How Alan ‘Angles’ McManus took snooker fans on a glorious trip down memory lane

Return of the Mac. 24 days in Sheffield is hardly comparable to a year in Provence, but Alan McManus has discovered more sunshine in a freezing cold Yorkshire over the past month than there will be on the Mediterranean for the rest of the year.

As some kind of green baize prospector, the personable Glaswegian also unearthed large dollops of goodwill, a level of adulation that tends to be reserved for snooker royalty.

The last time this onlooker can recall an outpouring of such unbridled joy towards a player around the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield was back in 2010 when Steve Davis, then 52, managed to piece together three sessions of granite snooker from his 1980s pomp in completing a quite astonishing 13-11 win over the then defending champion John Higgins in the last 16.

McManus, 45, was the oldest player to reach the last four of the World Championship since 52-year-old Ray Reardon lost to Davis in the 1985 semi-finals.

He won three qualifying rounds and outlasted Stephen Maguire, Ali Carter and Higgins before Ding Junhui proved a little too sharp in ending his “fairytale” with a 17-11 win in a semi-final boasting as much quality as Sheffield steel.

It is sometimes described as rolling back the years, but all McManus perfected - with three immaculate centuries in one memorable session - was what he does best since turning professional in 1990.

Rolling in the balls in his magical road trip to the World Championship semi-finals came 23 years after his last appearance at such a heady juncture. And he pulled it all off dressed up in a tartan ensemble that had you craving some shortbread, a wee half and the view of a Scottish glen. What a man.

For McManus, dedication is what he needs. This was probably every bit as impressive as winning the elite Masters event at the old Wembley Conference Centre in 1994.

"The answer to getting results is to work hard on your game," said McManus.

“Taking up snooker at my age, it isn’t going to happen. But if any good player wants to better themselves, I would say to them to work hard in practice.

“I still enjoy it, and I’ll continue to enjoy it.”

McManus is £66,000 richer for reaching the semi-finals and is back in the top 20 having enjoyed a snooker odyssey in Sheffield that involved having to find a new hotel room on the first day of the semi-final on Thursday amid the need to visit Marks and Spencer for fresh underwear.

“It’s been some good fun, I’ve had so many messages of good luck from people. It has really been great. I would have liked the fairytale to go on. It is a pity that it has ended, but I lost to a pretty bloomin good player,” said McManus.

“He hit me with some heavy guns, and he can do that.

“It is difficult to get over the disappointment of losing. I’m gutted when I lose, you always are.

“I definitely thought I missed the boat finished 14-10 behind on Friday night. It should have been 13-11.

“And possibly it could have been 12-12. He was so strong in the balls, and he deserved his victory."

Who knows? Perhaps the BBC will includes McManus in their next series of Crucible Classics that have been wheeled out at 3:55am every morning during this World Championship.

At least he is on the rise having finished 2013 ranked 52 in the world, and dropping as low as 55 during 2012.

“I’m not a guy who goes with numbers. My ranking doesn’t mean anything to me," he said. "This is day 24 in Sheffield. It has been pretty much been a month.

“When he went 5-0 up, I thought this could be a real early bath. But I still thought I could win.

“Because that’s what a snooker player thinks."

And McManus remains a dedicated professional despite dabbling with TV work. He has been seen more on TV as a pundit working for Eurosport and ITV, but is looking to take his form along with the tartan trews away from Sheffield.

“I’ll look forward to the season coming round again. I’ll have a week or two off. We will have a few games of golf on holiday in Portugal. It has been a long run lately,” said McManus.

McManus would need to return to early 1994 when he usurped Stephen Hendry 9-8 in the Masters final to have it this good, and back then he would not have appreciated his lot. Now he does.

And so do a new generation of snooker fans, who have come to appreciate just how good 'Angles' was and continues to be.