Barry Pinches turned professional for the first time 36 years ago and he is back at Q School this week looking to do so again just shy of his 55th birthday.
The Canary has spent the majority of the last three-and-a-half decades on the pro tour, playing most of the greatest players to ever pick up a cue.
Not every player can have a legendary career, but they can have special moments, with Pinches remembering his Players Tour Championship victory in 2010 as his finest.
‘I beat Mark Williams and Ronnie O’Sullivan in the same day, that was nice,’ Pinches told Metro of his career highlight. ‘That was probably the best, winning the PTC, even though there weren’t any crowds.’
The 2004 World Championship also stands out, battling against iconic names as he beat Jimmy White then lost in a decider to Stephen Hendry, but felt as good as he ever has on the table.
‘I actually felt that year I was playing well enough…to win it would have been immensely difficult, but I was playing really well in practise I just wasn’t missing.’
With well over three decades of experience, Pinches is in as good a position as any to rate the greatest players in history and he plumps for a top three of O’Sullivan, John Higgins and Mark Selby.
‘Yeah it’s Ronnie,’ he said of the sport’s GOAT. ‘And then probably John Higgins or even Mark Selby.’
On Hendry slipping down his list of greats, he said: ‘I think with Hendry it’s just an era thing.
‘Look Hendry’s obviously unbelievable, he changed the game he was a scoring machine. But I think if John Higgins or Mark Selby played Hendry at his peak I think they’d just edge him because their safety and their patience could be too much.
‘I think Hendry was playing the way he played in his era because he wasn’t getting punished enough, there weren’t enough players around to punish him, but what a player.’
Pinches was winning amateur titles in the very competitive era of the late 80s before turning professional, but he feels talent was getting him through and a lack of mechanical technique held him back over his career.
‘I could have done a lot better,’ he says of his career so far. ‘When I look back, if I could give myself any advice as a 16-year-old, would be to get a coach. I never had a good technique. Even now, my technique’s not brilliant.
‘I won the English Amateur Championship at 17 and my technique was actually rubbish.
‘A lot of players were self-taught back then. For all the natural talent that Ronnie’s got, he’s always had a pretty good technique even as a young kid. He was brought up around really good players.
‘From my perspective, I was just brought up in Norwich. I was the best player in Norwich at 15 years old by quite a distance. I thought, well why do I need a coach? I’m winning everything.
‘You won’t see anyone playing snooker with a technique that I had when I was 18 years old. It was awful. It was just dreadful.
‘When I did eventually see a coach who I was able to spend quite a lot of time with when I was about 27 I started to make a bit of progress and then I nearly broke into the top 16 when I was about 35 years old.
‘That’s blighted me really if I’m being honest, just messing about and never having a solid technique. I’ve messed about far too much because I didn’t have a good base to start with.’
The Canary last fell off the professional tour in 2023 but has remained very competitive on the amateur circuit and is still motivated to play at the highest level while he still feels like he can.
‘I’m playing because I still enjoy it,’ he said. ‘You’re a long time retired, aren’t you? So when you think you’ve packed your cue up, that’s going to be it.
‘I’m still playing to a good level. It’s hard to say there’s any clear favourites at Q School, but I can still definitely qualify.
‘But there’s at least 30, 40 players at a minimum who could say that. You take the top 40 players off the Q Tour and you swap them with the bottom 40 pros, the pro tour isn’t going to be much different. There’s that much strength and depth now.’
The standard on the amateur circuit was raised even further over the last year by Zhao Xintong playing on Q Tour, with Pinches’ son Luke running into the now world champion twice and unsurprisingly coming up short.
‘I said to Luke, he’s playing ranking title stuff,’ Barry recalls. ‘I said it wouldn’t surprise me if he goes close to winning the UK Championship. And as it happened, he went and won the Worlds!
‘He was playing that bloody well. When you watched him, he was just making centuries every other time. He played the game like he was practising and he just makes it look so easy.
‘And there was definitely a fear factor on the Q Tour, you could see it.
He had that going for him as well, but he just played great.’
Pinches has seen many ups and downs in snooker since he first picked up a cue and feels the sport is in good shape at the minute, but that’s not to say that things cannot be improved.
One standout area for the 54-year-old is the distribution of prize money, which he feels is far too heavily weighted towards winners and not evenly spread enough across the professional ranks.
He feels that this is a big reason for overseas players struggling to make a living out of the game and ultimately giving up on a professional career, despite having the talent to succeed.
‘There’s been a lot of good players who have packed up playing,’ he said. ‘The German number one packed up, I believe, Lucas Kleckers. I think that’s awful. I just think it’s terrible.
‘You look at Igor [Figuieredo of Brazil]. It’s difficult for him to get on anyway, and there’s just not enough money for him to come over. He’s like the best player in South America by a country mile.
‘I’ve made my feelings clear to people that are running the game. I think that’s a crying shame when that happens, when you get people like that packing up. He probably wouldn’t be playing anymore at all if it weren’t for the Seniors.
‘The game is just too top-heavy. They could stick more down the bottom and encourage these players to make it feasible for them to carry on. I’ve studied other sports and how they distribute their prize money, and snooker distributes it very top-heavy.
‘You’ve got two good French players at the moment. [Brian] Ochoiski is really good and Nicolas Mortreux. They’ve both got potential, but I don’t see them getting a tour card. Do I see them getting a tour card in the next five years? Do you know what? It’s hard to say anyone would be guaranteed to get a tour card in the next five years.
‘When I see people packing the game up and they’re not only the best player in their country, but the best player in their country ever! You think, oh my God, that’s not good.’
It’s not doom and gloom from the Canary, who feels there has been a lot of good work in growing the game, but feels more is still to be done.
‘I had quite a lot to do with getting Barry Hearn back in,’ he said. ‘I tried to secure him votes because I thought he’d do really well from the commercial side. The game was on its knees and he’s done brilliantly.
‘The money’s just gone up and up, but I don’t think it’s being distributed correctly. Prize money distribution is a huge thing. It’s massive.’
Pinches, who has come through Q School twice before, gets his campaign underway on Thursday against the aforementioned Frenchman Mortreux.