Wilson Honoured Alongside Geordie Greats
Gary Wilson was hailed alongside Newcastle sporting heroes like Alan Shearer and Bobby Robson by being awarded the Wilkinson Sword for Lifetime Achievement.
The Wallsend cueman received the award at a ceremony last night. If came after two years which have seen him go from winning his maiden ranking title at the 2022 Scottish Open, to defending that crown a year later and then adding the Welsh Open to his CV back in February.
Wilson is preparing for a crunch match at the upcoming Victorian Plumbing UK Championship. He’s ranked in tenth spot on the world rankings with only ten places available for the lucrative Riyadh Season Snooker Championship. The cut off for that event comes after York. Having had a difficult season thus far, a run to the quarter-finals of the recent International Championship has acted as a boost. He was one frame from reaching the semis, but lost 6-5 to Xu Si.
We caught up with Wilson to hear about his award and look ahead to York…
Gary, thanks for speaking to us. First of all, how proud are you of winning the Wilkinson Sword for Lifetime Achievement?
“I’m extremely proud. There are names engraved on it like Bobby Moncur, Alan Shearer, Bobby Robson, Jonathan Edwards. To win it is a serious honour. This was a prestigious award so I’m very proud to be part of that group.
“It is amazing to be alongside those names. It just shows the significance of my achievements over the last couple of years. Being part of such a big night is a good feeling. The people who have won it before are household names.”
A sword is quite a unique trophy to receive. Are you going to keep it for the next year?
“Yes, I get to keep it for the year. I’ll hang it up somewhere. I’ve just ordered a couple of trophy cabinets actually. That won’t go in there, as it will be too big. I’ll have to hang it on the wall beside them maybe. I didn’t expect it to actually be a sword. I got in the taxi last night and the guy looked at me very funnily. I don’t think he thought there would be a guy with a sword coming into his taxi. I assured him it was just an award and that I wasn’t going to start chopping his car up!”
Does the need for ordering trophy cabinets put into perspective what you have acieved over the last two years?
“It happened quite quickly in a short space of time. Looking back it is a bit of a blur. No tournament wins came along for so long and then three happened very quickly. On reflection, I do have to savour these moments more. They just pass you by. There are three wins there that I don’t remember too much of. Not many people win three ranking titles. I want to take in the good times a lot more going forward. In snooker, there are a lot of low moments and not many highs. You have to savour them when you get them. The trophy cabinet is something I’ve wanted to do for a while. I’ve got some nice trophies from my amateur days and I’ve got them out recently. The cabinets are arriving in the next month and I’m putting them in my cinema room. It will be a reminder of what I’ve achieved and a motivation for more each time I go in there.
“I’ve got motivations to win bigger titles and hopefully one day the World Championship. Nights like last night and building these trophy cabinets are little ways to add extra motivation. Yes, you can feel down in the dumps at times, but you need to put it all in perspective. This isn’t going to last forever so you have to try and do your best.”
There’s a lot riding on your first match in York at the upcoming UK Championship. How much are you looking forward to getting out there and competing?
“Qualifying for Saudi is in the back of my mind. I know I need to stay in the top ten for that. The UK Championship feels bigger now, with the tiered structure and the fact that you don’t get any points of you lose your first game. There is a lot riding on it. It puts a bit more on the tournament to try and qualify for Saudi. I’ll be practising hard over the next week. We will see who I get in the draw and I can’t wait to get going again in a really big tournament. I showed good signs of my form coming at the International Championship. I felt I could have pushed on and won that event. It’s a good sign. If I can get through that first game I can enjoy the tournament and see how far I go.”
Article by WST
