Gary Wilson: My snooker career almost died in a Findus frozen food factory

Updated 02/05/2019 at 18:06 GMT

World Championship long shot Gary Wilson tells Desmond Kane how he was forced to take drastic action to save his snooker career from the deep freeze.

Gary Wilson

Image credit: PA Sport

If it ain’t broke, fix it. Nick Faldo once famously scrapped his golf swing and started all over again from scratch. He didn’t need to, but felt it was the only way he could maximise his potential. It was a decision that turned the Englishman into a major golf champion as Faldo plotted his way to three Opens and three Masters titles in the 1980s and 1990s.

Despite Faldo’s fortitude in having the guts to remodel his technique, it is unlikely he would be facing life in a frozen food factory in the North East folding pancakes and making boxes if the gamble never paid off.

Wilson decided a mass overhaul of his snooker technique was required after failing to make it on the professional tour the first time around. He set out on his journey at the age of 19 in 2004, but by the end of 2006 aged 21 he had dropped off the professional tour due to a depressing sequence of reverses.

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The ardent and likeable Newcastle United fan faced life in a cul--de-sac of regret comparable to Kevin Keegan managing the Toon Army back in 1996, wondering what might have been. The man from Wallsend had hit the wall.

What followed was a six-year personal sojourn that saw Wilson work for Findus in a -18 freezer, behind the bar at his local boozer The Powder Monkey and settle into life as a taxi driver attempting to alter a cue action that failed to stand up to the strain first time around.

“I changed my game completely, completely changed my technique. I was awful, cueing miles away from the white and was twisted around a little bit,” Wilson told Eurosport. "I tried to put everything back to looking as normal as possible, trying get out of some of the bad habits I had fallen into.

“To try and get out of them as best I could. That gave me a little bit of confidence when I started doing well with the change. It felt like I’d done the right thing, and suddenly I was a better player, a different player.

Gary Wilson playing a shot at the Crucible.

Image credit: Eurosport

“I done it all myself. I spent three months solo just telling myself to get closer to the white. Put my arm straight, and get closer to the white.

“It got to the point where I couldn’t concentrate on playing, I was more focused on doing the right thing.

“Eventually it feels like a habit, but also feels like the way it should have been in the first place because I got into a bad habit and got out of it again.

“Not that I changed my game to do something unorthodox. Eventually It felt like the right thing.

I know Faldo remodelled his golf swing and Tiger Woods has also changed. There are tweaks you do which aren’t so big, but mine was a complete overhaul of everything because I couldn’t cue to the white. I think I would have always had ability, but could never play consistently to the standard I needed to become better. I probably wouldn’t have got back on tour, I was awful.

Since returning to the professional tour in 2013 at the age of 27, Wilson, now 33, has become a growing force culminating in his run to the World Championship semi-finals.

The final frame of his 10-9 win over Luca Brecel was the longest at 79 minutes 31 seconds in the modern era of the World Championship. He usurped the three-times winner Mark Selby 13-10 in the second round. Both of these victories highlight why Wilson has staying power.

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Wilson will pick up £100,000if he loses his semi-final to Judd Trump, which is a far cry from trying to make ends meet on Tyneside.

“A lot of the time the taxi driving gets mentioned, but I did other jobs. It was my mam who said I needed a full-time job really,” said Wilson.

“If you work for an agency, you can do flexible hours and can have weeks off when you are playing your tournaments.

“I thought I’ll do a full-time job like that then.

It was a nice group of people I worked with, but what a monotonous job. Just packing frozen food, and making boxes. Doing the same thing again and again. You would have pancakes coming along the line, and you’d be folding them, next fold, next fold..

“Doing that for three hours, and then have a break. It wasn’t hard work, just long days.

“It was a bit soul-destroying because I thought I was a snooker player, and I wasn’t. That’s what I always wanted to do, and was doing that until I couldn’t.

“I’m was practising to play in tournaments to get back on tour. So it was a bit devastating to know what you want to be doing, and know what you are capable of doing.

“And there is me just sitting folding pancakes, making wraps and putting boxes together.

“No disrespect to people that do that, but I’m thinking I used to be a professional snooker player. That’s always what I wanted to do, and this was a massive backward step in my own head.

“Sometime you were in minus 18 conditions. I work in the Powder Monkey pub which was hard when my mates were coming in on a Friday and Saturday night, and I’m forced to work.

“The bar work was flexible, Findus gave me time off when I needed it and with the taxi driving I was self-employed.

“I kind of accepted in my own head I wasn’t going to be a snooker player and I was in my early twenties.

“There were period when I thought I was going to give up now. I’m just happy it swung back round again.”

Wallowing in riches is not what motivates Wilson, but his love of the sport. He is a typical working class lad, he is keen to start following Newcastle on a few away days with fellow pro Elliot Slessor timer permitting, proud of his roots and grateful for the second chance that his come his way in snooker.

His attitude was summed up by his refusal to celebrate his victory over Selby, the biggest win of his career against a bloke who had bludgeoned him 10-2 in the 2015 China Open final.

He overcame Sanderson Lam, Dominic Dale and Liang Wenbo comfortably in qualifying. His world ranking of 32 will improve when he departs Sheffield.

“You can’t think this game is worth so much money, I think it is about performing the best you can," he said.

"You’ve made so many mistakes to lose so much money, you are kind of not bothered in one sense, you are just playing to play well.

"It was a battling hard game. I was delighted to win, but it was just job done. I didn’t feel the need to start pumping my fist because I didn’t think I was worthy of it.

I’m not going to be happy getting to the quarters and then just collapse, and be content with that. Not with all the hard work I’ve been putting in. I want to try to perform like I know I can, and if I can do that I know I have a chance of winning.

“I don’t go a lot on social media, but I see all the messages and I really appreciate them. I want to thank all my friends, and people supporting me.

“My local pub is the Powder Monkey, and I know they’re all supporting me."

For Wilson, this is no monkey business. He is a clear and present danger here, and he knows it.

Desmond Kane at the Crucible Theatre

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