By Elliott West
“You learn a lot by losing matches”.
Julien Leclercq
Introduction
Belgium continues to produce new snooker talent and one such player of interest is Julien Leclercq. Now eighteen years old, Julien first started playing snooker when he was four and a half, inspired to play after watching his father Georges, a game that he found fascinating and just had to try. A new interest that quickly led him to his first snooker coach, Johnny Petermans.
Career
Leaving school after studying a sports-football curriculum, Leclercq left to devote his time to snooker. His primary pastime also includes console games and meeting friends. Since playing in his first snooker tournament, Julien has gained the snooker bug and since then hasn’t wanted to do anything else. His primary goal and burning desire is to gain a tour card and play on the main tour as a professional with a long-term ambition to win a tournament.
Like many of the Belgian players, Leclercq is an attacking player and is currently being coached by the former coach of Luca Brecel, Danny Moermans. Danny provides Julien with a set coaching plan, setting routines for the player including safety play, break-building and drills that concentrate on potting balls in different positions on the table and sharpening up his long potting ability.
Despite the constraints of the pandemic restrictions, the Belgian has continued to practice with his inter-club teammate, Luca Brecel and also Kobe Vanoppen, the triple Under-21 Belgium champion. Kobe doesn’t live far away from Julien and they have since become good friends. He has a table at home and was able to apply himself, receiving support and advice from Jason Ferguson and Neil Tompkins. A time that provided him with a number of travel headaches including Eurostar travel where stringent testing and paperwork, had to be resolved with the help of his father.
He has also taken part in Q School and had a positive experience with a great win against one of the best Chinese juniors, Wu Yi Ze, a proud moment that took away the pain of his other 3-2 defeats in the booths. However, he was disheartened by the shortened format and the tight schedule of the affair.
Leclercq has also taken part in his first World Championship this year, competing in the qualifiers. He won his first match against Iran’s Soheil Vahedi, leading 4-1 and then 5-2 but with the Iranian under pressure, his desire to create a win kicked in and took the match to a deciding frame. However, the Belgian pounced on the Iranian’s mistakes and carved out a 6-5 win. Unfortunately, Julien would go on to lose in round 2 to Chang Bingyu 6-2.
An Uphill Struggle
Despite the promise of this fluent player, Belgium still remains a fan base for snooker rather than a thriving game. Eurosport still remains the primary voice for snooker and for Leclercq who lives in Wallonia, this is the only snooker outlet. In order to compete with the best snooker players in Belgium, Julien has to travel to Limburg, a regular snooker outing since 2012.
Afterthought
Julien Leclercq is a great prospect for Belgian snooker and already reached one major final, the EBSA Under-18 Snooker Championships, losing to Ben Mertens 4-3. With good performances in the Snooker Six Reds competition and a foot in the door at both W School and the World Championship qualifiers, Julien is heading in the right direction and has made several positive steps to achieve his ultimate goals of becoming a professional and winning a major tournament. Snooker can often be a rocky road and outcomes don’t always pan out as they were first anticipated. However, this bright prospect remains a viable hope for his country and Belgian snooker, a name that I will be following with close interest in future years.
