A kick up the backside
WILLIAMS BINS ANY TALK OF QUITTING
MARK WILLIAMS wants someone to ‘kick him up the backside’ the next time he threatens to retire.
The three-time world champion surged into a shock 6-2 lead against long-time rival Ronnie O’sullivan after the first session of their Betfred World Championship quarter-final.
World No.3 Williams came close to packing it in before his third Crucible success two years ago and was again considering putting away his cue for good this season.
But lockdown and seeing his livelihood of 28 years briefly taken away gave Williams, 45, some much-needed perspective.
And it also reminded him of being taken down a coal mine by his father as a child and told to make the most of his snooker abilities.
Williams said: “If you ever hear me say I am retiring again, you can kick me up the backside.
“I’ve made my mind up, it’s a weight off my mind and retirement is out of the window – so it’s refreshing.
“During lockdown, I had months without even looking at my cue and I started missing it. I wanted to practise.
“We don’t know how lucky we are playing snooker for a living. My father was in a mine working 12-hour shifts for 20 to 30 years.
“So I said to myself, ‘You don’t know how lucky you are given what is going on in the world. It’s snooker – get off your arse and stop acting like a baby.’”
Williams, O’sullivan and John Higgins make up the famous ‘Class of 1992’ that all turned professional in the same summer.
But Williams’ record against fivetime Crucible king O’sullivan is shocking – with just one victory in a ranking tournament in 18 years, and four losses at the Crucible.
The Welshman said: “I love playing Ronnie and John – to think now there is another World Championship quarterfinal between us is unthinkable.
“It makes me laugh though when people say he’s my bogeyman, that’s crazy. He’s everyone’s bogeyman!”
Meanwhile O’sullivan’s criticism of young lower-ranked players has triggered an angry backlash. After
■ (left) reaching the quarter-finals, he said: “If you look at me, Mark and John, and the younger players coming through… they’re not that good really. Most of them might do okay as amateurs.
“They are so bad, a lot of them, and I think, ‘You’d have to lose an arm and a leg to fall outside the top 50.’”
First-year tour rookie and world No.87 Louis Heathcote, 23, from the snooker hotbed of Leicester, said: “It’s harsh, what he said.
“I think he’s forgetting that he lost to an amateur at the Crucible last year so the standard isn’t that bad down the bottom of the rankings.
“For children up and coming that want to get into the game and idolise him, it’s not good for them to hear that.”
And 16-year-old Jamie Wilson, who joins the tour next season, said: “I would love to play Ronnie.
“And it would be even better to beat him because of all the stuff he says about amateurs. I’m more of a Judd Trump fan now.”