Matthew Stephens -a top snooker player and a real gentleman

 
I have been lucky to have met Matthew Stephens on a few occasions and he has always been a model of professionalism, linked to what I found to be a laid-back attitude and as modest a sportsman as I have ever met.
 
In fact, on the occasions that he appeared in snooker’s World Championship Final I found myself cheering him on - which is a bit daft when one is looking at a television screen in our lounge at home!
 

Thoughtful and generous to a fault

 
One example of his niceness came on an occasion when I didn’t even have the pleasure of meeting him but he showed his thoughtfulness for others. I was trying to get some sporting memorabilia together for a young man who had graced the London Paralympics himself but knew that his life expectancy was limited and he wanted to brighten his room.
 
I had a great response from sports people I actually knew but another local pal of mine called Dave Hackett knew Matthew and when I mentioned what I was doing to Dave I thought no more about it.  Within a week, quite unexpectedly, there was a snooker cue delivered at my home, signed by Matthew Stephens!
 

An unusual evening at a freezing Kiln Park

 
As to being unflappable, I was once asked to MC an evening of snooker at Kiln Park, Tenby, organised by a well-meaning charity volunteer in our area, with paying customers having the chance to take on Matthew Stephens in a frame of snooker, or the opportunity to watch Matthew in action.
 
It was a freezing cold winter’s night and all was set to start in a large, but very cold hall, with Matthew polishing his cue - but with only fewer than 30 in attendance - the organiser had thought that a quick mention in the local paper would suffice!
 
But was the snooker star deterred? Not a bit of it. He had been driven there by a friend and after chatting to the crowd for a while he played about ten frames, all of which he won, of course, and enjoyed a quiet bottle of ‘Bud’ each frame - and had entertained everyone, but sadly with not much cash for the gentleman organiser!
 

A great day with ‘Chicken Eddie’

 
On another occasion he was due to play Mark Williams in an exhibition at Mark ‘Chicken Eddie’s’ Snooker Hall, as it was then - but his opponent cried off ill. It seemed a disaster because the whole day was devoted to raising funds for charity, but Matthew just played some games against top local players who were there for a later tournament - and the day was saved because the resourceful Mr Edwards managed to organise for Jimmy White, who was playing in the Welsh Qualifiers in Newport, to be flown down by a local amateur pilot!
 
Matthew actually won the best of nine exhibition against Mr White, who controversially missed a late blue ball which would have tied everything at 4-all - and when he lost 5-3 signed a few autographs before being whisked back to Withybush Airfield!

Matthew, meanwhile enjoyed himself all afternoon and Mark Edwards had a large sum to hand over to a charity as reward for his enterprise!
 

Matthew just missed out on ‘Triple Crown’ fame

 
Matthew is still playing today and at 49 years old is sure to feature well in the veteran’s area of snooker, and can look back on a long career which saw him make over 350 century breaks, had a maximum televised break, reached a highest world-ranking of No 4 in 2005/06, and won the Masters’ Championship in 2000 and the UK Championships in 2003.
 
Sadly though, he just missed out on what is known as the ‘Triple Crown of Snooker’ by respectively losing in the finals of the World Championship on 2000 and 2005 to Mark Williams and Stephen Hendry, both after establishing a useful lead at some stage in each.
 
Matthew also reached the semi-finals in 2001/02/04 and 12 so he has been a fantastic Welsh representative in the sport alongside Ray Reardon, Doug Mountjoy, Cliff Wilson, Terry Griffiths, Darren Morgan and, of course; Mark Williams.
 

Referee Phil and I both agree on Matthew’s great contribution

 
And it was always great to see him play in the fantastic Texaco Snooker Challenges, organised by Ken Hodgkinson, at the De Valence Pavilion, in Tenby, where was a youngster alongside Paul Hunter, who sadly passed away young.
 
I was chatting to Phil Thomas, from Narberth, recently, who was Len Ganley’s assistant referee at the matches, and we agreed that Matthew was a pleasure to be involved with because he had no airs or graces, and we ranked him alongside Steve Davies and Joe Johnson as the most genuinely perfect for the event, with so many other great players also there.
 
We both have many photographs of those great occasions for us and they reflect a time which is very unlikely to be repeated because of cost - and with so many tournaments now all over the world!