The Welsh Wizard

-
Darren Morgan is one of the greatest players that Wales has produced. I remember him from my early days of watching snooker and he was and still is a formidable force. I am lucky in my time as a snooker follower and blogger to have made friends with Darren and he has been very helpful and supportive with research, giving me a Q&A and spending some time with him when I recently went to the Welsh Open in Cardiff. I digress, hailing from Newport in South Wales, Morgan took to snooker early in life and it wasn’t long before he was an amateur champion, winning the World Amateur Championship in 1987. The subsequent year he turned professional and then followed a long professional playing career, running from 1998-2007. Darren never won a major title but did amass just over a million pounds in prize money, reached a high ranking of eight and was ranked in the top 16 for six years. He also compiled 111 century breaks in his career.

However there was success on the baize, beating Steve Davis in 1996 to win the Irish Masters, 9-8 and he captained Wales to victory in the 1999 Nations Cup. At the World Championship, his best effort was in 1994 when he made the semi-finals, beating Mark King 10-5, Willie Thorne 13-12 and John Parrott 13-11 before losing to Jimmy White 9-16. Morgan went to reach three quarter finals at the event.

Since retiring from the professional circuit, Darren continues to be successful on the amateur and pro-am circuits picking up more trophies than hot dinners.winning the European Masters and World Masters Championship in 2007, the TCC Pro-AM in 2009, beating Mark Williams, 7-4, won the IBSF World Snooker Championship for the second time in 2009, the Sky Seniors tournament in 2011 and even got to the semi-final stage of the Riga Masters in 2016 as a wildcard before being whitewashed by Neil Robertson.

Now with a new wind in his Welsh sails, Darren gets to compete in the World Seniors event at the Crucible in August thanks to him claiming glory in the 2019 European Masters Snooker Championship. Fans young and old will get to see this fabulous player once again in front of a capacity crowd. Morgan is one of my favourite players not just because of my Welsh blood but the fact that he has always been a joy to watch. Despite not being a professional for some years, he still competes to a high standard, mainly because he still keeps his hand in and collects silverware as an amateur. Darren is just a pleasure to know and I wish him all the best in Sheffield and for his bright future.



https://youtu.be/Akv2u6Qz3gA


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Which way, left or right?

-
Image
One of the greatest spats that occurred in snooker history was between my friend Alain Robidoux and Ronnie O’Sullivan. It occurred in 1996 at the World Championship. Ronnie, a then young whipper snapper at 19, trounced Alain in the match, winning 10-3. However beyond the win, a spat occurred when Ronnie decided to take a number of shots left handed. Robidoux criticised O’Sullivan after the match for being “disrespectful”. Ronnie hit back at Alain saying “if he wants to act like a baby that’s up to him” adding “ the crowd enjoyed it, that’s the main thing”. This was probably the first time that a player had dared to take multiple shots left handed and led to players attempting the same feat. Perhaps this wouldn’t have been become a regular occurrence if this hadn’t of happened. This snooker bust up led to Alain refusing to shake Ronnie’s hand at the end of the match. Robidoux later explained his actions saying “Ronnie was being disrespectful to his fellow professionals and should sa
Read more

Place your bets

-
Image
Match fixing in snooker has unfortunately been in operation since the very early days of the game with reports of Joe Davis having "carried" weaker opponents in multi-session matches to maximise the gate revenue. This trait continued through the history of the sport with players such as Willie Thorne and Alex Higgins claiming they were offered large sums of money to lose matches. Players may not enter a match fixing agreement on their own free will, being subject to threats of violence if they fail to submit. The lucrative criminal act is largely based in the Far East where gangs devise money making scams in various sports, using their players to infiltrate the individual sport and extract multimillion currency earnings. Although this happens, World Snooker has been very vigilant to attempt to stamp out this criminal activity in recent years. The main punishment being heavy fines or bans from the game. Recognisable figures such as Quentin Hann, Stephen Lee and Joe Joggi
Read more

The Ooty Club, birthplace of snooker

-
Image
Snooker was first born millions of miles away from the UK in a small town in the Nilgiri hills of Southern India. Recently Dennis Taylor went to this club and played on the first ever table produced. The Ooty Colonial Club was set up amongst 65 hill stations for the British army. Built by Sir William Rumbold In 1836, the club was built in a colonial style  and houses a bar and billiard room. A relic of the Raj period, the mixed bar still has a strict dress code and is set in a building and surrounding area that could be produced by bursting a time bubble and even has the original ball room. Inside the Billiards Room, stands the first ever snooker table made. A rare antique that is still playable and reminds us how old the game and how far it has travelled
Read more