Cue legend played life to the max
WILLIE Thorne became one of the best-known snooker players in the world despite winning only one major ranking tournament, the Mercantile Credit Classic in 1985. In the same year it looked as though he would beat Steve Davis in the UK Championship final in front of a supportive crowd at Preston’s Guild Hall.
He led 13-8 thanks to some brilliant play, but fluffing a simple shot in the final led to his downfall.
Instead of brushing off the mistake, he returned to his seat plagued with doubts, with his mind filling with thoughts of how he had failed in previous games.
With such negative thoughts, defeat was inevitable.
However he did get his name in the record books for being the player to make the highest number of 147 breaks – an incredible 147.
Whatever he did on the table, the public warmed to his upbeat character and he became a hugely popular and instantly recognisable figure with his shiny bald head and lustrous moustache.
Born in the Leicestershire village of Anstey, his first love as a child was football as his father took him to see Leicester City FC.
But in his teens he preferred spending his time playing snooker at the local Conservative club, where his father was a steward.
In 1970 he was the undisputed under-16 champion. When he turned professional aged 21, he was the youngest pro in the world.
Ironically, the better he got, the less time he spent practising and by the 1990s he was pretty much a spent force. His Achilles heel was not gnawing doubts but gambling, a problem he acquired as a teenager but was never able to control.
Huge debts cost him his first marriage to Fiona Walker, with whom he had twin sons and a daughter, as well as his house.
Thugs once threatened to cut off
the fingers of second wife Jill Saxby to get her diamond rings.
With scores of cards and dozens of accounts he stood little chance of ever controlling the situation.
At one stage he thought he had gambled away more than £1 million – this led to two suicide attempts.
Snooker lovers listening to his
witty and smooth commentary were unaware of the private battles he was fighting to try to stay afloat.
Last year he moved to Spain with Jill, a former Miss Great Britain, but they split up months later, after 24 years together.
Diagnosed with leukaemia this year, Thorne was put into a coma after suffering respiratory failure.