Pro Snooker Blog

The UK Championship marked the halfway point of the season for all of the tour players and unfortunately for Preston’s Stuart Pettman it was to end in a 9-5 last 64 defeat to Tom Ford. Click below to read the latest instalment from his upcoming book in which he tells the story of the match from his point of view.

Again, all feedback would be appreciated either by way of a comment or if you have a more specific question for Stuart, by way of email to pettman142@gmail.com

I’ve often said that the most annoying thing in snooker is having plenty of chances to win a match but playing so badly you can’t manage to take any of them. If you’ve just spent the last six weeks preparing for that match then the frustration is doubled, so I had every sympathy for Chris when he came back from the UK qualifiers having blown his match against Thepchaiya Un-Nooh by nine frames to three. As Chris himself is fond of saying, it doesn’t matter how well you’re playing in practice; all that matters is what happens when you put the bow tie on. After the latest setback he probably didn’t feel like saying anything much at all. He’d been 7-1 down after the opening session with the highest break being Thepchaiya’s 39. Chris reckoned he’d had at least three or four chances a frame and squandered the lot. He’s so much better than that, but with all the pressure to win and give himself a chance to stay on tour he’d had one of those days where he couldn’t buy a frame.

Tom Ford

I went into my game with Tom Ford a couple of days later feeling as well prepared as I ever have. Tom wouldn’t have been my preferred choice of opponent to come through the second round to face me simply because he scores so heavily when he’s playing well, but I wasn’t overly apprehensive. When he’s hot he’s definitely got a chance against anybody, but I suppose on the other hand, a ranking outside the top 48 tells you that he also has a fair few matches when he’s closer to lukewarm. This time he played like God, though admittedly not right from the start. God has a lot more experience and would never have let me open up an early lead but from then onwards I think the comparison bears scrutiny. From 4-2 down he gave me exactly two chances in the next eight frames and ended up battering me 9-5, so forget everything I said about the worst way to lose being to throw away countless opportunities. It is far, far better to have tried and missed than never to have had a shot at all. By the end I was b***** annoyed.

Obviously I wouldn’t say that if I’d been invited to a press conference immediately afterwards. They don’t have press conferences in the qualifiers and certainly not for the losers, but even when there are a few reporters around, many snooker interviews tend to be conducted along the lines of “don’t ask, don’t tell.”

“How did you play today?”

“Not too bad. Nice to win a few frames in one visit.”

“What are your thoughts on the next round?”

“He’s a good player. I’ll have to play well.”

“What are you going to do now?”

“I’m off to see a man about a dog.”

It’s not entirely the players’ fault. Sometimes you just need a more rigorous line of questioning to draw out the real insights. The interrogation I got from the elderly members when I was back at work at the Elite the next morning was far more perceptive, albeit badly timed.

“Ey oop Stuart. ‘Ow come you got beat? I thought you were meant to be playing well.”

There’s an open-ended question, and if he’d asked me a couple of weeks later once I’d calmed down I would probably have explained it something like this: Tom’s long game, break building and safety were superb. In the opening session, however, there was initially no sign of what he was about to do. I’d made 60 and 48 to go 2-0 up, and although he stole the third by fluking the last red when I had him snookered, I still got to the interval with a 3-1 lead. When I knocked in a 74 to go 4-2 in front, all was well with the world. I had that calm inner certainty that stems from having no doubt in my mind that if a chance came my way to put points on the board, I would take it. Of course it’s important not to start thinking too far ahead and just to focus on winning each frame as it comes, but the last two frames before lunch were clearly going to define the way I felt the session had gone overall so I was keenly aware that merely sharing them would mean I’d be coming back for the second session with a lead.

The scene of the crime at Pontin’s

I think the frame scores illustrate subsequent events quite well.

