Zak Surety had a very eventful debut at the World Snooker Championship this year and although he both loved and hated the experience, he was convinced that the ‘mad’ Crucible is the perfect home for the event.
The 33-year-old enjoyed his best ever season by a long stretch, reaching a first semi-final at the World Open and finishing the campaign with a Crucible debut after brilliant performances in qualifying.
At the iconic Sheffield theatre he faced Chinese superstar Ding Junhui and the pair produced an amazing opening round contest.
Ding went 4-0 up as Surety struggled with the occasion and things looked very sticky for the Englishman at the first interval.
‘At the start I walked out and sat in my seat and that was the strangest I’ve ever felt,’ Surety told Metro. ‘I’ve never felt that uncomfortable. My arms didn’t feel part of my body. It felt like my tip didn’t belong to me. Everything felt wrong.
‘I’ve got myself in a bit of a state and I’m 4-0 down. I’m in the dressing room thinking I really don’t want to go out there. It’s your dream, but I just didn’t want to go back out there because I was making myself look like an absolute idiot.’
Surety has spoken openly about his struggles with anxiety before, so it is to his immense credit that he overcame those feelings in some style, starting with only losing that first session 6-3.
‘I made a century the last frame of the first session,’ he remembers. ‘When the screen came up it was probably the best buzz I’ve ever had because it was the whole Crucible to myself. The noise in there! I was welling up as I got to 90 and thought, is this really me?
‘Obviously then the second day I flew.’
He certainly did, becoming the first player in Crucible history to make four centuries on debut and although he ultimately lost 10-7, he did anything but make himself look like an absolute idiot.
‘I actually watched the second session back last week and I don’t feel like it’s me,’ he said. ‘It’s just some random bald bloke on the tele. I’m watching it back and thinking, did that really happen?
‘I felt weird after because I left, I’ve set a record, I’ve played well, I can go home and the pressure of it is all over. They’re all talking about me on the tele, great position going into next season, everything’s good.
‘Then you’re home and you think about it and that was such a good chance. I was playing so well, I could have done something there and it quickly goes from feeling quite content about the whole experience to being quite annoyed.’
Mixed feelings sums up the Crucible experience as Surety’s first game there epitomised the cliché that the venue is both the best and worst place to play snooker.
‘I sat down and tried to convince myself it was going to be the best place on Earth, but you get it drummed into your head how you’re meant to feel in there,’ he said.
‘Mark Allen asked me how I was feeling and told me that he was there for the 19th time and still struggles every time he walks out there. It’s like it’s normal.
‘I watched the opening morning before travelling up and Steve Davis said on camera: “I can’t wait to watch the top players in the world squirm under the pressure of the Crucible.” I looked at my girlfriend and said: “Bloody hell, that’s me this year!”‘
‘Although I hated those first four frames, that’s how I’m meant to feel. You sit there, look left and that’s where Steve Davis picked up all them trophies. I was looking up at the lights on the roof and tearing up. How the hell am I here? You find yourself losing yourself in the history of the place.
‘At the start it felt like the walls sucked in on me and you just notice every set of eyes in the whole arena. I thought they were on me, which they were, but you notice it. The next day I was flying and it was like no one else was in there.’
Surety was a huge fan of the place before playing there, but is now convinced that the unique nature of the Crucible is why it should remain the home of the World Championship, beyond the current contract which ends in 2027.
‘They can’t ever move from there,’ he said. ‘It’s just…it’s mad.
‘It’s so small in there, I think you’re only allowed two back stage passes, but it works because you walk into the Champions Lounge upstairs and there’s Stephen Hendry. As I walked in he said: “Great run in the World Open, well done for qualifying, I’m glad to see you doing well.” I’d never spoken to Stephen Hendry before! Things like that make it mad.’
The challenge for Surety now is to build on the very encouraging end to last season and make it back to the Crucible next year, something he is working hard on.
‘I lost to Ding on the Tuesday and I was back here in the club on the Wednesday,’ he said. ‘I quite like that time of year because you’re not practising for anything, just playing and having a laugh.’
The popular Essex star also had a summer of cue questions which has seen him chop, change and return to old faithful which arrived from eBay a decade ago.
‘My cue’s not the greatest. I love it, but it’s an old Chinese cue that my dad picked up off eBay about 10 years ago for 130 quid,’ he explained. ‘There are a lot better cues, but it’s obviously my own.
‘John Parris has made me a new one and I used it for three or four days. I like using other cues as a bit of a challenge. I think I’ve made a century with near enough every bit of wood in the club. But when it’s handed to you and this could be something you’re going into the season with, I couldn’t do it.
‘I had to call John and say you can have your you’re very expensive, beautiful cue back. I want me little piece of poo off eBay back and I I’m cracking on.’