After three seasons as a professional player in Ultimate Pool, he left after losing a 6-red shootout to Stevie Dempsey in the Pro Series 10 finals last month, coming very close to his first title, but not before an unexpected After playing, he would put white seconds into the pot. The shot that decides the match.
But from 2025 onwards, Dad plans to play Hayball (better known as Chinese 8-ball) full-time on the JOY circuit. This means that you will spend most of the year in Southeast Asia.
Speaking to the Casely News about why he decided to go in a different direction with his pool career, his father said:
“Hayball is more difficult to play than the English eight-ball because it is played on a three-quarter snooker table.
“It is played with American billiards balls, but the pockets are only the same size as a traditional snooker table, so potting is very difficult.”
When asked if this was something he had planned for some time, his father replied:
“This is only possible if someone supports us financially, and we were able to secure support to make next year's event possible.
“It feels like the right time to do it. I'm 41 now, so I'd like to do it while my eyes are still working.”
And the Keighley-born father is confident in his career change, unfazed by the shocking loss of the Ultimate Pool title against Dempsey.
He said: “Right after that loss, a few days later, I flew to China and had my best performance there ever.
“Thanks to that, we were able to secure the backing to move full-time to Hayball in 2025 (my father signed a five-year contract with JOY in May 2023, but due to financial reasons a strange event occurred) My boyfriend, who was planning to support me, was watching the tournament.
“It's disappointing when a loss like the Pro Series final happens, but especially in Cue Sports you can't let it drag you down and you have to compete again in a fresh tournament.
“And in my head, I feel like I won that event anyway. I didn't make any mistakes in the final, as opposed to making some bad mistakes, and it took that away from me. It was something like that.
“I did everything I could, but fate had other ideas.”
Despite the big move, my father still intends to be based in the UK, explaining:
“I'm planning to play multiple tournaments in, say, a one-month block and then go home, but China has a new nine-ball format set up by another organization, so it depends on the schedule.
“I'm mainly in mainland China and neighboring countries, but they're also expanding to other continents.
“JOY held an event in Slovakia last year and I was runner-up in an event in Germany in 2019. It was part of.
“JOY is also bidding to have Hayball included in the 2032 Olympics and they are spending a lot of money as it is the owner's dream to get Hayball on that stage.”
