Steven Hallworth is back on the baize as his season starts this week after an incredible end to the last campaign in the commentary box.
The 30-year-old is balancing his time between holding a cue and a microphone and made a big step forward with the latter as he joined the BBC team at the World Championship.
He has built plenty of experience commentating for other broadcasters on big tournaments, but this was another few rungs up the ladder as he joined snooker royalty for the greatest event in the sport.
‘I was mega anxious to be honest. When I got the call, I was a bit taken back,’ Hallworth told Metro. ‘I thought they might ask me for the odd day, but then they wanted to keep on extending me as the days went on.
‘It was made easier by the fact I know Stephen Hendry, I’ve worked with him before. Joe Perry and Lee Walker as well, but I’d never actually met the other guys properly: Dennis [Taylor], Steve Davis, John Parrot. So I was quite anxious to see how that dynamic would work.
‘But honestly, they took to me as if I’d known them my whole life. Within 30 seconds of chatting to them it was as if I’d known them forever. So they were really good with me.
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‘Honestly, I couldn’t sing their praises enough, the whole team were just brilliant with me and I loved working with them.’
A great experience, but a bruising an unpleasant reality of being involved in the highest profile event is the amount of ‘feedback’ that will come through social media. Plenty of it was good, but grim abuse is never far away and Hallworth says he will just remove himself from those platforms in future.
‘That’s something that if I were asked to do it again, I think I’d just completely come off social media for the duration of my stay,’ he said.
‘There’s a lot of great comments, but there’s a lot of nasty people as well. It’s all a game of opinions, but when you start looking deeply into things like that, you start second guessing and doubting yourself a bit and that’s when it can become tough because it becomes a bit forced.
‘It was very intense. It’s part and parcel of the job, I suppose. You’re on a national broadcaster, with millions of viewers. That’s fine. And everyone’s entitled to an opinion and not everybody has to love the work you do. That’s fine as well. But I just think I should stay away from it because people are allowed to have an opinion, but I shouldn’t have allowed myself to digest people’s opinions.
‘Some of the messages we get – and it’s not just on commentary, it’s playing as well – can be horrific at times. People go way too far.
‘We’re just normal people trying to get by and support our families and do something that we love. We’re so blessed to be able to do it, but yeah, some people take it upon themselves to write some horrible stuff and it’s quite a toxic place at times.
‘You don’t have to love that particular commentator’s work, their voice, what they’ve got to say, but to go out of your way on social media and write some really bad comments, how sad have you got to be to do that?
‘I often found myself trying to be conscious of not over-talking, just let the snooker do the work, but it’s a fine line. It’s a game of opinions at the end of the day and it’s tough in there. People think it’s quite easy, but it isn’t.’
Hallworth feels stepping in after the sad death of legendary commentator John Virgo perhaps didn’t help either, adding: ‘I think some people sort of presumed that I was there to replace John and that’s absolutely not the case. They just needed somebody else to help out and it just so happened that was me this year, but you can’t ever replace a legend like John.
‘But, look, it was a great, great experience. I loved it.
‘I’m just trying to be authentic, talk about the game I love and try and give off my personality and bring a bit more of a youthful aspect to the commentary. Ultimately the game is going to keep progressing and there’s got to be new blood coming through. If that so happens to be me, then so be it. I think we should be trying to get more people involved because the game’s got to go somewhere.’
The Lincoln cueist was one of the busiest men in the business during the World Championship as he hosted World Snooker Tour’s daily podcast every night after his commentary duties.
‘It was really intense. It was a lot and I certainly did feel it, but again, I have to keep reminding myself, it’s not hard work,’ he said. ‘People are working hard for a living and earning money is hard, the country’s in a state in terms of what people can do with their lives. So I’m blessed to be able to do what I do. I used to work behind a bar for £7.50 an hour!’
It is back to potting balls himself this month as Hallworth has China Open and Wuhan Open qualifying campaigns, looking to build on an encouraging first season back on tour last time round.
‘I did more last year than I’ve ever done in two years on tour,’ he said. ‘So it was a step in the right direction for me. It sort of teed me up nicely for this year, put me in a good position and hopefully I can just kick on now.
‘It’s going to be a different sort of mindset, I think, because my ranking has gone up. I’m coming in at different rounds, which I’ve never experienced before. So that’ll be quite cool to see how I can deal with that. I’m playing good, practising hard and looking forward to getting going.’