t forget, this is a first under Barry’s reign. So imagine the shock of many when a 12 YEAR BAN was issued. This is a massive stamp of authority, a hugely excessive punishment that essentially if you cheat, you will not get away with it and you will pay the price, even if you are as successful as Stephen Lee.
Weirdly, this issue is split into three camps. One argues that 12 years is too long of a ban, there should be some leniency and it should match Joe Jogia’s two-year ban back in 2012. Another believes that in a sport plagued by suspicious match-fixing it is about time World Snooker must make sure it doesn’t happen again. The third group says that John Higgins should’ve had a similar ban after his infamous meeting in Kiev. Hrrumph.
You can read an article that has the full details of the ban, the World Championship match he fixed and a video of him declaring his innocence here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/snooker/24223268
1. Alex Higgins’s Drunken Press Conference
We all know Alex Higgins has been a controversial figure and everywhere he turns it was either the flash of genius or the time red mist descended. If you haven’t seen The Rack Pack in BBC iPlayer, the film that documents his snooker and personal life during the 1980s, I seriously recommend you to watch it and unerstand a snippet of his life.
After a period of drink, drugs as well as the traumatic experience of divorce and stopped from seeing his kids, Alex was clearly in a dark place. After losing to Steve James in the 1990 World Championship 10-5, Higgins punched an official Colin Randle in the stomach at the post-match press conference and threatened while slurring his words to never raise a cue again, blaming media pressure affecting his life, relationships and his children’s lives. Bystanders estimated that he had consumed 27 vodkas during the match and during the subsequent press conference.
As well as many reasons, this led to him being banned for the whole of the following season. This essentially killed his snooker career and though he did not reach a final of any major tournament the season after that, it probably gave him time to heal and to get his personal matters sorted. He was never going to get away quietly, was he?
