Stratford snooker player Stuart Watson looking to go down in the history books at Q School
JUST like a fine wine, Stuart Watson feels like he’s getting better with age.
And next week, the 45-year-old from Stratford, who turns 46 on 29th May, is looking to go down in the history books as one of the oldest players to receive their first-ever professional tour card.
Watson has three bites at the Q School cherry to do just that, starting with the first qualifying event taking place from 16th to 21st May at the Ponds Forge International Centre in Sheffield.
If all goes wrong then, there are two further tour card qualifiers taking place from 22nd to 27th May, and 28th May to 2nd June. And to secure a tour card, all Watson must do is reach the semi-finals in any one of those competitions.
Speaking to Herald sports editor Craig Gibbons inside the quiet snooker hall at Stratford Sports Club, Watson joked that he wasn’t sure being the oldest player to secure their first professional tour card was something to celebrate.
“Hopefully I can find some form and have a good run in one of those events, but it’s not going to be easy,” he said. “All I can do is just go there, enjoy it and play my best.
“I do believe if I did get a tour card, I’d be the oldest first-time professional – I don’t know if that’s a good record to have to be honest.
“If that was to happen, though, I think it shows what can happen if you just keep going. If I did get a Tour card at the age of 46, that would be some record and I’d get some stick for that I suppose,” he joked.
Watson knows just how hard the task of becoming a professional is, and this will be his fourth attempt at Q School.
“It’s cut-throat,” he said. “There’s so much pressure in Q School and everyone is playing for their lives. I’ve not done that well in the past because I had terrible draws, it’s not that I didn’t play well, I just didn’t go far enough.
“This year I’ve got another hard draw, so hopefully I can dig through the matches this time and get a run going. It’s all about momentum. If you win a couple of matches and bed your way in, you start to feel good.”
Despite being a 45-year-old, Watson feels like he is getting better with age and puts that down to “being a lot wiser” and “not taking liberties” with the game like he did in past.
“I’d be in the club during the night, I started having a little drink and messing about and you can’t do that, you’ve got to dedicate yourself to the game,” he said.
“Snooker is one of those games where, if you cut corners, it will not work out for you. You’ve got to put the time and effort in, and that’s just like anything in life.
“It’s such a mental sport and I’m a firm believer the balls do talk. If you don’t put that time in, [the balls] will have the last laugh.
“You’ll end up getting terrible bad luck at such an important stage of a match, and that’s the ball’s way of saying ‘don’t take liberties with us’.
“I do believe I am doing better now, and I think that’s because I’ve grown up and become a lot wiser as I’ve got older. I’ve done everything back to front, but I feel like I’m getting the success now that I could have got years ago.”
From the tender age of seven it seemed as though Watson had the talent to make it as a professional. The Rednal-born snooker player first learned the game from his dad and seeing him play on a hand-crafted table made by his grandfather.
That table was then given to Watson as a Christmas Day present at the age of eight, and that’s when the snooker bug really started to hit him.
Watson soon wanted to get a taste of playing on a full-size table and that’s when he was introduced to the Hawthorns Social Club.
From that moment of entering the club, a place Watson described as “an arena”, he was hooked on the sport.
“Within a year-and-a-half I had my first century and they put a plaque on the table – I think it is still there today,” he said.
Soon starting to make a name for himself in the sport, Watson went to play at the renowned Snowhill Snooker Centre, where he started to really learn his trade. At the time Watson was playing with a cue bought from a jumble sale for 50p, so he asked his mother if she could buy him a £50 cue that was “a work of art”.
His mother, who worked in the kitchen at the club, saved up the money to purchase him the cue, but then disaster struck. One day, when Watson arrived at the club, he found the cue had been stolen and he openly admitted that led to him “going off the rails”.
“I was absolutely distraught, not just because I was playing great with that cue, but because my mom had brought it me and that was a real issue mentally for me,” he said.
“I went off the rails. I never really had anyone to look out for me or put an arm around me to say ‘don’t worry about it’. I was sort of on my own.
“If I could turn the clock back, I’d just buy a new cue, but I chose not to do that and chose to go off the rails. I spent every weekend in the Dome in Birmingham just drinking, doing drugs and womanising. I went down the wrong road and packed snooker up.”
It took eight years before Watson could even think about playing snooker again. Having undertaken a college course in Chelmlsey Wood, Watson started playing again at the age of 26, but after a couple of years of poor results, the cue was packed away again and a trip to Kavos followed.
“I was just going through a really bad time, so I decided to get out the country,” he told the Herald. “I was a good barman and I thought if I went to Kavos I’d have a really good time.
“I went over there and had two great years as a PR talking to people and getting them into restaurants etc. I think it took three years to dry out after those two seasons because all I did was drink and drink and drink.
“I came back and had a few office and warehouse jobs, but I didn’t know what I wanted to do in life. I was not bothered by snooker and not gagging to get back into it. At about 32 or 33 I had a dabble back into it, but did not enjoy it. I lost in the semi-finals of the English Amateur Championships and that’s when I said I’d never play again.”
It was only when he met his partner Mandy a few years later that he was persuaded to start playing again.
“We moved from Birmingham to Redditch when I was about 35 or 36 and I joined the local club,” he said. “I started playing for fun and gradually started enjoying it again, and started competing in a few tournaments.
“I then moved to Stratford about four years ago as I was working behind a bar here and the commuting was just ridiculous. We rented a place and I got myself a couple of part-time jobs to tick me over nicely. The rest of the time I was spending my time at the sports club practising.
“That was when I was really starting to enjoy snooker. I won a few tournaments, got to the Crucible a couple of times and that keeps your interest going.
“When you’re doing well you want to keep getting more success, and at the moment I am in a good place and still improving. As long as I believe I can improve, I’ll keep playing.”
So, does Watson regret giving up snooker all those years ago? No, he does not – and he’s a firm believer that things in life happen for a reason.
“Now I’m older, I respect the game more than I did back then,” he said. “I see it a bit different now, I think it just wasn’t the right time for me when I was a kid.
“If my cue had not been nicked then maybe I’d have made it as a professional, who knows?
“But I don’t have any regrets, it just wasn’t my time for whatever reason.
“I look back at those times and remember how good they were – I was having the time of my life.
“There were so many characters at that snooker club and they always wanted to watch me.
“Some had my back, not like a father figure, they just protected me from any wrongdoings down there.
“It’s where I learned how to play and I look back on those days fondly.”
