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He is an opponent to be feared and a surefire snooker star of the future.
Okay, the new frame of snooker, beginning of the frame and obviously the first shot,
the break-off shot is the most important. What you're going to try and do here depending on the
obviously score in the match is to try and get your opponent in trouble. We're going to have
these two options really to play an attacking break or to play a defensive break. What I mean
by that is if you're three or four frames down in a match obviously and your opponent is playing
very very well you don't want to sort of try and break the balls up. What we're going to try and do
is just try and keep them tied off the off the initial break-off so we can get in and develop
the reds. So the first one is called a defensive break. We're going to play off the end red,
three cushions, top, side, side again hopefully landing somewhere around in this here behind the
yellow. Well it's a little bit narrow, obviously I've left in my red onto the corner pocket,
I'd like the white really to be somewhere in this area. So I'm trying to put my opponent under
pressure as soon as possible. Now we've opened three or four reds there because initially if
he does miss and mess up the safety shot then I'm going to go straight in and hopefully make a good
break. Okay just going to break off here now I'm going to play the end red, end red of the pack,
little bit left hand side on the white, bring it around the two, three cushions hopefully somewhere
in bulk around the yellow spot. Try not to open the pack too much and we're going to try and put
Stephen in trouble. That's not too bad, a little bit now, I've left Stephen with an attempt to the
safety shot. Okay we've seen the defensive break what we're going to try and play now is an attacking
break. You're three or four frames in a match, up in a match I should say and what we're going to try
and do is spread the balls more evenly over the table, try and open three or four more reds so
put the opponent under pressure as quickly as possible. So what we're going to try and do is
play the cue ball onto the second red this time instead of the end red of the pack, three cushions
again hopefully bringing the white roughly around behind the yellow spot. So it's left hand side on
the cue ball, half ball and there you go a pot off the break. That's obviously a fluke but it's in
good position, really you can take either the brown into the center pocket or just drop the white
behind the yellow ball putting your opponent in a lot of trouble. As you can see the reds are now
evenly spread and obviously if you get in amongst the reds you can make a substantial break to
continue the pressure on your opponent and win yet another frame. So I've just set up a little
demonstration here where I've got to swerve around the red to hit the object ball which is a green.
To do this I have to raise the bottom of the cue, a lot of bottom of the white ball and right hand
side and swerving in red to hit the green. And for every shot in the game you need a good basic
style and stance. So the way I do it obviously everyone has different styles. I put my right
foot in first which points in the same direction as the shot is then bring my left foot in slightly
in front of my left leg. My left leg is bent and the right leg is straight and for the bridge,
the basic bridge is spread the four fingers and raise the knuckles and bring your thumb up towards
your fingers to form a groove to which the cue goes through nice and smoothly and the cue goes
straight through the middle of my chin and keep the whole body still, head still and put the red.
Now for putting difficult shots like long shots which me and John put a couple of there you just
follow up the same routine by keeping the body straight and your head's completely still when
playing the shot. Watching the white until it stops. One of the most common things that I see when I go
into clubs and snooker centers is the amount of people who actually grip a cue badly and I think
it's a very very important point if you're starting off. I think the main way to pick the cue is nice
and firm in the first finger and the thumb and only slightly harder on the second finger and the
last two should be very very light on the cue. I know some players hold it in the back two fingers
but I prefer to do it in the front and it gives you a freedom of movement with your fingers to go
backwards and forwards. I've seen a lot of people with the thumb on the top and holding it at the
end of the fingers it's not really a good thing to do. You want a nice firm on the first finger
and the thumb and just gentle with the others. Another thing that the club players asked me to
do is show them how to screw the ball back. The amount of people who've been playing for a long
time and can't manage to do that is quite unbelievable. I think the best way to do this
is very simple shot is to explain to them that the tip of the cue must go through the cue ball
a certain length nice and long and smooth. So you'd probably play the screw back like this.
Address the white at the bottom and you're practicing with a nice smooth cue action the
shot you're going to play and then you push the tip through the cue ball and you get the screw
back and hopefully you don't go in the pocket when you play. This particular trick shot is
called the pink pearl and the idea of this is that I can on the first red out of the pack and the
pink comes out of the middle of the six reds, crosses the table and goes into the centre pocket
and it should go something like this. It worked. The idea of this shot is once again to pop the
pink and we hit the cue ball with the red onto the front red. The one past the pink moves out
the way and the pink travels, hits the red over the middle hole and should go in the middle.
