JAMIE’S SHELF ISOLATION
Out in cold... odds were stacked against return
JAMIE JONES is emerging from a snooker nightmare – and admits he often dreamed of playing Ronnie O’sullivan at the Crucible during his 12-month ban.
The 33-year-old from Neath was banned for a year when found guilty in 2019 of failing to report a corrupt approach over a match between fellow Welshman David John and Graeme Dott in 2016.
Former world champion Dott was not involved, but John was banned for more than five years for match-fixing.
Jones was cleared of fixing but pleaded guilty to the lesser charge. That led to a spiral of depression and despair for Jones, who fell off tour and went to cut grass for the council with his mates.
He was working stacking shelves in his local Tesco but then got back on the tour via Q School last August and has earned £90,000 this season.
World No.69 Jones, the first shock winner at the Crucible this year having beaten Stephen Maguire, could yet face defending champion O’sullivan in the quarter-finals.
He said: “I was having dreams a lot that I was playing at the Crucible when I was out. It was always against Ronnie.
“Then I woke up in the morning and was absolutely gutted because I realised I wasn’t on the tour.
“Now, I am pinching myself and asking, ‘Am I dreaming again?.’
“Last year, I had resigned myself to never playing again. The road back just seemed so long, getting through Q School alone is very tough.
“I was stacking shelves at Tesco in Neath, on the night shifts at about £9 an hour. I had to earn some money.
“I had a couple of strange, ‘Why is he here,’ looks. I said, ‘Well, I need the money’. I am not a millionaire, never have been.
“Then I gave myself two months to be ready for Q School in August. We have some brilliant players in Wales, I was getting hammered but I was learning really quickly.
“These experiences have done me good, I didn’t sit and moan. I am a better player with a better attitude.”
Ask Jones if he is ready to talk to young pros about avoiding compromising situations and bitterness about his sentence emerges.
He added: “I have been approached by World Snooker to do things like that. It would be tough.
“If I was a match fixer or if I had done that in the past then yes, but I never did that.
“The thing was that I was wrongly tarred with that brush.
“It was an absolute joke what happened.”