Marathon night when fans lost interest in Davis; Snooker

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Date: Oct. 14, 2002
Publisher: NI Syndication Limited
Document Type: Article
Length: 696 words

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Byline: Phil Yates

Bedding down when all goes quiet on the Preston front

IF THERE is such a thing as a convention for insomniacs, Preston Guild Hall might be the ideal location. The venue has hosted snooker at its highest echelon for a quarter of a century and has witnessed some of the most thrilling moments in the sport's history. However, the LG Cup semi- final involving Alan McManus and Steve Davis that required the burning of midnight oil was not one.

"That was one of the hardest matches of my life," McManus, who eventually prevailed 6-4, said, expressing a sentiment no doubt shared by the spectator who fell asleep during an interminable eighth frame that was re-racked twice, once after 12 minutes, then again after 13, because of safety stalemates.

Davis had been anything but soporific in overcoming Jimmy White, Mark Williams and Paul Hunter on the way to his first world-ranking event semi-final since 1995, but he and McManus are renowned tactical hard men and when they lock horns, it pays not to make plans for a hasty denouement.

"Steve is like granite. You could hit him with a baseball bat and nothing would happen," McManus said. "At one point, I didn't pot a single ball for 57 minutes, but, to be honest, it felt more like 57 hours."

Maybe the poor fellow flashed all over the BBC's live late-night transmission being woken by a security team headed by Mike Ganley, the hands-on tournament director, would have welcomed such information before he had bought a ticket and elected to indulge in alcoholic refreshment.

Sheepish and, for a second or two disorientated, the man was led from his front-row seat and out of the auditorium because his snoring had reached such a level that it was shattering the concentration of McManus and Steve "Interesting" Davis.

However, our friend can draw a measure of consolation from the knowledge that he is not the first to grab a somewhat noisy forty winks at the Guild Hall when the snooker is in town.

Six years ago, as Stephen Hendry beat McManus 9-1 in the semi-finals of the United Kingdom Championship, the distinctive sound of snoring interrupted proceedings, although that was during an entertaining afternoon session and the culprit turned out to be a local publican, who went on to achieve something that the sport's finest have yet to manage: an inclusion in the pages of the Los Angeles Times.

A week or so after the event, I rang a friend in California to shoot the breeze. "Gee," he said. "That snooker of yours is something. What's this I've been reading about a guy catching a nap?" What a pity. With so many dramatic tales to relay over the years, the newspaper read by the movers and shakers in Hollywood chose to report one of the sport's farces rather than one of its epics.

With the arrival of young bucks such as Ronnie O'Sullivan, John Higgins and the like, journalists on the snooker circuit began to enjoy more rest -back in their lodgings, I hasten to add -but this week has been a throwback to the 1980s, when battle-hardened nocturnal campaigners often duelled into the small hours. Neither has the flow of the event been helped by a tightly packed schedule.

Many remember Cliff Thorburn becoming the first player to compile a 147 break at the Crucible in 1983. Less well known is that his Embassy World Championship encounter with Terry Griffiths, during which the Canadian achieved break building perfection, did not finish until 3.51am.

As Clive Everton, the BBC commentator, was walking back to his hotel for a severely truncated night's sleep after completing his other journalistic duties, he saw dawn over Sheffield. After the 1996 World Cup semi-final in Bangkok, when Ireland prevailed over England in a marathon tussle, a colleague and I trudged directly from the press room to breakfast.

Thankfully, these days such sleep deprivation exercises are a rarity, but, even so, they do not bother Davis. He was back in his role as a BBC presenter yesterday, bright as a button. McManus was right: the Nugget is like granite.

Copyright (C) The Times, 2002

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Gale Document Number: GALE|A92820560