Kyren Wilson has got his hands on a cue he likes again after seeing his World Championship-winning piece of wood broken at the start of the season.
The Warrior won the 2024 World Championship at the Crucible and then went on to have a brilliant campaign as world champ, winning four ranking titles.
He faced a nightmare situation at the start of this season, though, as his cue was broken during a refurb.
‘At the start of the season, unfortunately, it was going in for a refurb, having a new tip put on ready for the new season,’ Wilson told Metro.’ And it snapped about six inches off the top of my cue on the lathe.
‘It really hurt. It’s been a really difficult process to go through to try and not only go and compete, but be settled on something that you’re happy with.’
After using a number of different cues so far this season, Wilson has settled on a replica of his old one, which he feels is better than the original.
‘Weirdly, I was made an exact replica of my cue in China last year. A company came up to me and said: “We’d love to make you a cue.”
‘I said, “Listen, I won the World Championship like two months ago. There’s no way I want a new cue.” They said, “No, no, we’ll do it. We’ll just make you one. So you’ve got a spare.”
‘I just forgot about it, put it under my table, didn’t bother looking. And I’ve got it out last week and I’m absolutely in love with it. It’s better than the bit of wood that I won the World Championship with.
‘That’s not discrediting how good of a cue the other one was, but this one is better suited to me and my game.’
On his season so far, he explained: ‘I’ve been playing with all sorts. I’ve been dabbling back with the broken one because you’re connected to it, but it’s not the same anymore because it’s been chopped off at the top, added to the bottom. The weight and the balance has moved.
‘So you’re playing shots and you’re thinking, why has that gone wrong? It’s because it’s not what you’re used to.
‘I think I’ve played with probably four or five different cues since, probably since just before Belfast. The day before Belfast, I picked up a new one. And Jack [Lisowski] beat me in the quarters there. So actually I did okay, really.’
Wilson’s World Championship-winning cue is now up for auction, with the money going to the Be More FAB charity.
TW Sports Management confirmed: ‘We would like to use our platform now to announce that we are going to auction off Kyren’s World Championship winning cue, and 100 per cent of the proceeds will be going to the BeMoreFab campaign, a charity that is very close to our hearts and one that we as a family are ambassadors for.’
You can contact TW Sports Management to make a bid for the historic bit of wood.
Wilson gets his UK Championship campaign underway on Tuesday night against Elliot Slessor, a tournament in which he is desperate to reach a first final.
‘I want to at least get within touching distance of that title,’ he told Metro. ‘My best run at the UK is the semi-finals, which is poor.
‘I obviously I want to win it. I’ve got a lot of unfinished business there.’