Mark Williams interview: One of snooker's great characters on Ronnie O'Sullivan, the World Championship and the future of his beloved game

One wonders how the sport will look when he and the likes of Ronnie O’Sullivan and John Higgins decide enough is enough.

Thirty years after they first emerged onto the scene, these three totems of snooker made up 75 per cent of the semi-final line-up at last year’s World Championships, an indicator of their longevity, their ability and their enduring appeal.

For the romantics among the snooker fanbase - of which there are many - the nostalgia of the ‘Class of ’92’ storyline was just too much to ignore.

Just don’t try telling Williams he belongs in that company.

“I don’t like putting myself in that class of ‘92, them pair are the class of ‘92 not me,” he tells The Yorkshire Post.

“They’re in that class because they’re two of the best players that have ever lived.

“Ronnie is the best and John Higgins is the second best in my opinion, and to be still doing it at their age - albeit 47, 48 like I am - they’re just that good.

“I’ve just been lucky enough to come through at the same time as them, but just a little bit behind them, that’s fine by me, I don’t worry about that. They’re two of the best players I’ve ever seen.”

Seven world titles for Ronnie, including two in the last three years, and four for Higgins may suggest they have an advantage over Williams but the Welshman is just being modest, happy to let others to put a label on it. O’Sullivan and Higgins would certainly have him in their little clique. For the record, Williams has won three world titles, the first and the third 18 years apart.

He was a young man sweeping all before him when triumphing at the Crucible in 2000 and 2003, a father of teenage sons with new priorities when he won again in 2018. Last year he was a frame away from joining O’Sullivan in the final.

“The one in 2018 is the most special, when my kids were here watching,” says Williams, the eighth seed who begins his first-round match with Jimmy Robertson on Sunday.

“And the year after when they came back and watched me. This year they can’t make it because one of them is 19 and working now and the other one is doing his GCSE’s. I’ve got my youngest up for the first match and then he’s back in school. It’s getting to the stage where if I keep making it back they might not be able to keep coming.”

A subtle nod to the fact father time might finally be catching up with him, and that there might not be too many more annual pilgrimages to make to Sheffield.

“I’m 48 now - how many more have I got? I’m more appreciative now than I was 20 years ago because back then you take it for granted that you’re going to be back every year,” he says.

“But there’s been years where I haven’t been here having missed out on the qualifiers, so I know what it’s like not to be here. Now I am here I cherish it more than I normally would.”

Perhaps Williams’ longevity is down to the fact that if he weren’t here in Sheffield for potentially the next 17 days there would be no soul-searching to be done, no SOS to a sports psychologist or trashing of the Crucible dressing room.

He’d be in his caravan, as he puts it, away from snooker and happily spending time with his family.

“If I didn’t qualify for the world championship I never worried about it, I just didn’t qualify. I tried my best but it just didn’t happen. I’ll watch bits on TV when I’m in my caravan and enjoy myself,” he smiles.

“Once you lose in a tournament that’s it, you should never dwell on it. I’ve never dwelled on anything like that.

“I’m no different now to how I used to be, even back 20-odd years ago it was turn up and try your best, if you win, great, if not, don’t worry about it. It’s a snooker match at the end of the day, obviously I want to win but when you lose you shake the fella’s hand and off you go. I get more upset if I lose a game of cards.”

If anything Williams is the antithesis of the vision of what a three-time world champion in any line of sport is supposed to be. No win-at-all-costs mentality. No long hours in the gym (not that snooker players need it). Between the semi-final and the final in 2018 he was eating a kebab in a Sheffield hostelry at 2.15am. Even at the pre-tournament media day when his fellow pros lined up for the photos in casual three-piece suits, Williams was in a polo shirt, tattoo sleeves on show.

Not quite the hellraiser Alex Higgins was, more of a ‘bloke at the bar who’d join you for a pint’ kind of vibe. One of snooker’s great characters, though.

Even his response to a question about O’Sullivan’s recent comments in the media challenging snooker’s future direction is delivered more with cheekiness than malice: “Ronnie likes to get in the headlines, I’m the total opposite. I don’t even want to do any interviews in the lead up to this. I’m only here now because I’d get fined by World Snooker!”

He does understand where his old sparring partner is coming from though.

“I think we’re struggling from the Covid era, there’s a lot of tournaments missing, the calendar is not great, but what can they do with the state of the economy?” offers Williams. “There’s not enough tournaments for us to play in but what can they do if there aren’t the sponsors out there.

“You love to see youngsters coming through. But World Snooker, or someone, need to get involved more in the amateur game to try and entice the juniors. There’s nothing to incentivise the juniors to get into snooker clubs when they’ve got X-Boxes at home. With my kids - it’s a nightmare trying to get them out of the bedroom off their X-Box. When I was a kid there was no such thing, so it was snooker competitions every weekend. I’m not blaming anyone but that’s where the money has got be invested.”

To give snooker a future, because at the risk of upsetting this Welsh rogue, when time finally does catch up with him and his Class of ’92 running mates, where will his beloved sport be?