Chris Wakelin’s snooker Shoot Out win a fitting triumph after unconventional route to glory

Chris Wakelin is no stranger to the unconventional. He turned professional in 2013 after his opponent in the final round of Q School, Adam Wicheard, somehow snapped his cue in half by leaning on it, leading to his premature concession.

Now, Wakelin has won snooker’s most unconventional event, the high-octane Shoot Out. He kept his head while those around him were losing theirs amid the mayhem at Leicester’s Morningside Arena and put together the highest break of the whole tournament, 119, to win the final against Julien Leclercq.

It was worth an immediate £55,000 to a player who had only earned £14,500 all season. Potential spin-offs include places in the Players Championship and Champion of Champions where he would be guaranteed at least another £22,500. Most satisfying is to finally land a trophy.

Wakelin typifies the way the World Snooker Tour has changed. He went to the Shoot Out as world no.47. There was a time when that meant journeyman, making up the numbers, but those days are long gone. The increased strength in depth running through the game now means that the middle ranking players are serious talents.

In his early years he supplemented his meagre snooker earnings by driving a supermarket delivery van. He struggled on his debut season a decade ago, winning just a handful of matches, but gradually began to make steady progress, qualifying for the World Championship in 2018 where he took Judd Trump to a decider.

Last season he made two total clearances in whitewashing Stephen Hendry at the English Open, but he had reached just one ranking event quarter-final before last week.

Snooker is an intense, mentally demanding sport and it was grinding Wakelin down. He found an unlikely release when he learned ballroom dancing for a charity event in aid of Zoe’s Place, a hospice supporting babies suffering from life-limiting conditions.

Out of his comfort zone, he had some fun and gained perspective on life beyond the baize. In the build-up to the Shoot Out, his form had turned around. He has qualified for this week’s German Masters and the forthcoming Welsh Open and Six Reds World Championship.

There is a lottery element to the Shoot Out but you have to think quick and play smart, and Wakelin ticked these boxes in every match he played. This is a breakthrough moment for a well regarded player who had maybe lacked confidence in the past. With some financial security achieved through landing his first trophy he now has every chance to push on and ensure this isn’t a one-off.

The Shoot Out was another fun four days, enlivened by Thai maverick Dechawat Poomjaeng, who had the crowd in the palm of his hands. His mix of deadpan and theatrics made him into a cult hero, and he also found time amid the antics to play well enough to reach the last 16.

There were firstround wins for two 14 year-olds – Riley Powell, who beat Kyren Wilson, and Moldovan Vladislav Gradinari. Leclercq, a first-season professional from Belgium, demonstrated bags of promise and the whole event had a festival atmosphere, presenting the sport in a more relaxed light.

However, many players departed Leicester with very little snooker left to play this season. News came early in the week that the Turkish Masters, announced last year as a five-year deal, has been cancelled after only one staging of the event.

The Gibraltar Open, traditionally scheduled for March, is also missing from a calendar already severely affected by the lack of Chinese tournaments due to the ramifications of the Covid pandemic.

WST have responded swiftly by announcing a new event, the Classic, in March but players outside of the elite band, with bills to pay and little competitive action on the horizon, are becoming understandably anxious.

This is a moment of turbulence for the sport, but suggestions that snooker is in serious trouble are way off the mark. The circuit is underpinned by long-term broadcast contracts which provide guaranteed revenue, supplemented by money from ticket sales, sponsorship and live streaming.

This sound business base is what allowed WST to run events during the Covid lockdowns behind closed doors, which meant players could keep earning through the most difficult of times.

New events do not fall out of the air. They take careful planning and a considerable budget. The world economy is not favourable to expansion at the current time.

Players are entitled to ask, though, what became of the various outposts snooker has dipped its toe into without getting fully wet. Tournaments have come and gone in Australia, India, Romania, Bulgaria, Latvia and Austria over the last decade. Interest was built up in these areas before the caravan left town, never to be seen again.

The circuit came to be concentrated largely in the UK and China, but only one of these markets is currently viable, hence fewer events overall.

There is still Germany, a hotbed of support, which hosts the next event on the schedule this week. The German Masters at the Tempodrom is a high point of the snooker year with large enthusiastic crowds creating a uniquely warm atmosphere.

The loyal fans will flock to Berlin but they won’t be seeing many of the game’s best known faces. There were two qualifying rounds in November sandwiched between other events which saw the exit of Judd Trump, Mark Selby, Mark Williams, Mark Allen, John Higgins and several other established names. Ronnie O’Sullivan withdrew. Last year’s finalists Zhao Xintong and Yan Bingtao are suspended.

Neil Robertson, Kyren Wilson and Ali Carter, all former winners, have qualified, as has the evergreen Jimmy White, but there is already talk that the format will be changed next year so that the top 16 are guaranteed to be at the venue.

There is a conflict between the notion of a level playing field and what is commercially best for the promoters and the sport itself. The star names drive the interest and add prestige, but a credible circuit needs a variety of players, all given opportunities to climb the ladder.

Limiting that opportunity will see snooker turn stale. As we saw in Leicester, new faces create excitement and suggest that the future will be in safe hands. So although the line-up this week is somewhat unfamiliar, it is a golden chance for these players to shine.

Chris Wakelin will be in Berlin. He is proof that one good week can have a transformative effect. “It’s a very surreal moment, something I have always dreamed of,” he said after his Shoot Out success.

These dreams are what sustain players, even in their darkest moments, even when the sport itself is facing difficult challenges.

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