Morgan enjoys Bengaluru days

Watching Darren Morgan play at the ongoing IBSF World Championship can give you a misleading picture. While he’s competing in the Masters segment, the Welshman’s game still appears very good to even bust some leading contenders in the men’s battle.

Back in the Garden City after his path-breaking victory at the same championships way back in 1987, the 48-year-old, who played on the pro circuit for 19 years before calling it quits in 2007, spoke to the media on his memories and his feelings on playing with some of the game greats.

Excerpts…
On memories of his 1987 victory: When I came to Bangalore 1987, it was my first big tournament, first time taking a flight.The people and the place was fantastic, and that’s why I decided to come back. A part of me did not want to come back, because if something went wrong here, it might change my views and the wonderful memories of 1987. There was a nice poster of me during the inauguration function which said ‘Welcome back, champion’. I felt so happy. 1987 is one of the five top-five memories of my snooker career.

On how that win changed his career: I had already won my professional ticket before the tournament, but 1987 capped a fantastic year, having won the Welsh amateurs and finishing No 1 in the British rankings. I had also won a lot of pro-am events.

“When I played in ’87, James Wattana, Ken Doherty and some other great players were in there. It was a top-class field. It was not like now, where the top-4 go through per group. Then, only top-two went through. It was cut-throat stuff. If your start was not good, you were out. The win in 1987 probably did not help me that much because most guys on the circuit had already heard of me. I was considered one of the favourites actually.

Thoughts on playing with greats like Steve Davis, Stephen Hendry and Jimmy White: If I had it any other way, I would have won many more titles. When I was at my best, so were they. Jimmy and Steve still play and continue to play, but it is nothing compared to their peak. My era was so awesome. John Parrot, Davis, Jimmy and Hendry were at their very best. Then you had the new stalwarts coming along – Ronnie O’Sullivan, Mark Williams, John Higgins and Peter Ebdon. It was great time to be playing snooker. I finished inside top-16 for four years and top-8 for a couple years. I always had Hendry in my draw, and he was a bit of a jinx. He gave me a lot of problems over the years. I can look back and say that I have played with the best snooker players the world has ever seen.