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Whatever Happened To

Postby Alex0paul

Whatever happened to the likes of Brian Morgan, Billy Snaddon, Drew Henry, Marcus Campbell, Sean Storey, Shokat Ali?

These were steady players in and around the top 32 and some even reached ranking finals but all seemed to disappear in their mid 30s.

Did they pack it in too early especially given the age of the top 32 these days?

What are they up to now?

Any other players that just faded away quietly?

Re: Whatever Happened To

Postby SnookerFan

Can't answer your question literally. In the sense that I've no idea what any of them are doing now.

But that's the nature of the game. It's not important what you've achieved in the past, if you don't sustain the success you drop off the tour.

Unless you're Jimmy White or Ken Doherty, of course.

Re: Whatever Happened To

Postby chengdufan

Alex0paul wrote:Whatever happened to the likes of Brian Morgan, Billy Snaddon, Drew Henry, Marcus Campbell, Sean Storey, Shokat Ali?

These were steady players in and around the top 32 and some even reached ranking finals but all seemed to disappear in their mid 30s.

Did they pack it in too early especially given the age of the top 32 these days?

What are they up to now?

Any other players that just faded away quietly?


Maybe could add Terry Murphy and Bradley Jones, though Jones has tried hard to get back on tour.
I imagine they are most likely coaching at their local snooker club. That is pretty wild speculation though.

Re: Whatever Happened To

Postby SnookerEd25

Not on your original list, but I believe former ranking finalist & Crucible appearee Euan Henderson is a police officer now (think Hendon mentioned it on his podcast)

Re: Whatever Happened To

Postby SnookerEd25

Always worth looking at Q-school results lists on Cuetracker too, lots of ‘familiar’ names crop up on there each year

Re: Whatever Happened To

Postby The_Abbott

Maybe some of them lost their place on the tour and was too expensive to get back on or they had injuries that made them decide to pack the job in.

Re: Whatever Happened To

Postby SnookerEd25

Personally, I would guess frustration plays quite a big part; imagine, you're far and away the best player in your club, winning the majority of your matches for the county team, able to knock in century breaks with increasing frequency. I would guess the majority of players like these (at least the UK ones) turn pro' because they think they can make a mark on the circuit - getting into the upper echelons of the rankings, being a serious contender for major prizes, even perhaps making a significant dent at the Crucible. I would imagine very few, particularly when young, think "I'll turn pro', hang around at the lower end of the rankings, win the odd match here or there and scrape enough each season to feed my family and keep a roof over their heads"

So when they discover the streets aren't paved with gold in the snooker world, and there is another 10, 20 ,30+ pros who are in the same boat and fighting over the same scraps, it probably does become demoralising after a few years in the empty qualifying arenas, and increasingly difficult to motivate yourself to keep plugging away; in those circumstances, walking away and getting a 'proper job' (with regular guaranteed income) probably becomes more enticing than it would have been ten years ago.

Re: Whatever Happened To

Postby SnookerFan

This reminds me of the 2016 Northern Ireland Open where Mark King won. He was talking about how he'd been close to retiring because he'd been having such trouble making money at the sport at the time. And that's from somebody who had previously been in the top-16.

Saying that, according to wikipedia his career earnings was £1,648,630. I don't know how accurate that is, and also point out that he's been playing since 1991. But still, he's must've been doing alright at some point in his career.

Re: Whatever Happened To

Postby LDS

SnookerFan wrote:This reminds me of the 2016 Northern Ireland Open where Mark King won. He was talking about how he'd been close to retiring because he'd been having such trouble making money at the sport at the time. And that's from somebody who had previously been in the top-16.

Saying that, according to wikipedia his career earnings was £1,648,630. I don't know how accurate that is, and also point out that he's been playing since 1991. But still, he's must've been doing alright at some point in his career.


The subject of a snooker player's earning's worth is quite misleading in association to assessing their actual worth.

Bear in mind that the average 'decent' wage for basic professional work of any kind in the UK is about £33.3k per year. So if you worked for 30 years at £33.3k you have earned £1m in your basic professional job. However, regular joes don't have their career earning displayed in wikipedia as one single lump sum.

And there's tax to come out of that, like any regular wage. But snooker players will have the additional disadvantage of having to pay additional 'manager and promoter' tax.

The bigger names in the game will off-set and increase their wages by making celebrity appearances, book deals, commentating, exhibitions and the like, but you don't have to go too far down the rankings before you're name isn't quite so valuable to such avenues, someone like Mark King being the perfect example.

And then when you look at house prices nowadays, £1m doesn't even buy you much with regards to 'keeping up with my celebrity friend jones'.

And if there's been a divorce as well... & etc.

There's no doubt Mark King has had a good run of it compared to many & I doubt he would claim he's lived a life beset by money worries, but it is feasible that he could have made more actual income by being a whole raft other professional occupations, particularly as he's so big and has such a naturally charismatic personality.

Re: Whatever Happened To

Postby Iranu

Plus a lot of that £1.6million would have been over a relatively short period and I doubt King would have been living in anticipation of falling down the rankings.

