By Elliott West
“I had no qualifications, money or job prospects – that is real pressure”
Neil Robertson
Introduction
Neil Robertson is the greatest Australian export for snooker since Eddie Charlton in the 1970s. He does what it says on the tin, wins. An epic win at this year’s UK Championship after beating Judd Trump, 10-9 on the final pink, has cemented this player as one of the best players that has ever graced the green baize. Transformed from someone who wore a curly crop of hair to someone who is coiffured, suited and booted, this Australian has gone full circle on an epic journey from journeyman to champion.
The Road to Success
Neil Robertson’s story is one that would make any heart melt, an epic tale of a man who wanted to achieve his dream of becoming a professional snooker player. To achieve this, he would have to leave his home life and parents in Melbourne and travel to the United Kingdom. Robertson had already made an impression in Australia, becoming the youngest player at 14 to make a century break in an Australian ranking event. His love of the game, coming from time spent at his mother’s snooker club. However luck was not to follow this talented youth and after three failed attempts to join the professional tour, he almost called it a day when in 2003, he had to join the queue at his local job centre in Melbourne.
Regret started to seep into his conscience and Robertson began to feel that maybe his attempts to become a professional player were in vain and just a sign of his misspent youth. Neil recalls the occasion at the job centre:
“I was in the queue at the job centre. I had no other option. I didn’t have any qualifications having left school at 15”.
“I didn’t really want to do anything, and didn’t know what I was going to do. I remember being in there, and there was this guy kicking off at the counter because they weren’t going to pay him”.
“I don’t know what the system is over here, but you have to do 10 job interviews over two weeks. He was kicking off, swearing, saying f*** this, f*** that”.
“I was like: “Oh my God, is this my life ahead?” That was at the start of 2003”.
The road had to be long to produce the calibre of player that Neil became and after packing a suitcase and moving to Leicester with just a few hundred pounds in his pocket, Robertson began to feel homesick, hating the cold environment and missing his beloved Australian homeland. However it wasn’t long before the Australian was playing Jimmy White at the Masters in the Wembley Conference Centre.
Neil briefly returned to Australia after again becoming disillusioned. His parents and friends though were able to persuade him that he was making the correct career choice. In 2002, thanks to the player, Steve Mifsud, Robertson moved back to the UK and spent some time at the academy in Rushden, run by Keith Warren and players such as Peter Ebdon and a young Ding Junhui practiced. Only 21, the Australian then moved to Cambridge and rented a house with some other fellow countrymen.
Funnily enough, Cambridge was to become his permanent home and the rest of this epic soar to the top, is written in the record books. Winner of 19 ranking titles including being a Triple Crown winner, 4 non-ranking and multiple amateur titles, Robertson has made 756 centuries, four 147s, earned £5318,112 in career earnings and is currently number 2 in the World rankings. At the recent UK Championship, he also smashed Stephen Hendry’s record of 12 centuries in the UK Championship and increased it to 13.
Conclusion
The ‘Thunder from Down Under’ as he has been fondly nicknamed, has a presence that is fearless which is captured in his walk-on music. The 38 year old who plays left-handed, has a grace on the baize that combines every element of the game required and had mastered how to be attacking but also a superb safety game. A force that will dominate snooker for many years to come and one not to be reckoned with.
