Ronnie O'Sullivan recalls 'worst defeat' at UK Championship snooker in debut nightmare – 'That match was incredible'

ByEurosport

Published 24/11/2023 at 09:51 GMT

Ronnie O'Sullivan became the youngest winner of the UK Championship when he defeated Stephen Hendry 10-6 at the age of 17 years and 358 days in 1993. He could become the oldest winner of the event if he claims the trophy for an eighth time next month, but what happened on his UK debut campaign a year earlier? The snooker GOAT takes a trip down memory to recall an epic battle with Cliff Wilson.

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Ronnie O'Sullivan only faced Cliff Wilson once on the professional circuit, but their UK Championship bout in 1992 remains a vivid and somewhat vexed memory for the seven-time world champion.

Blighted by health problems, Wilson sadly died in May 1994, less than six months after the celebrated maverick Welsh potter recorded a century break at the International Open.

O’Sullivan was only 16 when he came across the 58-year-old Wilson – the six-time world champion Ray Reardon’s old chum and cue ball adversary from the Welsh mining town of Tredegar – in the last 32 of the 1992 UK Championship, a tournament won by Jimmy 'Whirlwind' White with a 16-9 win over John Parrott.

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At stake for Rocket Ronnie in his rookie season was a live TV match with Stephen Hendry in the last 16 only a year before he became the youngest ranking event winner in history with a 10-6 win over the all-conquering Scotsman in the landmark 1993 final.

Despite suffering from ill health and poor eyesight that blighted his life and times and fighting the ravages of time in the death throes of his career, Wilson remained an explosive, instinctive potter.

Armed with a packet of smokes and a natural attacking flair, Wilson's idea of a safety shot was to pot your way out of trouble.

Cliff Wilson at the 1988 World Championship.

Image credit: Eurosport

The former world amateur champion – he claimed that prize with an 11-5 win over 1986 world champion Joe Johnson in 1978 before turning professional a year later – recovered from trailing 4-1 to complete a rousing 9-8 win at the Guild Hall in Preston.

Set against the backdrop of his father being handed a life sentence for murder in 1992, it was a defeat that took on greater meaning.

“That Cliff Wilson match was incredible. He did pot some balls though, I'll give him that,” O’Sullivan told Eurosport.

"I made a couple of centuries, but I remember feeling so disappointed when I lost that match. It was a tough one to take, but I remember that very well.

“That was a tough one. It was my first UK Championship, and I remember not taking that loss very well.

“I knew if I won that match I was going to play Hendry on TV, and that was all I dreamed of doing.

“To play Hendry on TV at that age would have been my dream, so that was obviously disappointing and I think also because my dad just went away at the time.

"I was finding that hard to come to terms with.

“Every time I lost, I felt like he may have thought he was to blame for me not doing well, so that was kind of a lot to take on at the time.”

O’Sullivan – who had defeated Alain Robidoux 9-7 in the previous round – enjoyed knocks of 145, 102, 74, 66 and 55, but lost a final-frame decider to Wilson, who rolled in three 54 breaks of his own.

It was part of a steep learning curve for O'Sullivan that would see him become the most prolific UK winner in history with victories in 1993, 1997, 2001, 2007, 2014, 2017 and 2018.

“One of my highlights is obviously the first one I won which was amazing. Incredible feelings when you win your first ranking event in the UK and beating Hendry to achieve that," said O'Sullivan, who faces Anthony McGill in his tournament opener on Tuesday afternoon live on Eurosport and discovery+.

“I also think the last one I won in York where I beat Mark Allen in the final in 2018. That was epic to beat Hendry’s 18 majors and to do it in such style.

"You know I think I played good from start to finish, so that was a really top moment for me in my career.

“Losing to Cliff Wilson was probably my worst defeat at the UK.”

Snooker historian and commentator Clive Everton once described Wilson as a “greater talent” than six-time world champion Reardon and compared their exhibition bouts back in the Valleys to snooker “bare-knuckle” battles.

O’Sullivan doubts whether he had the staying power to rival his former mentor Reardon.

Wilson lifted the Welsh Amateur Championship in 1956, 1977 and 1978, but worked in the steelworks at Llanwern until he turned professional at the age of 45. He was once coached by the great Joe Davis, but probably played snooker in the wrong era.

Ray Reardon inspired Ronnie O'Sullivan to the 2004 world title

Image credit: Getty Images

“I just don't think he was as obviously dedicated or professional as someone like Reardon," explained O’Sullivan. "Reardon treated it like a job. His passion and his heart were in it.

“I think Cliff Wilson used to make sure he was in the top 16 and then once he made sure he was in the top 16, he’d go and live in Spain for the next six months.

“It was just like a means to an end to him. No matter how much ability you have got, if you don't put the work in you can only go so far.

"He obviously had a lot of talent which I get. If he had applied himself he could have possibly been as good as Reardon, but to say he was better than Reardon is a tough one to say you know. Reardon was special.

“But he was a good old boy. Tough old Welshman.”