By Elliott West
“It’s unreal, really, because you have to play well to beat someone like Shaun or play fairly decent and I think I did in the end.”
Robert Milkins
Introduction
Snooker is a game that has plenty of highs and lows, one player who can bear witness to that is Robert Milkins. At 46 and a professional since 1995, the man they call ‘The Milkman’ is someone who has a divine game when he plays well but due to the nature of his fast play and quickness of shot choices, can be known to have lapses of concentration and miss the odd easy ball. Rob has had to be patient and endure of playing on the back tables away from the television lights and turn up for the numerous qualifiers that unlock the door of the first round of a tournament.
Sometimes you have to play the waiting game in snooker, a long road that has large bumps in it. However, we all know how good a player Robert Milkins is. He had his highest ranking of 12th in 2014 and has hovered around the top 32 for 20 years. He also has the brilliant coach, Paul Mount in his corner. The long-term owner of the South West Snooker Academy in Gloucester has long been in Rob’s corner and been a tower of support through the rough and the smooth. A necessity when Milkins was having some problems in his private life. Paul knows the game inside out, having been an amateur player prior to becoming a coach. Even a mild stroke in 2011, couldn’t stop his passion to help others.
The Road to Success
Perhaps the first glimmer of success for Robert Milkins, was when he won the Pink Ribbon Pro-Am in 2019, a competition with 255 players and a top prize of £9,000 to the winner. An event that was very close to his heart as it was held at the South West Snooker Academy and Paul Mount presented him with the trophy. This followed runner-up spots at the 2011 Snooker Shootout and the 2014 Ruhr Open. So the signs were already there for a possible ranking trophy. Perhaps the wake-up call for Rob was when got drunk at a players’ party at last year’s Turkish Masters. A situation that led to a visit to a Turkish hospital and a fine from the WPBSA for his actions.
Whatever the reasons for this scene and to be honest it is no one’s business what was going on in Milkins’ private life to cause this, it flicked a switch and caused Rob to knuckle down. The result was that he won probably the last Gibraltar Open in 2022. A 4-2 win in the final against Kyren Wilson, led to his first ranking title and a cheque for £50,000. Rob had an impressive run in this tournament, beating Lei Peifan 4-0, Jamie Wilson 4-1, Mark Allen 4-3, Lyu Haotian 4-2, Ben Hancorn 4-2 and Jak Jones 4-2. This was the stepping stone that the man from Bedminster Down, Bristol needed. It is all about achieving your goals slowly and this definitely wasn’t a bad way to start, especially as Judd Trump was the reigning champion at the time.
Just a Matter of Time
The Welsh Open has had a recent trend of producing surprise winners. Jordan Brown won it in 2021 and Joe Perry in 2022. So this year with the event moving to Llandudno, the jury was out but it seemed likely that the champion would come from the top 8. However, snooker is unpredictable, especially when the tournament has a best-of-7 format in the early rounds. In the end, all the familiar faces disappeared and it was only Shaun Murphy and Rob Milkins who reached the final. Many thought that Murphy would snatch the Ray Reardon trophy and the moment would be too much for Milkins, especially as a possible £230,000 was at stake, £80,000 for the tournament and a £150,000 BetVictor bonus with the possibility of Rob being elevated from 27th to 16th in the rankings.
Despite Murphy’s moonwalk and a surge of high breaks, Shaun couldn’t fight back the resolve of his opponent. Rob was like a dog with a bone and produced sublime moments of snooker when it counted. This was the dream finish that Milkins and his fans wanted, but Rob dared to dream. The win was accompanied by tears with Milkins showing how much this win meant to him and those who love and support him. He now gets to play in the Player’s Championship and is guaranteed a minimum of £10,000 in this event, an invitation to the Tour Championship with £20,000 guaranteed, a place at the Champion of Champions with a minimum of £12,500 secured and an instant qualification for the World Championship. A truly seismic achievement for someone who was only up to recently soul searching and finding it difficult to pay for his petrol. A situation that was transformed by a 9-7 victory.
