Snooker’s first lady on cue for big time
CUE in hand, purple waistcoat on and hair tied back in a ponytail, Reanne Evans received some curious looks from the swimmers and trampolinists as she walked through Sheffield’s Ponds Forge sports centre to play some snooker.
The appearance of a 29-yearold single mum from Dudley in world championship qualifying might not have been fully understood by the regular punters but the presence of several television crews, one accompanied by Ronnie O’Sullivan, hinted at the significance.
Make no mistake, Evans’s participation — and particularly her performance — against former world champion Ken Doherty in yesterday’s first round was a huge boost to the advancement of women in sport.
Snooker’s world governing body had been criticised in some quarters for allowing Evans a wildcard as the first woman to compete with 127 male players for the right to play in the sport’s blue riband event, which begins at The Crucible a week tomorrow.
But if Evans was spooked by the hype, she didn’t show it. She entered with the focus and calm demeanour expected of a 10-time ladies world champion, albeit one whose prize-money for winning the trophy in 2013 was £400 compared with the £250,000 pocketed by O’Sullivan for winning in Sheffield.
You had to feel a little bit sorry for her opponent, 1997 world champion Ken Doherty, who is now 45, though his ranking of 46 is still higher than Jimmy White and Steve Davis, who both have their qualifiers to come.
This was the first of three rounds players have to win to reach the world championship proper. The crowd of 58 men and four women who gathered by Table No 1 to watch Evans and Doherty far outnumbered the audience for any of the other nine tables. Doherty had been made 20-1 on to win, the sort of price you’d expect if Manchester United were meeting Accrington Stanley in the FA Cup.
The Irishman duly took the first frame 71-15 but there was no panic from Evans. Instead, we saw the attitude and determination she says she loves in her sporting heroine Serena Williams as she won the next three.
Evans proved more Peter Ebdon than ‘Whirlwind’ Jimmy White, checking her angles before every shot. The diligence paid off, as she won frames two and three by wearing down Doherty with tactics, and then went 3-1 up with a break of 51.
Psychologically, she was canny too. She often opted to stand while Doherty was at the table. In contrast, the Dubliner chose to sit at every opportunity. Doherty looked grim- faced as he returned from the mid- session interval. This is a man who beat Stephen Hendry in a world final and he had admitted he was under extra pressure playing a woman.
In this best of 19 frames contest, he reeled off two frames in a row to level at 3-3, watched as Evans potted a final pink to lead 4-3, only to then make a break of 54 to restore parity again before taking the final frame ahead of lunch to lead 5-4.
Like O’Sullivan, the righthanded Evans also has the confidence and touch to play some shots with her left. It helped her win the first frame of the evening session to level the match at 5-5.
By then, a father had taken his nine-year-old daughter into the auditorium. Hopefully she was inspired. She will have also noticed that the third person by the table, the match referee, was a female, Tatiana Woollaston.
Next time Evans arrives for a match, those in line waiting for a swim might recognise her straightaway.