Opinion: Why Kyren Wilson is the ordinary hero we need in snooker and in the world of sport
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Updated 31/10/2022 at 11:44 GMT
Most players do not possess the unique charisma of Ronnie O’Sullivan or the dashing brilliance of Judd Trump, but snooker doesn’t do enough to celebrate its ordinary heroes, writes Dave Hendon. In a sporting world awash with money and hype, there is something reassuringly great about the simple joys Kyren Wilson demonstrates from his family life away from the snooker table.
Kyren Wilson: I always fancy myself at every tournament
It is a measure of Kyren Wilson’s priorities that the first thing he did after winning the European Masters in August was to reach for a Lego toy given to him by his son. Holding it up to the camera for his family watching at home, it was recognition that there is a bigger picture than who potted the most snooker balls during the week.
In an age in which image is carefully crafted, Wilson’s charm comes from his ordinariness. He’s a friendly, down-to-earth character from a regular background. Blessed with a fierce determination, he has worked hard to haul himself out of the journeyman ranks and become a top player. He is a fine example of how sheer effort can transform someone from contender to winner.
So can he now land one of the game’s leading prizes? He has won five ranking titles and been runner-up in the World Championship and the Masters but is yet to get his hands on the sport’s most glittering prizes.
The prestigious Champion of Champions, which gets underway today, is the perfect opportunity to prove once and for all that he belongs with the other big beasts of the snooker jungle.
Wilson’s school was remarkably understanding about his ambitions, giving him Fridays off to practise at a snooker academy. He had early mentoring from Peter Ebdon, the 2002 world champion renowned for his iron focus and will to win.
Wilson first turned professional in 2010 but dropped off after his first year, having failed to get past the last 32 of any event. He spent two years working behind the bar in his local snooker club, seeing a little more of regular life and resolving to come back stronger, which he did by qualifying for the final stages of the World Championship when he re-joined the tour in the 2013/14 season.
Most great champions have been single-minded and, by their own admission, selfish. They have chased glory for its own sake and a sense of personal satisfaction. Wilson is different in that everything he does is motivated by family.
His father, Rob, has multiple sclerosis. On Wilson’s 18th birthday he did a skydive to raise money for an MS charity. He almost withdrew from the 2015 Shanghai Masters as it was his dad’s 50th birthday, with a celebration party taking place in Spain. It proved a good decision to go to China and play: he won the tournament, beating Ding Junhui, Mark Allen and then Judd Trump to land his first title.
Wilson and his wife, Sophie, have two sons, Finley and Bailie, who form a clear motivating force to do as well as he can. The reality of the circuit is that sacrifices have to be made, be it missed birthday parties or weekends when dad is away playing snooker. This is tough on Wilson but another reason he puts everything into every performance.
“I want my two boys to grow up and be able to say, ‘my dad was more than a decent snooker player’,” he once said. This, more than any comparison with other players, is what drives him on.
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‘We're going to play every single event in Germany' - Wilson after winning European Masters
And driven he is. When Wilson lost in the World Championship quarter-finals in 2016 a journalist congratulated him on a good tournament. Wilson responded that it hadn’t been a good tournament as he hadn’t won it.
This refusal to accept second best is precisely why he continued to improve. On his next five Crucible appearances, he reached two more quarter-finals, two semis and, in 2020, the final.
In fact, he won one of the most memorable matches in recent times by securing an extraordinary semi-final decider full of twists, turns and mishaps against Anthony McGill, in the eerie silence of a Crucible bereft of a live audience due to Covid restrictions. He competed well with Ronnie O’Sullivan on the first day of the final, rallying from 8-2 adrift to trail only 9-7, but lost a crunch last frame on the black.
From 10-7 down overnight, he fell away on day two, winning only one further frame to be beaten 18-8. The following season he won the Championship League to take his ranking title tally to four and, after some near misses in other events, he won a fifth recently at the European Masters in Germany.
Criticism is inevitable in sport, but Wilson has managed to tune into listening to those whose opinions might help. When TV pundits suggested his cue ball was too loose, affecting break building, he made a conscious effort to tighten up. He has made 263 of his 342 career centuries since the start of the 2017/18 season.
Off the table, his brother, Taylor, a personal trainer, has helped with fitness and nutrition. Last season, Wilson was unhappy with his cue so made a change. Any marginal gain, any tweak or improvement, is enthusiastically embraced.
Wilson has the confidence to state his case, as we saw last season when he complained vocally that he wasn’t being given enough time on the main TV table.
He had a memorable spat with Trump after the Champion of Champions four years ago when he spent the interval of their match on the practice table and suggested he had “wanted it more". Trump responded that, with Wilson’s cue action, he needed the practice.
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'Stunning pot' - Wilson closes in on European Masters title
Snooker needs more beef because it drives headlines. Alas, this one fizzled out after they went to Germany for an exhibition and found that they actually got on.
However, their rivalry remains intriguing. Trump has flair while Wilson is dogged. Trump’s Instagram sees him hanging out with footballers in Mykonos while Wilson’s pictures him hosting family parties. In all matches played, their head-to-head favours Trump only just, 15 wins to 12.
In sport, you can’t escape comparisons. O’Sullivan was 17 when he won his first ranking title. Stephen Hendry and Ding were 18, John Higgins 19, Mark Williams 20 and Trump 21. Wilson was 24, the same age as Neil Robertson and Mark Selby when they picked up their maiden ranking crowns.
He is younger than all of the players listed here but will probably have to beat a number of them if he is to win a big tournament.
Most players do not possess the unique charisma of O’Sullivan or the dashing brilliance of Trump. But snooker doesn’t do enough to celebrate its ordinary heroes. In many ways, it’s one of the sport’s great appeals, the sense that even the very best players on the planet are connected to the same world as those watching.
Finley and Bailie should know that their dad is already more than a decent snooker player. The question now is whether he can become a truly great one. At 30, time is still on his side but he knows he will have to start winning the game’s major titles to ascend to a higher sporting plain.
But that’s for history to judge. In the here and now, nothing gives Kyren Wilson more pleasure than walking through the front door with a trophy in his hand to share the joy with his family. In a sporting world awash with money and hype, there is something reassuringly great about that.
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