O’Brien: No more cueing for a living
The Dubliner felt like a ‘dead man walking’ after crushing losses at the iconic Crucible
FERGAL O’BRIEN was left in no doubt. As he left the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield earlier this month as a former professional snooker player, he knew that the right decision was made. After more than three decades, it was time to hang up the cue. There had been times when it took him months to get over being beaten in the world championship qualifiers. Not this time. Even though Egypt’s Mostafa Dorgham had only beaten him 10-8 in the first qualifying round and O’Brien had even raced into a 3-0 lead, the Dubliner felt that he hadn’t played as well and he had prepared and that simply confirmed that it was the right time to bow out.
‘I had prepared very well, had done everything right and in the end, I didn’t play that well, so if there was any doubt lingering in my head about retirement, that quashed it,’ O’Brien said earlier this week, as he was preparing to head to the iconic Crucible as a commentator and pundit for Eurosport.
‘There is nothing like the pressure of the qualifiers for the worlds. You feel like a “dead man walking” through the whole thing, because there are 128 play‘That ers and only 16 slots. When you qualify, it feels like winning a tournament. And being beaten in the qualifiers, especially the last round, is the worst feeling you can have,’ he says.
O’Brien played at the Crucible 10 times and reached the quarterfinals in 2000, the season when he was a regular in the top ten of the world rankings. But he remembers the times he didn’t make it much more. He lost in the final qualifying round half a dozen times, on four occasions in the
19th and final frame. ‘Once on the pink, once on the black. And once on the re-spotted black, that was the worst,’ he recalls.
It was in 2014 that O’Brien lost to Robbie Williams on the re-spotted black. He had been in control of the match, up 7-2 at one point.
‘Some of the darkest days in my career have been losing in the final qualifying round, there was no feeling like that.
‘After losing, I had no recollection of leaving the venue, no recollection of getting back to my hotel or going to bed. I was clearly just walking around in a daze, I woke up the next morning and knew I had lost, but had no memory of anything else from the night before. That is what that defeat does to you, it’s the worst feeling in the world, you are so close and yet so far away from the Crucible.
‘And just when you start to get yourself out of the funk, the tournament starts on television and brings you right down again. If someone offered you the option of qualifying and losing in the first round you would still take it because at least you’re there. Part of Christmas Day is the build-up to Christmas Day, so even if you don’t get the presents you want you’ve had the weeks and months of excitement and the night before.’
Three years after losing that game on a re-spotted black, O’Brien and David Gilbert went down to the wire in the final qualifying round. The deciding frame ended up being the longest in snooker history at two hours, 37 minutes and 41 seconds.
frame was a by-product of what happened a couple of years earlier and losing to Robbie on the re-spotted black. I was so careful, so cautious about everything, I didn’t want to make any sort of mistake and that is why I took so much time over every shot. But it was so emotionally draining and I was getting criticised for the frame taking so long, I wasn’t in the right place going into the Crucible.’
O’Brien drew Mark Selby, who was the reigning world champion and lost 10-2, still drained by the long match a few days earlier. It was his last time playing at the Crucible and he takes issue with Ronnie O’Sullivan’s assertion this week that the worlds should move to a bigger venue.
‘Okay, maybe they should look at expanding some of the facilities, but I would hate to see the tournament moved out of the Crucible. There is magic in that, magic on the tables, you can feel it, feel the weight of history as soon as you walk in. I wouldn’t agree with moving it out of there, at all.’
The longest frame isn’t the only quiz question that might get asked about O’Brien. He’s also the first Crucible debutant to hit a century in his first frame at the worlds. ‘In the grand scheme of Crucible records, it is a small one to have. I would prefer to have some of the records Ronnie or [Stephen]Hendry have, but still, it’s nice.’
Mark Allen is the sole representative from this island at the Crucible this year. Aaron Hall, the talented young potter from Cork, who is the Irish game’s great hope, lost out in the qualifiers. The tricky question of why Ireland aren’t producing more top snooker players is broached.
O’Brien, who was a decent footballer in his youth and played for Home Farm, left Dublin for London at 19 with just a Leaving Cert and a dream to be a snooker player. The game had just opened up. ‘Anyone could turn professional, if you paid 700 quid and it didn’t matter about talent or ability, so all of a sudden, the scene was saturated.
‘It was tough, but you did it because you loved it. And you had to win a lot of matches in the first couple of years, even Ronnie had to win 72 matches in 74 days. It was a slog just to make it on the tour.
‘It’s disappointing that Aaron didn’t make the Crucible, but he is in the top 64 now and he has to see next season as consolidation. It’s like a team that go from Championship to Premier League, first season is about surviving and then you can look to build.’
When O’Brien was growing up on Bayside on Dublin’s northside, there were snooker clubs everywhere. That’s not the case anymore. ‘Before you even got into town, there were three or four snooker clubs and then from Bachelor’s Walk to Capel Street, there were five clubs. They are all gone now.
‘The Celtic Tiger had an effect and the property boom, it takes a lot of space to have a snooker club and a lot of tables. And the lack of clubs does affect those coming through because ultimately, it is a numbers game – for every thousand kids who pick up a cue, only one is going to be that very special talent.
‘Now, parents might have to travel 20 or 25 miles to get their kid to a snooker club and is that worth it, better that they just join the GAA or soccer club down the road. It’s expensive too. Buying a snooker table is expensive and it takes up a lot of space. If your kid watches Luke Littler and decides they want to play darts, all you have to do is buy a dartboard and put it up in their room. Snooker is different.’
All those factors have gone into Ireland’s failure to produce a player to follow in the footsteps of O’Brien and Ken Doherty. But one thing which might boost the game here is the return of the Irish Masters. ‘That is one of the projects I have to occupy myself now that I am retired, I am going to look at the prospect of bringing that back, and to Goffs,’ he says.
It is a tough life on the tour. O’Brien highlights his wife Jean for all her support, and the heavy lifting in family life, pointing out that the lifestyle means divorce rates are high in the sport.
But he loved most of it, even during the dark days. And as for his tip for this year’s world championships? ‘I think Mark Allen might win it, I think everything is aligning for him.’
‘ANYONE COULD TURN PROFESSIONAL IF YOU PAID 700 QUID’