Let's see. Another one that worked. The idea of this trick shot is to try and pop the pint
glass in the centre pocket to make sure you've got a nice solid glass when you do this. It should
go something like this. Well John joined us, he was the last to join the team and I was very
surprised because really my first long chat with John was in Canada for the Canadian Open and during
a meal we were having I said to him did he realise that he was one of the best fourth players in the
world at that particular time and he looked at me as if I had horns growing from my head and I don't
think in fact I know that he didn't believe it and it was some months later when he actually won
the European Open that he confessed that he now believed in himself and he again is a very very
natural player, very talented player but if he had a fault it was perhaps his total lack of commitment
and not believing in himself. I think he's got the belief in himself now. I think he's just got to
show a little bit more commitment and I think he will be up, he could very well be up at number one.
I started playing snooker at the age of 12 or 13, my father introduced me to the game, he'd always
been like an avid league player and then he said to me one night it was raining we'd been gonna go
have a game of bowls, he used to play that as well when I was younger and he said to me come on we're
gonna have a game of snooker. I said oh yeah that'll do me, we'll go and see how if we're any good at
it you know and he taught me the basics, the stance and grip and all the rest of it and started me off
and I got the bug immediately. I'm very pleased now, I mean it was a little bit when I started
in the professional game it was slow the first couple of seasons to get going and it's gradually
got better and better and the point now where I feel as if I'm just starting to realise my
potential in the game and I'm very very happy and got everything to look forward to for the coming
seasons. The main thing of my career so far has been winning of the European Open in Doeville which
was a real tested character not only was you know that they played quite well there, I had a lot of
time in between matches to wait and things and I was really really pleased to win that one and it's
always nice to get the first ranking tournaments out of the way and you know at least I know I'm a
winner now and I can get on playing the rest of the tournaments but that's been the main thing
above anything and apart from that though the consistency is what I'm pleased with. I mean I've
been in a lot of finals and lots of semi-finals and quarter so I'm playing consistently well all
the time which is what it's all about. It's no good really having one good tournament and then four
bad ones you've got to do it you know play well all the time. My ambition in the game is just to
keep playing well and winning ranking tournaments I mean I could I could live without being world
champion I wouldn't you know end up pulling me hair out and all that I mean it'd be absolutely
lovely to do but it's the main thing is to keep playing well and to win the ranking tournaments
but above anything else my priority is not just snooker it's just to be happy that's all I ask for.
John Parrott is known as the Mr. Funnyman of the snooker circuit. Why is that? I think the main
thing is coming from Liverpool is you've got to have a sense of humour everybody else seems to
have one there and certainly it keeps me sane through the season because it can be a little
bit dogmatic going from one tournament to the other and hotel rooms for this and that and I
think you need a good sense of humour and certainly with the rest of the lads in Cuemasters you have a
great laugh and everyone takes the mickey and ribs you and you know people tend to think that you lose
your sense of humour but it's just as you seem to be more successful but it's not the case I mean
you just get more mickey taken and I really enjoy the humour that's that's what keeps me sane.
John has recently got married how has that affected his life as a snooker professional?
Being married is very very stabilising it's great to be able to go home to your own house and know
that your wife is always going to be there and you can just relax because you're in the public
eye enough and this you'd really do value that your privacy you know so when you go back home
it's great to be like that to be able to just go home to your wife and stuff.
There's two shots in the game of snooker which I find very difficult one of the shots is playing
with a spider as you can see now and the other shot is playing doubles across the table and using
the angles of the cushions the first shot I'm going to play it is using the spider obviously we
can't get to it just by reaching over because it's too far across the table and the rest the
cue would be too low and you need to get over this red so the spider enables you to get well
above the red aim down in the white but you mustn't put any side on the white at all because that'll
swerve the white and you'll miss the pot so you've got to keep very steady strike the white in the
middle very slow and just roll it into the pocket a very difficult shot the next shot is the double
in which a lot most of professionals play as a pot safety because you have no guarantee of getting
it because every cushion and table reacts differently so this this way I would use I would
try and put the red into the opposite middle and stay for the black. It's wet in this time but you
can't guarantee potting it so you won't see many professionals playing them in matches because it's
such a risky shot the next way to play off a cushion is obviously if you're snickered as you
can see I'm snickered directly behind the pink and the white is too close to the pink and full ball
behind the pink to be able to swerve around so I'm gonna have to come off the cushion plain
ball to try and hit the red and manage to hit it whereas if I'd missed it I would let my opponent
in to clear the table and perhaps win the frame. I'm gonna try and double this red into this
middle pocket it's a pot safety really shouldn't leave much if I miss it.
