Ronnie O’Sullivan’s epic UK Championship snooker triumph was greatest British sporting achievement of year: Best of 2023

Since first punching his way to prominence as a raw 16-year-old rookie in qualifiers at the debatable Norbreck Castle Hotel in Blackpool back in 1992 – the traditional seaside home of the classic puppet show – O’Sullivan has controlled the cue ball like a puppet on a string amid his rise to becoming the snooker GOAT over the past four decades.

That’s the way to do it? Quite. And there’s no show without Punch.

O’Sullivan firmly grasped the nettle to become a trend-setting youngest and oldest wearer of the UK crown, his latest remarkable coronation staged just two days before he turned 48.

Producing a trademark sprint finish after Ding had levelled at 7-7 from 7-5 behind with a timely 104, O’Sullivan was utterly dominant with closing breaks of 100, 74 and 129 achieved amid a blizzard of breathtaking pots and serene positional sense. Ding added only 14 points in a clubbing conclusion.

For historical value, it was comparable to his frantic dash to a sixth world title in 2020 when he delivered another almost farcical punchline in the semi-finals at a Crucible Theatre deserted due to the pandemic.

TraIling old rival Mark Selby 16-14 and seemingly on the brink of certain defeat, he pieced together riotous knocks of 138, 71 and 64 to escape with a 17-16 win that scarcely seemed believable.

In his element under intense pressure, he could not have carried off the UK trophy in a more majestic style this time if he had been carted out of the York Barbican in a sedan chair.

Was this the greatest British sporting achievement of the year?

But in terms of longevity and gravity-defying feats, the moment of the year by a British sportsperson was surely brought to the masses by a vintage O’Sullivan revisiting a familiar old haunt.

For the style in which it was achieved, it is difficult to find anything superior to O’Sullivan in any sporting field when he is in the O zone, a sensation that is a naturally occurring potting phenomena comparable to the Northern Lights or the Old Faithful geyser.

Old Faithful of the green baize is a geezer waiting to explode in dashing colour when the mood takes him.

He remains compulsive viewing above and beyond anything else in Blighty when he flicks the light switch as an engrossed public suddenly discover genius can be uncorked by one bloke clutching a snooker stick.

Of course, the genie has been out of the bottle for the timeless O’Sullivan at the UK Championship since his formative years, set against the unrelenting mist of time with his victory in 1993 followed by further riches in 1997, 2001, 2007, 2014, 2017, 2018 and 2023.

It has not been all sweetness and light for the sport’s biggest draw at the UK Championship, the second most storied major ranking event on the circuit behind the World Championship.

Despite such travails on his travels between Preston, Bournemouth, York, Telford and back to York again, the UK Championship has been a suitable setting for one of the UK’s all-time sporting greats to display his attacking wares at a genuine preserve of potting folklore.

The fabled ‘People’s Champion’ Alex ‘Hurricane’ Higgins once recovered from trailing fierce foe Steve Davis 7-0 in a 16-15 win in 1983, 46-year-old Doug Mountjoy staged a glorious 16-12 victory over O’Sullivan’s fellow seven-time world champion Hendry in 1988, Hendry held off a resurgent Davis for a pivotal 16-5 triumph in 1990 and Jimmy ‘Whirlwind’ White became champion for the one and only time in 1992 with a 16-9 success against John Parrott.

At the age of 48, the six-time UK winner Davis even reached the final in 2005, but could not quite take the final step like O’Sullivan in a 10-6 defeat to the then 18-year-old Ding.

But the past informs the future, and the narrative and reputation of the tournament has been carried to new levels by O’Sullivan, who will again harbour realistic ambitions of similar record-extending eighth victories at the Masters in London and the World Championship in Sheffield in 2024.

Four of O’Sullivan seven world titles have been clinched beyond the age of 36, four of his eight UK titles beyond the age of 38 and two of his seven Masters titles secured after he turned 40.

More than half of his golden trophy collection has been lifted in the second half of his 31-year career with four Champion of Champion trophies also wheeled off in the past decade.