4 Pettman 0 – 73 (73) Ford 3

4 Pettman 4 – 79 (70) Ford 4

Same pattern for both frames: long red followed by a frame-winning break. Tom is such an aggressive player when he gets a chance. If he’s got five loose reds and another five in a bunch, he won’t be content just to pick off the loose ones. He’d be straight into the pack, splitting everything wide open at the first opportunity. Constantly looking to develop the balls like that is one of the reasons he scores so well. Even so, 4-4 might have been disappointing but it wasn’t a disaster, and I was also rather hoping that perhaps the break between sessions might take the wind out of his sails. Sadly it didn’t.

4 Pettman 32 – 82 (54) Ford 5

4 Pettman 0 – 74 (73) Ford 6

4 Pettman 0 – 143 (143) Ford 7

That was where the frustration started to take hold. One chance, one inevitable kick. With absolutely no hard statistical data to back me up I’ll state now that you always get kicks at precisely the wrong moment. In this case Tom was already on a bit of a roll, and the only way I could arrest the slide was to score a few points of my own. I knew how important it was, I had a chance to do it, but ended up back in my chair, still on the slide, through no fault of my own. I know exactly how Wile E. Coyote feels in the cartoons when he’s falling from a cliff and he suddenly sees a branch sticking out about halfway down. He grabs it with a great sigh of relief, whereupon it promptly snaps… Unfortunately there weren’t any branches at all to grab in the next two frames. It was straight down all the way.

And again from another angle

5 Pettman 69 – 48 (48) Ford 7

Finally he missed one. When your opponent’s at the table you’re usually watching him very closely. At this level it’s a surprise if anybody actually misses a straightforward pot, so the main hope from your chair is that he might lose control of the white. You’re always looking at the position of the balls to see which ones might cause problems. You’d hope he might miss the one along the cushion, or be unable to get a decent split on the three reds by the pink. You’re always looking at his facial expressions and body language for clues as to whether he might not have the angle he needs on a particular shot or if one ball might not pass another to the pocket. Up to and including frame ball you’re practically playing the break with him. After the point of no return you can mentally switch to the next frame. This time I got to the table before the frame was out of reach, and duly managed to haul myself back to 7-5. Going into the interval at 8-4 would have been tough, but 7-5 at least kept me in the match. It’s not that hard to rattle off three or four frames if the openings come. I still felt confident enough in my own game, though I was wondering if the openings ever would come.

5 Pettman 1 – 108 (102) Ford 8

5 Pettman 33 – 72 (64) Ford 9

Another long red and frame winning break. Normal service resumed. He was in first in what turned out to be the last frame too, but twitched on 64. My response came to naught, however, when I opted to take on a tricky red with the rest on the grounds that in order to clear up and win I’d have to take it at some stage. I missed; he didn’t; end of my involvement.

I said earlier that the frame scores show what happened quite clearly, but there is one story they didn’t tell. Tom’s safety play in the initial exchanges of each frame was outstanding. Brilliantly as he played once he was in the balls, it was the way he created those openings that made the difference. At the start of a frame when the norm is to clip the reds and bring the white back to baulk, I will always try to play with top and side in order to use the side cushions so the white will follow a path across the table rather than straight up and down. It’s easier to play than describe, but try to imagine the white going up the table to the reds, clipping a red, coming off the top and side cushions, passing between blue and pink, hitting the opposite side cushion near the baulk line and finally coming to rest on the baulk cushion. Playing it this way has two big advantages: you have a greater margin for error with the pace of the shot because you’re approaching the baulk cushion at an angle rather than head-on, and there’s no chance of hitting one of the baulk colours.

Prestatyn, Wales

All too often though, Tom didn’t let me play it that way. He was leaving the white tight on the cushion and you simply can’t play the shot with side from that position because it’s too difficult to control. The less risky option is to play plain ball, catch the reds thin and bring the white straight back down the table, but that gives you a far greater chance of inadvertently hitting yellow, green or brown. When that happens there’s a strong possibility you’ll leave your opponent a clear shot at a red. More than likely he’ll be able to get his hand on the table too, making the pot even more comfortable. By consistently getting the upper hand in the safety department, Tom not only gave himself chances to score heavily, but kept me out of the game for long stretches despite the fact that I was playing very well.