I'm gonna play double the red across the table into this pocket
one I first saw Stephen in the club that Owen and Sterling although I had seen him in junior pot
black on television before that and at that time I was involved in the amateur association
Scottish amateur association that is and we through one of my companies we sponsored the
Scottish amateur championship which Stephen went on to win and shortly after that his parents
approached me to manage him and of course the rest of the story just goes on from there.
I think he's got a number of special attributes such things as temperament total self-belief the
dedication and the application he knows exactly what he wants to achieve which is the number one
slot and the world championship these I think are the things that keep him going. The first
time I realized I could play Snickers when I got my first table for my Christmas it was a small
table of my mom and dad when I was 12 going on 13 and within two three weeks I was making 50
breaks in the table so I realized I could play the game then obviously I moved up to a club
played in the full-size tables after a while I made a century break when I was only 13 so then
I decided to start entering tournaments so I went down to Pontians for a Snicker festival and
entered an under 16 tournament just to see really how good it was compared with people my own age
and I managed to win the tournament which surprised me so from then on from knowing that I could win
tournaments I just started playing more and more. I think my rise has been fairly unusual because
I'm so young I mean I turned professional when I was 16 a lot of people thought I was turning
professional too young sort of lamb to the slaughter sort of thing but I'd gained all the
experience that I could as an amateur I traveled up and down Britain for many many years playing
all the tournaments I could so I thought it was time for a change. My ambition is to be world
champion be world number one and I'm not really fussy which comes first both at the same time
would be nice I think world number one sort of proves that you're consistent over the whole
year where this world championship is although it's the biggest tournament it's only one tournament
whereas if you're world number one it proves you've been consistently the best over the whole season
no I'm not in a hurry I mean I've got a chance to beat Alex Higgins his record he was the youngest
person to win the world championship he was 22 when he won the world championship so I've got
two years left to beat that. The first matches I played as a professional were strange because
although I won my very first match after that I tended to lose every match I only got one ranking
point from my first season but I learned a lot because you always learn by getting beat and the
situations were a lot more different as an amateur you go to a club and you don't know how good the
table is going to be and you can just turn up in trousers and a shirt whereas a professional you're
going there you're playing in the best arenas in Britain you're playing in the best tables with
referees you have to wear a bow tie for every match so it's a completely different setup.
Jimmy White's been my hero all the way through my career is because he is an attacking player and
I think that's the way my game has always been as an attacking player my main strength is potting
balls but through experience and through playing the top players such as Cliff Thorburn, Taylor,
Davis who have got some of the best safety games in the in snooker that is improving my safety game
as well so I've got more of an all-around game now. I think there's there's players that are more
natural than others I think myself Jimmy White and Alex Higgins are three or three or there's
maybe a couple more that have never been coached in their lives I mean I learned snooker by just
watching television watching the other players and learning from them whereas a lot of other
players have been coached in their game and still do get coached so you can be made as a player but
as whatever way if you're natural or not natural it takes a lot of practice.
