A few facts ........

[Qtec]

...about the present world snooker champion.



1. The £250,000 World Championship first prize is more than 16 times bigger than Murphy's previous best pay day.

2. The 22-year-old plans to spend some of the money on a Mercedes and on his forthcoming wedding.

3. He met his fiancee on the internet in a Christian chatroom.

4. Murphy was 150-1 to win the World Championship before the tournament started.

5. He turned professional when he was just 14. <font color="blue">!!!!! </font color>

6. Murphy was born in the same week that Dexy's Midnight Runners' smash hit Come On Eileen reached number one in the charts.

7. His dad bought him his first cue from a jumble sale when he was eight years old - by the age of ten he had knocked in a century break.

8. As a budding 13-year-old player, he picked up a £5,000-a-year sponsorship deal with the Doc Martens shoe company.

9. By then he had made two 147 breaks - and had beaten Jimmy White and Stephen Hendry in one-frame exhibition matches.

10. Even at that young age, his aim was to beat the record of Hendry who at 21, became the youngest-ever world champion. Murphy missed out by a year.

11. His run to the final earned him the nickname "Magician".

12. His father Tony is a World Snooker board member.

13. Murphy had never won a match at the Crucible until this year's World Championship.

14. He won using an adapted 1930s cue once owned by Ray Reardon. Cue maker Rodney Hinde fitted the new tip just two weeks before the tournament started.

15. Murphy is a single-figure handicap golfer.



Hendry, R.O'Sullivan and even Tiger Woods have one thing in common- they all started playing at a very young age. It seems to be a pre-requisite for greatness.
I cant think of any top player who started late in life with their chosen sport, can you?

Qtec

[theinel]

<blockquote><font class="small">Quote Qtec:</font><hr>Hendry, R.O'Sullivan and even Tiger Woods have one thing in common- they all started playing at a very young age. It seems to be a pre-requisite for greatness.
I cant think of any top player who started late in life with their chosen sport, can you?

Qtec<hr /></blockquote>
Clearly starting early has huge benefits. How many of us say things like... "If only I had started when I was younger"?

Your question sparked a memory of several golf tournaments where the commentators mentioned Constantino Rocca's late start in golf and how he was a factory worker. I meant to quote that in response but looked into it first (i.e. I Googled it) and found that while he didn't turn pro until 24 he won the Italian Caddie Championship at 22 and had been a caddie as a boy so I'm guessing that he started playing at a fairly young age. If 24 is old then thinking about my next birthday is making my head hurt.

Oh well...

Snooker rules. Unfortunately it's just about dead here in the US. I can't even get satellite or internet feeds of the World Championships and that is just plain sad.

P.S. After posting this I clicked the "View Your Post" link and noticed that this was my 147th post. I don't believe in fate or karma but that kind of coincidence is enough to make me scratch my head.

[wolfdancer]

Q, I can think of only one
(Google search on LN)

Unusually for a successful professional golfer Nelson didn't play the game as a child, but only began to do so at the age of 21 after he returned from military service in Vietnam, taking his instruction from Ben Hogan's book The Five Fundamentals of Golf. He soon found he had a talent for golf, breaking 100 the first time he played and 70 within nine months. He went on to graduate from Kennesaw Junior College in 1970 and turned professional the following year. He qualified for the PGA Tour at 27. His breakthrough year came in 1979 when he won twice and finished second in the money list to Tom Watson.

Nelson was to win ten times on the PGA Tour, of which three, a high proportion, were major championships. His major first was the 1981 PGA Championship which he won by four strokes. In 1983 he was victorious at the U.S. Open coming from seven behind at the half-way point, and scoring an outstanding 132 aggregate for the last 36 holes to beat Tom Watson by one. In 1987 he finished tied with Lanny Wadkins after the regulation 72 holes of PGA Championship, and won the title with a par at the first playoff hole.

Nelson played on the U.S. Ryder Cup team in 1979, 1981, 1987. He also won four tournaments in Japan. Since turning fifty in 1997 Nelson has had a successful Champions Tour career, although he has not won a senior major. He is also active in golf course design.

I think it's easier to learn when you are young. It also helps if nature has equiped you with the requisite motor skills.
A snooker Champion, AND a single digit handicapper!!!
I hate this guy