Didn’t he also have a gambling problem for a while? That probably ate into his earnings.

Re: Whatever Happened To

Postby LDS

Matthew Stevens was the one with the most famous and public gambling addiction IIRC, due to the Texas Hold'em boom quite a few years back.

Steve Davis, of course, did quite well from that boom, as you would expect <laugh> I remember watching lots of Steve Davis poker vids before youtube got heavy on poker-vid banishment:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBa7ti5nvAY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpAfRUZ2e_o

Re: Whatever Happened To

Postby Cloud Strife

LDS wrote:Matthew Stevens was the one with the most famous and public gambling addiction IIRC, due to the Texas Hold'em boom quite a few years back.

Steve Davis, of course, did quite well from that boom, as you would expect <laugh> I remember watching lots of Steve Davis poker vids before youtube got heavy on poker-vid banishment:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBa7ti5nvAY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpAfRUZ2e_o


I know Stevens won large in a poker tournament somewhere a few years back. I remember it being quite big news at the time. Did he blow it all?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/south_west/4091481.stm

Re: Whatever Happened To

Postby SnookerEd25

I think he had a rather acrimonious, and very costly, divorce.

Re: Whatever Happened To

Postby Cloud Strife

Iranu wrote:Plus a lot of that £1.6million would have been over a relatively short period and I doubt King would have been living in anticipation of falling down the rankings.

Didn’t he also have a gambling problem for a while? That probably ate into his earnings.



https://www.independent.co.uk/news/peop ... html%3famp

Re: Whatever Happened To

Postby LDS

SnookerEd25 wrote:I think he had a rather acrimonious, and very costly, divorce.


Just looking at some old The Sun articles, he was declared bankrupt & then had a divorce soon after that, though the divorce looks to be related to drinking and paranoia issues he had regarding his wife's fidelity.

Can't find anything on his gambling though, but I'm sure I remember he didn't do so well at it after that big win. Maybe I imagined it :shrug:

Re: Whatever Happened To

Postby McManusFan

I was under the impression that the players' winnings were tax free, although I may have gotten the wrong end of the stick.

Re: Whatever Happened To

Postby HappyCamper

The tax will be paid based the jurisdiction hosting the event. For UK events, the players would pay income tax to HMRC on any winnings.

Amateur players may not have to pay tax, but the way HMRC defines amateur might differ from the snooker definition.

Re: Whatever Happened To

Postby Alex0paul

Most of these guys never attempted to get back on tour via PIOS or Q School though.

I just find it fascinating that they gave it all up yet there’s guys like Pinches, Fernandez, Lawler just keep on going.

Re: Whatever Happened To

Postby Juddernaut88

Is it just me or does Cloud strife comment about Shokat Ali come across as "kind of racist" to an extent.

Re: Whatever Happened To

Postby HappyCamper

Juddernaut88 wrote:Is it just me or does Cloud strife comment about Shokat Ali come across as "kind of racist" to an extent.


You have a talent for understatement.

Re: Whatever Happened To

Postby Dan-cat

HappyCamper wrote:
Juddernaut88 wrote:Is it just me or does Cloud strife comment about Shokat Ali come across as "kind of racist" to an extent.


You have a talent for understatement.


It's a trash comment from someone who is always pushing the mods. Anything else like that Cloud it'll be a 'sorry mate'.

The posts have been deleted.

Re: Whatever Happened To

Postby SnookerFan

Alex0paul wrote:Most of these guys never attempted to get back on tour via PIOS or Q School though.

I just find it fascinating that they gave it all up yet there’s guys like Pinches, Fernandez, Lawler just keep on going.


I guess it's down to your personality type and situation.

If you're not making much money at snooker, some are more inclined to give up and try for full time, guaranteed employment. I suspect this might be more appealing to those with young families or whatever.

Others might, if they're just about scraping by on snooker and can take a part time job elsewhere might feel that's enough to cover their bills, or if they're married to somebody with a decent paid job or whatever.

Re: Whatever Happened To

Postby Dragonfly

I guess it can be expensive being a snooker pro. Lot of travelling involved, lot of hotel bills and so on. Snooker also is far removed from sports like football. In football even very mediocre players are making a fortune.

If a snooker player isn't regularly getting good results and decent pay days then the lure of regular employment and wages must start seeming very attractive. More so if he has kids. It's easy to understand how so many drop off the tour.

Re: Whatever Happened To

Postby The_Abbott

Dragonfly wrote:I guess it can be expensive being a snooker pro. Lot of travelling involved, lot of hotel bills and so on. Snooker also is far removed from sports like football. In football even very mediocre players are making a fortune.

If a snooker player isn't regularly getting good results and decent pay days then the lure of regular employment and wages must start seeming very attractive. More so if he has kids. It's easy to understand how so many drop off the tour.


Hamilton pretty much said he was skint before his German Masters win and was borrowing money from his parents. Ronnie was like "you should have told me I would have lent you a few quid" <laugh>


I mean Hamilton is probably now flush but there must be so many players desperate for wins to pay bills.

Re: Whatever Happened To

Postby Alex0paul

Whatever happened to Leon Trotsky?