There's plenty of times certainly when I go into the snooker centres and watch round I see people
come up with safety shots which are very very basic and unfortunately at our level they don't
seem to be quite good enough and in this basically a lot of the a lot of the stuff that's played is
what they call a figure of eight safety and the idea of this is that when I've made contact with
the red the white should come off one cushion two cushion this one back here in a figure like an
eight so I'll try and attempt to play what we call an attacking safety shot put the white in
bulk and hopefully in a good position and that would be trouble. Completely out of position here
so I'm gonna have to play a safety shot play this red in the cushion a bit right-hand side to go up
to the bulk area. I'm gonna try and put the yellow behind the blue and pink and the white
somewhere behind the black hopefully get a snooker half ball in yellow. Well Stephen has
left me a pot on but it's a bit risky probably gonna wait for a better opportunity just gonna
knock the yellow up and down the table again hopefully leaving it round about this area and
try and put the white behind the black. Well Mike I came across Mike first in 1986 when we teamed
up Mike and Stephen for the world doubles and during that tournament they made the final the
they lost to Davis and Mayo but during that particular championship it was very clear that
Mike had a had a very great talent and it surprised me to find that he'd been a pro for some seven or
eight years sticking somewhere between 21 and 32 and I made up my mind that really it was a
question that if somebody could direct him if somebody could get the application and the
dedication into his game he had the opportunity of going right to the top and I think perhaps
in many ways Mike gives me a great deal of satisfaction because when I did sign him many
people said that he was never a top 10 player he's now number six in the world and I think
the big thing when a player gets to that level then all of a sudden he starts believing that
he can win tournaments and I would liken Mike very much to Dennis Taylor who was on the pro
circuit for 13 years before he won a tournament and I think Mike has the capabilities within
himself now to win a tournament. I've been a pro now for about nine years in my tenth season
coming up and I struggled a little bit I got to about probably about 26 27 in the world ranking
list and then sort of leveled off at that time and they had a pretty good season about three
years ago and managed to get into the top 16 which is what I've always wanted to do and then from
then on it sort of leaped up so I was sort of stagnate for three or four four years you know
I was sort of going in and out in the matches and getting a few results and wasn't really creating
the opportunities to win tournaments so it's just basically winning matches to pay the bills thinking
which is the wrong attitude to be you know not thinking a big prize is a question if I win this
much I've got three thousand five hundred pounds or something I can pay that off and I've got a
few could extra that's probably the attitude of a lot of the new professionals that come in they're
just basically playing match by match whereas now I'm wanting to go in I've had the taste of
earning thirty forty thousand pounds in the lump and I'm wanting to win tournaments in effect the
money doesn't really come into it because we don't actually see that now it's just basically
about winning now and I want to win as much as possible that is one of my faults over the years
I haven't worked hard enough at my game you have to work at this game and it's all I have in all
the ability but it's the hours that need to be put in during the day that people don't see they
just the public feel that we just turn up and play will become world champion doesn't work that way
I mean okay Steve Davis has won the world championship six times but the amount of work
that he's put in to get that it's like a job you know you're there you know nine to five and you
put a few hours in I will possibly admit that I don't practice enough and that more you know
I should do I have to try and change that to be more successful and but that is really the lesson
doesn't matter how much ability you've got you still have to work on your game day in day out
and you see the rewards in the end it helps when you're under pressure when you're actually under
pressure on the TV it's okay playing in the club but when the pressure comes on and you feel that
you've put the work in and the practice you know that it can back you up and if it's not there
there's always that little bit of doubt in the back of your mind it's not gonna happen but if
the work has been put in in the beginning you know that hopefully it will come through yeah I
think there's a lot to be learned I mean the new players are coming through now I think they're
possibly think they're just gonna get in and I think is gonna happen you know there are
exceptions I mean Stephen obviously is different classes come through 19 20 years of age and he's
got it all you do get the exceptions to the rule but I mean majority of the young lads that have
come through would probably expect that they've won everything as an amateur they can just come
through and when everything is a professional it doesn't work that way it took me three or four
years to settle in and you know it was hard work and you have to the transition is very very big
from amateur to professional it's it's a totally different game totally different setup and the
attitude has to be totally different and I think basically what I've done is been more professional
over the last few seasons been mentally harder on and off the table which has helped but at the end
of the day if you're having a bad shot you just have to keep plugging away and hope that you turn
it around and it comes good. Just gonna play a couple of trick shots for you the first one
what we're gonna try and do is to send the white the cue ball over the 15 reds hopefully
through the triangle pop the black into the corner pocket. Okay a little bit more difficult
this time you see we've got the black surrounded by three reds on the side cushion what we're
going to try and do is hit the white onto the first red hopefully you'll knock the two reds
out the way the black will come across the table over the triangle reds into the corner pocket.
Well we're just gonna start off with a few power shots now power shots as you know require very
accurate cueing you've got to be cueing really sweetly through the ball so we'll do a few
different power shots just to show you what can be achieved when you are cueing through the ball
nicely. Now this first one is just imagine it comes to the end of the game you're on the pink
and the black you receive pink and black the blacks at the other end of the table you need
to pop the pink into the corner bag and drag the white all the way up the tail because you've
landed dead straight. So the idea would be you'd landed dead straight so get on the ball just let
the cue go straight through nice and smoothly and as you're hitting the ball you're really powering
it through pulling back quick off the white you got a lot of backspin on the white to pull it right
up to the end of the table. I'm going to go for the long red.
Full length of the table just plain ball in the middle of the white.
