By Elliott West
Introduction
Much has been said in recent years of what would happen if a player of the past met a current one in a match? Buried in the archives in a game that is gathering dust and has sadly been largely forgotten. In the 1992 UK Championship, the experienced Cliff Wilson was drawn in the last 32 against a young Ronnie O’Sullivan. What seemed to be at the start to be an inevitable result, took a twist that few predicted.
The Match
Cliff Wilson was a formidable Welsh player who by the time of this match, was nearing the end of his career. A Welshman who had grown up in the challenging conditions of the Welsh Valleys and a long term adversary, Ray Reardon. His opponent, Ronnie O’Sullivan, was already making an impression on the sport, displaying natural talent from an early age and was itching to lift his first major title.
However the course of events that followed proved that snooker is often unpredictable and would cause several bookmakers to run to their office and lock the door. Cliff was 58 at the time, O’Sullivan, 16 and Ronnie had odds of 1-12 laid on him to win the match before it commenced. This was a match where Wilson had nothing to lose and Ronnie everything to lose. Cliff had one key factor over his junior, experience. Wilson had been there, done that and bought the cue. Ronnie on the other had a cloud of pressure weighing over his head. He was desperate to reach a fifth round, televised meeting with Stephen Hendry. Everything seemed to be going well for O’Sullivan at the start of the match, gaining a 4-1 advantage and compiling a 145 total clearance in the fifth frame.
Cliff wasn’t prepared to roll over quite yet and after Ronnie led in the next frame 55-10, Wilson started his fightback, making a 54 break and winning the frame on the black. The Welshman smelt blood and was buoyed by the sight of beads of sweat on O’Sullivan’s brow. He later commented saying:
“He’d obviously seen me playing in the qualifiers at Blackpool. When I started to come back at him he thought: ‘The silly old ***** can play’. Then I saw him sweating”
On resumption of play, Ronnie lost the first frame but took the second with a break of 102 but by the fifteenth frame, the pendulum had swung in the opposing direction and Cliff was leading the match, 8-7. O’Sullivan pulled another frame back to take the match to a decider at 8-8. In the final frame though, Ronnie had his chances to win but let Wilson back in. Cliff led at 57-27 and potted the brown, causing O’Sullivan to concede frame and match, losing 8-9.
Conclusion
This was an epic battle of two minds but it was the learned player that won the match, mustering up all his years treading the snooker boards to get over the line. Ronnie lost because he put his cards of fear and pressure on the table and his opponent Wilson, pounced and went for the jugular. This win was definitely one for Wilson’s bulging scrapbook and even more ironic because Cliff had new glasses due to a cataract on his right eye and was taking a course of antibiotics for a mouth abscess. Wilson went on to lose 3-9 to Stephen Hendry in the last 16. Cliff joked after the match saying:
“Ronnie ought to have been 33-1 on. I haven’t won a match since the Second World War”.