“I’m not really bothered about trophies,” he said in typically understated fashion in Shanghai. “I’ve sold quite a few of them – I don’t want any memorabilia left by the time I’m 70 or 80. I’m preparing for death.

“Part of that, is I don’t want no snooker stuff. Waistcoats, cues, it’s all going to go.”

He is hardly dying a slow death on the old green baize as he burst to life in the death throes of 6-5 wins over Robert Milkins and Zhou Yuelong at the UK when he refused to collapse through sheer force of will as much as natural ability.

It was one of the great philosophers of yesteryear, probably Cicero or Tony Drago, who said: “Not for us alone are we born; our country, our friends, have a share in us.”

O’Sullivan is one of the few snooker players in history who receives artistic points by the public as well as the scoreboard. He performs his sport as much as he plays it.

Humouring his own high standards is as important as entertaining vast audiences, but while he talks a good game – never short of a memorable soundbite or three seemingly since time began – he plays a better one.

When he appears in the UK or overseas, people naturally gravitate towards him because he plays snooker properly as the fastest player on the planet, and in the spirit in which it was intended to be seen as a televised spectacle way back from its orgins in the 1960s.

He continues to play a young man’s game laced with an infinitely better shot choice, but this visionary of attacking positional play in the most demanding cue sport of them all was bizarrely overlooked for a nomination for the Sports Personality of the Year award.

Not that he appears surprised by his omission in these parts.

“So if you like me, it makes me feel good, so I come and play here more. In the UK, I don’t seem to get the same support as I do here.”

A telling moment in his final win over Ding arrived in the 10th frame when he was leading 5-4, but trailing 56-2. With three reds left up, he needed only one snooker.

But he quickly surveyed the table before deciding to concede, dispensing with an attempt to try for a solitary snooker that would disturb his natural fluency in the next frame.

“I think the game needs to be entertaining, at the end of the day,” he told Eurosport. “Somebody getting snookers can be entertaining.

“But I think the bigger thing is just getting rid of really boring players that play horrible snooker, ugly snooker.”

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. World No. 16 Jack ‘Jackpot’ Lisowski looks uncannily like O’Sullivan when he is on the shot, with superior technique and cue action only part of what inspires him about playing the game.

“I just try to play attacking snooker,” said Lisowski during a recent media conference in Hong Kong. “People have to want to watch it, and it has to entertain people – no one’s going to watch people taking 30 seconds for a shot.

“Ronnie is the best ever, so you’ve got to listen to what he says. He plays the game that way, and obviously he’s the most popular player, so it works.

“If everyone played like that, I think the sport would be much bigger.”

It is a level of expectation that enables O’Sullivan to entertain the masses, citing Lionel Messi, Roger Federer and Tiger Woods as examples of how elite sportsmen and women should express themselves.

“Whether that’s football, tennis or golf, I’d like to watch Messi, Federer and Woods,” he said. “If you’re going to play golf, try to play like Tiger. You might not be as good as him, but at least try to play in an exciting way.

“When people don’t play the game the right way, it’s not good for any sport. Everyone loves Woods and Federer because of their style.

“The more people that can play like that, the better it is for people to watch.”

Like a vintage episode of The Two Ronnies over Christmas, revisiting old repeats of classic Ronnie O’Sullivan is something that the British public will never tire of watching.

He ends 2023 on 1,230 centuries and counting as the game’s world No. 1 and the undisputed number one crowd-pleaser, a role in which he revels as much as Michael Jordan, Muhammad Ali or Usain Bolt.

In elite sports, he is as good as it gets.

• 1993 Ronnie O’Sullivan 10-6 Stephen Hendry
• 1997 Ronnie O’Sullivan 10-6 Stephen Hendry
• 2001 Ronnie O’Sullivan 10-1 Ken Doherty
• 2007 Ronnie O’Sullivan 10-2 Stephen Maguire
• 2014 Ronnie O’Sullivan 10-9 Judd Trump
• 2017 Ronnie O’Sullivan 10-5 Shaun Murphy
• 2018 Ronnie O’Sullivan 10-6 Mark Allen
• 2023 Ronnie O’Sullivan 10-7 Ding Junhui