I'm gonna try and attempt to pop the red into the corner pocket
just done over off the side cushion finish on the black. Well Darren I first heard about a few
years ago and it was actually the the enemy that pointed me in the direction match from Terry
Griffiths and Terry was telling me about a very very good young player down in Wales and I watched
his progress through the amateur ranks and of course in 1987 he capped a tremendous amateur
career by winning the world amateur. From there we had a situation where his father approached me
and we signed contracts in early 1988 but I think Darren probably because he won the world amateur
championship in many ways it was the transition for him to professional was more difficult in as
much that he'd been at the very top of the tree in the amateur game and of course coming into the
professional ranks where most of the players are all great players he found it pretty difficult but
he settled in now he's one of the Pontons invitational he was runner-up to Hallett in
the Dutch Open and he's looking forward as I am to a lot of success in the future now. As an amateur
I won the the Welsh amateur I think it was 1987 finished top in the pro tickets that's where I
got my ticket from I was going in as second or third man I think because I was top the pro tickets
and I went on to the world amateur championship won that to become world champion so I was
automatically getting my ticket then I finished in the number one in the top hundred Q satellite
rankings for that year so that kept the year off really so I just turned pro then it all come 87
88 all my successes I won about nine pro am ten pro am tournaments but I lost in about nine or
ten finals as well so I had a good year I got about 20 25 finals and I won the big ones which
which was the main one the thing is just to practice really hard practice on your own which
I lost track of a little bit at the beginning of this year I started playing everybody but
my manager then got me back to to playing on my own and now I like to half on my own half with
someone but I think it's just you practice as many hours you can you play in as many tournaments as
you can within reason and you just progress from there the thing is if if you're not in the right
frame of mind you're very hasty you play the wrong shots shot selection is one of the biggest things
in the game the same as consistency and concentration if you're not concentrating you can forget it but
at the same time if you're concentrating still playing the wrong shots you're just making life
hard for yourself if you're in the right frame of mind you pick the right shots if you're not you
don't you pick the wrong shots so things just don't go right so I think the last few months I've just
adopted a positive attitude I've started attacking like I used to in my earlier years and it's been
paying off well if the young young players and they're just starting off I suppose it's just to
say to keep their heads down and get on with it like practice hard and hope you get the right
breaks because you do need a bit of luck you need really to fall in I've been lucky I've had a good
sponsor my dad done it for the first year or two then I had a real good sponsor for the next two
years and I've been very very lucky to fall in to Q masters I expect is under 110 pros would give
the right arm to be in the group that I'm in so I'm very lucky that way and for someone who's
watching the video if they are keen on snook and they're good it's to get someone behind them that
is going to look out for their best interests and not just their own so that'd be the thing just to
practice and hope that you find someone that's really good to back you the most important thing
obviously if you want to win the frame is score more points than your opponent the easiest way
of doing this is by building a break round about the pink and black because they make the most
points so I'm going to try and build a small break by potting reds with pinks and blacks
roll off the cushion on the top of the white for the next red I'm thinking about two shots
ahead each time with an angle on each shot to move to the next ball when you deep screw off
the cushion from the plaque I've not come far enough so I'm going to roll off the cushion and
hopefully get the pink straight pink in the corner so I'm going to screw back from the next red at
the same pocket this time falling through the top and the white for the black then we have lots of
top and the white follow through of two cushions for the next red this time small stun for the
black now I've left myself a nice angle to get up for the yellow I've come a little bit too far
with the black so we have to use the rest for the yellow just a plain ball shot for the green nice
and straight in the green so I'll have to do is stun the white stay on the ground block with the
white never want to leave myself straight on any color because it makes it more difficult to get
the next color it's another stun for the blue and another soft screw for the pink haven't come
quite far enough to use the rest it's part of pink and stun of two cushions one ball left to
win the game black in the corner playing ball in the white now bonus we cleared a lot we're here
today to do some break building we've just did a few shots off the break off the balls have spread
out nicely for us so we're gonna try now and make a break just starting off with the easy pots
nice and easy a nice flow on the cue action so I'm gonna try and pop the red straight in the
corner back just leave myself on the black in this corner and now I'm gonna pop this black in the
opposite corner just stand up a few inches for the red into the same bag just can play the red
into the corner bag off the kush for the black back into this corner just gonna follow through
on the black into the corner but pocket to leave the white just about around with a for the red
