Singer with cue sticks out in crowd

Personality : Flamboyant Dominic Dale is a man of many talents - snooker is just one of them

During the recently-concluded Indian Open snooker championship at Hyderabad, where five world champions and a legend of the sport were competing, one seasoned campaigner caught the eye — both with his game and style. Wearing zebra-striped shoes to match his black trousers, white shirt and dark waistcoat combination, Dominic Dale was an instant attraction.

Known as one of the most colourful personalities on the World Snooker circuit, the flamboyant Dale is a trendsetter. Happy to the ditch the dark attire adorned by majority of his peers for brighter hues, Dale looks at ease with his fancy footwear and quirky hairstyles. But the 44-year-old Welshman isn’t just jazz. He’s a true Jack of all trades.

A near 25-year experience on the professional tour with two ranking victories, Dale is a renowned snooker and billiards memorabilia collector, a trained opera singer and a wonderful art deco painter. If that doesn’t impress you, then add his cue repairing skills and commentary duty he does for BBC and Eurosport, a versatile personality emerges.

“When I was about 16 or 17, I started collecting old billiards memorabilia, old books on the game and early books from the Victorian period,” said Dale, who actually started off his career working at the police headquarters in Wales. “I started collecting old cues as well. And then I met some of the cue collectors and got some knowledge about all cues and who made them and when they were made and now, 25 years later I am expert on all cues — who made them and what the period it is from. It is just a hobby of mine.

“Through doing that I learnt to repair old cues as well. I can taper cues with different adhesives and ferrule them. I have even done work on John Higgins’ cue before and even done some work on Alfie Burden’s cue during this event. A lot of the players know that if they have got a small problem they reckon they can ask me about it!”

Dale, who at one point had possession of nearly 600 vintage cues including the first 1986 Hunt & O’Byrne, however opined that collecting cue sticks from top professionals is the hardest part. “If anybody have got an old cue, I would be glad to have a look at them. The old cues are the best ones to play with. If you take Shaun Murphy, his cue was about eight years old and he only changed to a modern cue just three years ago. He won the world championship with the old Tom Newman 1370 Champions cue. That was made in the early 1930s probably. That was the cue that was brought out first in 1926.

“Stephen (Hendry) is probably too tight to give you anything. Ronnie (O’Sullivan) is settled with a cue now, so I don’t think he’s going to part with it. Some of the cue collectors have collected some cues of professional players. A friend of mine in Bolton has got cues previously owned by Mark Williams and Stephen Hendry. There are collectors who have my cues because I don’t think anyone has changed cues as often as I have. Maybe John Higgins has changed his cue a bit over the last few years. There is a demand for old players’ cues.”

Dale, who besides snooker memorabilia collects art works as well, famously sang Frank Sinatra’s My Way after winning his second ranking title. A trained opera singer, the Welshman however rued that he doesn’t find much time now to stretch his vocal chords. “I did sing many years ago, during an exhibition game in Germany or Austria, I can’t remember where it was but there were about 1000 people in the audience. When you train operatically, it is like training in a gym. If you stop training or stop singing, your voice goes back because it is a trained voice not a natural state really. So nowadays, I normally listen to them while I’m driving. I don’t really drive around often now so sometimes my voice is not great shape but it doesn’t take long if I train really.”

Dale also likes to travel a lot having resided in Australia, Austria and Germany before settling down in Gloucestershire. Women, he said tongue in cheek, is what attracts him to various countries. “Women attract me! With the tour being so busy I moved back to Britain after having spent considerable time in various countries. I’ve lived in England now for the last five years. I have had enough of moving around now.”

Dale signed off saying his hunger for a third world ranking title is as strong as his desire to collect another rare piece of memorabilia.