Battle lines will be drawn from kitchen table to snooker table

For Leeds potter Peter Lines – a veteran of the professional snooker circuit for over 20 years – has seen his teenage son Oliver graduate to the full Tour.

The 18-year-old former English schoolboy champion, and current European Under-21 amateur champion, jetted out to China yesterday with his father for the Wuxi Classic.

Oliver won his first match as a professional, beating Dave Harold in the Wuxi qualifiers to reach the main draw of the ranking tournament.

The duo have joined an elite group of father-and-son pairings who have competed in their chosen sport and managed to overcome the generation gap.

Back in the Eighties, snooker’s Neal Foulds played the circuit with father Geoff, while golf’s Kevin and Craig Stadler have shared a few fairways as professionals.

There have been several fathers and sons in football, with managerial parents picking their offspring for the starting XI, like Steve Bruce and Alex at Hull City, Sir Alex Ferguson and Darren (Manchester United) and Brian Clough and Nigel (Nottingham Forest).

But aurely none of them would have fancied donning their boots and taking to the field to face their kin.

Yet, 44-year-old Peter – who turned professional in 1991, and is currently ranked 62nd in the world money list – knows he is on a collision course to play his son now they are both on the professional Tour and, despite being his son’s biggest fan, it is one match he is not looking forward to.

Snooker, like most sports, is a cut-throat business where friendships, and even blood ties in this case, have to be forgotten once the players reach the table.

Peter has beaten several good friends over the years, battling to keep his place on the Tour and climb the rankings, and believes Oliver will soon have to learn this harsh lesson.

It could come quicker than either of them imagined after a fluke draw saw Oliver Lines drawn against best friend Oliver Barnes, the 19-year-old who stunned the snooker world by knocking out world No 2 Ding Junhui in qualifying last month to reach the first round of the Wuxi Classic.

Apart from losing a high-profile meeting with Ding – whose walk-on catchphrase is ‘Enter the Dragon – Lines now must play his teenage friend.

“If you asked anyone my age, ‘would you rather play Oliver Brown or Ding Junhui?’ They would say Oliver Brown,” said Peter Lines, who trains at Northern Snooker Centre in Leeds alongside Oliver.

“But it’s a little bit different for Oliver. He was looking forward to playing Ding. It would have been on the TV table, the biggest game of his life.

“And Oliver Brown is probably his best friend on the circuit. They have been going to tournaments for years since they were little kids. They are best friends, so it will be really difficult for him. But they just have to be professional, it’s something you have to do.

“You can have friends off the table, but when you get on the table there are no friends.

“I have experienced that over the years and it’s going to be even worse when he draws me.

“That will almost certainly happen with the number of events we play in. I am just going to have to tell him to let me win,” he smiled.

“It will be really difficult for both of us; we will both be trying to win for different reasons. He still lives at home –, I will just have to get him to do all the chores before the game, ordering him about, so he doesn’t have time to practise,” joked Peter.

“I am really proud of him, but everything he gets from the game he really deserves because he works so hard.

“He started coming down to the snooker club when he was about 10, but he was never really interested – he liked football.

“But he must get it from me; he has good eye-hand co-ordination. He is good at all sports, like I was at school. I was never good at anything else, apart from sport.

“He was tiny as a kid, so couldn’t really reach the table, but when he got to about 13 he grew and started playing a bit more and packed the football in.

“He is just a natural, the technique that he has is fantastic.

“There was Geoff and Neal Foulds (who played as father and son), but nowadays it’s totally different, the standard is so good.

“You don’t usually get a father that’s managed to stay on the Tour, or a son who is good enough at such a young age to get the break.

“He’s probably got more talent than I had at his age. Also, I never had anyone to really guide me. I made a lot of mistakes that I wish I hadn’t have done.

“But you can’t turn back the clock, so hopefully with a little guidance from me he can go on and have a great career because it’s a fantastic sport.

“It really cheeses me off when I hear people saying what they have to do. Come on lads, you are playing snooker for a career. If you can play any sport for a living it is fantastic.

“If they had to work in a factory for a month they would soon stop moaning about having to get a plane and fly to China to play snooker.”

Peter may be a proud father, but he also recognises the raw talent his teenage son possesses, and it is that which could carry Oliver to a successful career in snooker.

“He has been winning competitions at every level he has played at,” said Peter.

“Obviously this is now a massive step-up into the pro game, but there’s no reason why he can’t take that forward.

“He was English Under-14 champion, he’s the European Under-21 champion – every level he’s played at so far he has found a way to win and hopefully he can keep that going.”

As for Peter, his ‘reward’ for reaching China is a tough opening match against world No 12 Ricky Walden next Monday, and he admits he has bad memories of their previous encounter.

“I played him in the UK Championship last year and he hammered me,” he winced.

“I am hoping for a better show this time.

“It’s always nice to play the top players, it will be on the TV table. I beat four top-16 players last season. You know going into the match you have to play well, if you don’t you are going to get hammered – it’s simple.

“We are travelling out together – it depends how we do whether we travel back together.”

Joining the Lines in China is a third Leeds cue man in David Grace, 29, who opens his tournament against world No 6 Judd Trump next Monday.