back into this corner pocket I'm just gonna put a little bit of bottom on this red now to
pop the red in the corner just to stun it up around for the black back into the same pocket
same sort of shot for a little bit higher up on the table now black in the corner pocket just
to stun the white up through the gap for the reds back into the corner
I'm just gonna follow straight through on this red to leave the white around but there for a
nice little angle on the black to play up into the middle of the table
right now I'm on the black that I can play a number of shots I can stand up for this
red in the corner onto that red for this red back in this corner I'm just gonna stand through
the gap to leave the white hopefully around about by here for the red back into the same
pocket as the black now again I've under it a little bit so I'm gonna change our plans a
little bit with playing this red into the middle but they're just for the white to come down for
the blue back into the middle bag now this blue shot I'm just gonna pop the blue into the middle
just stun the white down through the gap down for one of these two reds no one if I'm if I make a
mess of it I'm gonna land on one of them two or the red in the middle
I'm bridging over this ball so I gotta be a little bit careful you're not a touch the
ball and not a skew if on the cue action so I'm going to pop the red into the corner bag and just
follow straight through the wood with the white for the black straight into the other pocket
now I'm going to pop the black into this corner pocket a little bit of bottom on
the white to stun the white up here for the red back into this corner
pocket I'm gonna pop the red into this corner pocket middle of the white off
the cushion with a little bit of right hand side the pink back into the corner pocket
I'm gonna pop the pink into the corner pocket but there with a little bit of bottom just to
stun the white back for it straight back into that pocket again and pop the red in the corner
pocket follow straight through with the white for the black into the opposite pocket and
a pop the black into the corner pocket stand up through the gap for choice of the two reds
into the middle bag I'm gonna pop this red now into the middle bag just on the white
back about two inches for the pink back into the corner pop the pink into the corner bag
just on the white for the red back into the middle drop my chalk red into the middle bag
same sort of shot just stunning the white again to leave myself on the pink for this corner bag
just gonna pop this pink now stand back about eight inches for one of these reds in the corner bag
and I've had to take the rest because I've just over it that a little bit so I want to pop this
red in the corner back corner bag just stun the white over to buy after the pink back into the
same bag I want to pop the pink into the corner bag just stand back a few inches again for the
red into the corner and pop this red in the corner just middle of the white so as it comes
off the cushion just slides down a little bit for the black back into the corner bag
I've gone a bit straight on this so I got to use a little bit more power in the shot the idea is
to it to white with a touch of left right hand side pop the black into the corner bag stun the
white off the cushion up for the red in the middle of I've under it I'm going to get a
shot at the red in the corner bag and now with this shot I'm just going to pop the red into
the corner bag the middle bag sorry just the white is just going to roll up and just cannon
onto the blue hopefully to leave me with a shot on the blue in the middle right the blue in the
middle I'm going to pop middle of the ball on the white with right hand side for the white to at
the bottom cushion a little bit of right hand side to check the white off the kush straight
back up for the red into the corner pocket
but now as I'm playing these shots I'm always playing a few shots ahead now I'm already looking
to see where I'm going to stick this red ball or which is the best pocket for me to play it into
so I'm looking to get a good angle on the black potless red in the corner to land on the black
to stand over for the red back into this middle pocket now I'm going to pop this red in the middle
pocket just at middle of the white so as the white runs down and comes down for one of the
bulk colors down the other end of the table
we're on the yellow perfect but yeah we're on the yellow perfect so I'll play the yellow just a
little stand shot pop the yellow in the corner it's done white back a few inches just
it she's trousers up a bit just going to pop the yellow into the corner pocket drag back about six
inches for the green back into the other corner pocket think of it that just about right so same
sort of shot just done back about two or three inches for the brown in the opposite pocket
pop the brown into the corner bag and just pull back with the white to land up round about by
for the blue into the middle bag I've under it that slightly so we're gonna have to pop the
blue into middle bag it's done the white of the bottom cushion we left hand side to check the
white to come back up for the pink into that pocket pink into the corner pocket a little
stand shot down onto the black in the same pocket and the black just a plain ball shot
straight into the corner bag right as we said at the beginning of the session that we were
going to try and make a break we've just accumulated a one three four break so it just
proves that if you do make things nice and simple and your cue action is nice and smooth it is
possible to clear the table or to make sizable breaks to win the frames my advice to anybody
that started to play the game or that does play the game is to keep the game as simple as they
possibly can I'm gonna put the red in this pocket and screw back for a choice of the yellow the
green it's gonna be the yellow I'm gonna stun with a touch of left hand side off this cushion
