What are three songs that are meaningful to you?

1. Be Young, Be Foolish, Be Happy by The Tams

This was one of my mother’s favourite songs. What makes it even more special is it was released in 1968, the year I was born, and she used to sing it when I was growing up in Middlesbrough.

She was a good singer, better than me, and whenever the song comes on in the bar, it just reminds me of her and brings a tear to my eye. She left us in 2016 and I was lost when she died. She taught me to have fun with everything and it’s not until she’s gone that I realised I didn’t have that advice any more.

2. ⁠You Can Ring My Bell by Anita Ward

I used to always sing this to my daughter and replace the lyrics “ring my bell” with her name and sing “she’s Ysabel”.

I was in my wife’s office when the song came on and I thought it sounded like Ysabel, who was 18 months old then. And I would keep singing this remix when I pushed her around in a pram around Singapore. I finally stopped when it got on her nerves when she was five. She is 10 now, but when the song comes on, then she knows what’s coming.

3. Marry You by Bruno Mars

Dorothy and I got married on Feb 22, 2020, just before (pandemic) lockdown. She picked this song for our wedding at the Singapore Cricket Club, and to be honest, I’ve never heard of this song before, but it’s a good, fun song and it’s perfect for our wedding.

I first met Dorothy at Clarke Quay where we were with our own friends, and we got along straight away. I made the first move but I will tell everyone else she did because she saw me dancing.

A book or quote that you like?

Bounce: The Myth Of Talent And The Power Of Practice by Matthew Syed.

Matthew Syed was a former English national table tennis player and this book really related to me because it was pretty much the same journey I went on in billiards.

He wrote about how his parents bought him a table when he was young and he played table tennis with his brother in the garage. He then trained under his maths teacher who coached at a local club, and it turns out three other young boys down the road from where he lived were doing the same thing and they became four of the top 10 players in England.

It’s the same with me. I used to play football as a right-winger, but started playing billiards because there was a table in the fire station where my father was a firefighter. I then grew up playing in the Teesside boys billiards league and at one point the top five players in the world were all from Teesside.

Sometimes it’s not just about talent, it’s also about hard work and chance and being at the right place at the right time. Because if I didn’t have the opportunity to start playing in the fire station, I would never have become a billiards player

Your favourite sporting moment of 2023?

Winning the world championship. It’s a nice achievement for me to win it in four different decades. I reached the final in 1989 as well, so if I had won that, it would have been across five decades. In any case, I honestly believe I can accomplish that feat by winning another world title in 2030, if my eyesight and fitness are good enough.

What advice would you give your younger self in January 2023?

Spend more time with family and friends. Especially with Covid-19, people stay in more, don’t go out as much, tend to keep to themselves and we don’t see each other. With my overseas competitions, I can be away from Dorothy and Ysabel a bit and I don’t want to miss out on seeing my daughter grow up.