By elliott West
Darren Morgan is one of the greatest players that Wales has produced. I remember him from my early days of watching snooker and he was and still is a formidable force. I am lucky in my time as a snooker follower and blogger to have made friends with Darren and he has been very helpful and supportive with research, giving me a Q&A and spending some time with him when I recently went to the Welsh Open in Cardiff. I digress, hailing from Newport in South Wales, Morgan took to snooker early in life and it wasn’t long before he was an amateur champion, winning the World Amateur Championship in 1987. The subsequent year he turned professional and then followed a long professional playing career, running from 1998-2007. Darren never won a major title but did amass just over a million pounds in prize money, reached a high ranking of eight and was ranked in the top 16 for six years. He also compiled 111 century breaks in his career.
However there was success on the baize, beating Steve Davis in 1996 to win the Irish Masters, 9-8 and he captained Wales to victory in the 1999 Nations Cup. At the World Championship, his best effort was in 1994 when he made the semi-finals, beating Mark King 10-5, Willie Thorne 13-12 and John Parrott 13-11 before losing to Jimmy White 9-16. Morgan went to reach three quarter finals at the event.
Since retiring from the professional circuit, Darren continues to be successful on the amateur and pro-AM circuits picking up more trophies than hot dinners. Winning the European Masters and World Masters Championship in 2007, the TCC Pro-AM in 2009, beating Mark Williams, 7-4, won the IBSF World Snooker Championship for the second time in 2009, the Sky Seniors tournament in 2011 and even got to the semi-final stage of the Riga Masters in 2016 as a wildcard before being whitewashed by Neil Robertson.
Now with a new wind in his Welsh sails, Darren gets to compete in the World Seniors event at the Crucible in August thanks to him claiming glory in the 2019 European Masters Snooker Championship. Fans young and old will get to see this fabulous player once again in front of a capacity crowd. Morgan is one of my favourite players not just because of my Welsh blood but the fact that he has always been a joy to watch. Despite not being a professional for some years, he still competes to a high standard, mainly because he still keeps his hand in and collects silverware as an amateur. Darren is just a pleasure to know and I wish him all the best in Sheffield and for his bright future.