to come down into the middle round about here hopefully land in a red nine
just a plain stun shot for the black
I'm gonna force the way off the cushion the middle of the white ball top of the
white to come around for the pink still be stunning put the pink in this pocket
stunning application for the thread here 24 this time a stun shot put in the red leaving
the white round about this area to put the pink in this middle
now just a slight screw back to leave myself on this red here
sound a part this red stun off two cushions and come up for the blue
it's time to put the blue screw the white to run out this area for a choice of two reds in that corner pocket
you have to be this red in the corner and back up for the blue all my boys are obviously very
busy they travel all over the world we're shortly leave for New Zealand Australia Thailand Stephen
at 20 years of age has already been to Japan the United States Australia and New Zealand Singapore
in fact it's probably easier in his case as the rest of the boys to name countries that they
haven't been to now that takes a lot of energy it's the travel is very tiring long long periods
away from home but it's all in the going back to the basis of they have an opportunity of
setting themselves up financially for life and I think that really is the thing that keeps them
going the camaraderie I think between the players they're all young players they all get on very
very well together their likes are very similar the like similar type music clothes golf they all
play golf and really during the season which is becoming longer and longer it's now effectively
a ten month season they don't get an awful lot of spare time but when they do they they tend to
spend listening to music or playing golf but I'm fortunate that they all got on well together
because that is very very important in a team atmosphere Michael Michelle musical does does
because I was getting whitewash it's just as for Darren John is John is we call John's sick John
sick ass because when he got beat you with sickers Stephen likes to wind us all up me especially
it's actually John Carroll our driver it's nothing to do with us but he started it yeah Stephen's
like a junior John Carroll you know so he comes in and says Darren you're gonna watch some more my
unbelievable pot and it's like he's got the white on a string whereas I've got it on a rope
just little things like you're out there and you're doing the business and you're working on that but
when you come off the table you have a drink you know it might we might have sort of beaten each
other we'll have a drink at the bar afterwards and talk about the game things like that but there's
a lot of players that keep themselves and themselves and in different groups and stuff but at the end
of the day you know you just play a game you play a game to win but after that you just like anybody
else really if you take the the top 32 players in the world they're all great players but some
are more successful than others and I think it's that's where the psychological situation comes in
that you've the player has got to believe in himself he's got to dedicate himself and snooker
players are no different from any other sportsman they have all the problems off the table there's
gambling there's drinking there's women there's all sorts of side effects that can take their their
mind away from snooker but really the ones that are absolutely totally successful the Davis's and
I think my boys because I'm in the fortunate position to have two three six in the world at
this point in time and certainly my players have got there by sheer graft Davis made it by sheer
graft and I think it's a question of again going back to the cycle odd the psychology of it that
players in the top 32 have got to believe that they've got to work they've got to dedicate and
apply themselves this time bottom of the white just to leave a slight angle on the brain
every shot I'm playing I'm leaving an angle on the color to get on to the next color bottom
of the way to get down for the blue this time I'm going to have to play the middle of the
white part the blue off the bottom cushion to come back up for the pink into this corner now
putting the pink into this corner a lot of topspin to help the black into the same pocket to finish
off just a plain ball black bonus we cleared the table I think it's very important for the
young players when they start off to get the basics right to get a good technique I think it's of
paramount importance that they actually go and get a book or a video like this one indeed to study
the technique and the basics and put themselves right to start off with I think if they don't do
that then they're gonna find it very very difficult either a to improve or B to go back and put it
right so it is important that they do that in the first place young players coming into the game
have got to apply themselves and they've got to dedicate themselves that means that they've got
to be prepared to spend long hours on the practice table the object really is to to get total control
of the cue ball if they can do that if they can put the cue ball exactly where they want it on the
table and the greatest exponent of that of course is Steve Davis and I think any player that comes
into the game that's not prepared to look at Davis not prepared to apply himself in the way
that Davis has has got no chance of achieving the number one slot now if if a player if a young
player can look at his career over a three or five year period consider the amount of money that he
can win in that period of time he can effectively set himself up for the rest of his life if you
consider the season gone by and John Parrott has picked up over 300,000 Stephen Hendry has
picked up over 300,000 and that is just on the table earnings of course there's all sorts of
things in the side endorsements exhibitions etc.