By Elliott West
“There was a two or three year spell where I just didn’t feel like practicing and I was too busy going down the pub with my mates.”
Jordan Brown
Introduction
The biggest shock win this season has to be Jordan Brown winning the Welsh Open back in February., the lowest ranking player to win a ranking title in 28 years. This is the classic story of someone who had gone from rags to riches, having to financially support himself by working long hours in a local Northern Irish petrol station, Islandbawn filling station to be precise, for three years and virtually had given up on winning anything in snooker.
Ranked 81 at the time and with odds of 750-1, no one thought or even envisaged that this 33 year could even get close to holding the Ray Reardon trophy at Celtic Manor but away from the glare of the media spotlight, Jordan was putting in the hours of practice, playing alongside his friend Mark Allen in Antrim.
The Great Leap
Perhaps the basis for this seismic win lies in the fact that Jordan mirror had literally looked in the mirror and realised that he only had potentially one more crack at his aim of winning a professional title. Brown freely admits that he was spending far too much time in the pub rather than on the practice table and this had to be stamped out to have any chance of making his dream a reality.
Coming into this tournament, Jordan had shown only a flicker of form, reaching the quarter-finals of the German Masters, losing 5-1 to Barry Hawkins after a 5-2 win over Graeme Dott and a closer 5-4 victory against Jamie O’Neill. A good progression but certainly not one that got him noticed widely at the time. In fact, the player whose nickname is the ‘Antrim Ferrari’, still was of the impression at the time, that he would be taking payment for someone filling up their Ferrari with petrol for many years to come rather than be able to afford to buy and drive one.
Following in the footsteps of his snooker idols, fellow countrymen Alex Higgins and Dennis Taylor, Brown was definitely the classic snooker underdog when he entered the Welsh Open. It was a tournament where all his dreams could be smashed or made in an instant, leaving with nothing or potentially his biggest career cheque. This potential victory could bring his childhood dream to life.
Placed in section 4 of the draw, Jordan Brown dispatched China’s Luo Honghao comfortably in the last 128 stages 4-0 and followed this decisive victory with closer wins against Sam Craigie 4-3 in the last 64 and Alexander Ursenbacher by the same scoreline in the last 32 and again against Mark King in the last 16. The stage was now set and Brown had to set his ambitions higher than the quarter-finals. Although to achieve this goal he had to get past the granite Mark Selby.
Like all victory paths, the potential victor has to dig deeper than his opponent and if Brown’s hole was made a reality, the pile of the earth under this Celtic Manor table would have been enough to engulf the arena with a tunnel that led back to Antrim. Every match going forward was close and went down to the wire. Jordan took out Mark Selby 5-4, Stephen Maguire 6-4 and set up a mouthwatering final with the firm. favourite, Ronnie O’Sullivan in the final.
The Final
This was a final where both players threw their entire repertoire at the match and produced a thrilling final as a result. This was a match of the protagonist against a multiple champion. Who would have thought that this final would have gone to a deciding frame? Well, it did and at the time Ronnie seemed to be prone to not having that last gallon of petrol to cross the winning line.
Jordan smelt blood and seized his opportunity, casting to the back of his mind the 119 clearance that Ronnie had made in the penultimate frame to set up this decider, Brown took his early chance and produced a frame of snooker that left his opponent out and on the ropes with a final frame score of 74-1. A helpless O’Sullivan became a respectful loser against this cool customer from Antrim who made a victory fist when potting a black in his winning break.
On Jordan’s face was etched years of struggle that were instantly flushed away with this victory. His win was greeted with a broad smile from his opponent because he knew how much this win meant to him and as Jordan returned to his chair, exhausted but elated, he was accompanied by not only the applause of the audience but also that of Ronnie O’Sullivan. History was made in this absolute snooker thriller!
