Chatting to young sportspeople from the area is one of my favourite things and it’s one of my New Year’s resolutions to speak to more of them.
The dedication they show is out of this world and it makes me so happy. Last Saturday, I popped into Redz Snooker Club to meet William Gwinnell, 15, to hear more about how he first picked up a cue, the support he gets from professionals, and his ambitions for the future.
He said: “It was my friend’s eighth or ninth birthday party and I went over to his house and he had this little six-foot pool table. You could play snooker on it as well. I just loved it. A few weeks later I came to Redz and started playing in the junior club. I just kept going from there.
“I just like playing the game. With snooker you have to play with skills to win.
“Recently I’ve been playing in the under-16s and I’m ranked number one in Wales. There has been five events and I’ve won them all. In March 2024 I was in Bosnia for the European Championships. In August I was in Leeds for the Home Nations where all the countries in the UK play together.
“I was in that the year before and the year before that. In 2023 I was in Malta for the European Championships. This year in March, I’ll be in Turkey for the European Championships. I’m going abroad a lot, playing internationals, it’s great. I love it, you know, representing Wales.”
European championships
“I just started playing because I liked it and after a while, I was half decent at the game and started taking it seriously. I started entering the Welsh snooker competitions and one year I was high up in the rankings and then I got a call saying I was qualified for the European Championships. I qualified to go to Ireland to play in the Celtic Challenge. It’s been the same every year since.
“About two weeks ago I played Mark Selby in an exhibition. I’ve played Mark Williams, I’ve played Jack Lisowski.
“Tomorrow [last Sunday], I’m going to play Liam Davies. He is a recent professional for Merthyr. It’s always nice to play because I can see what standard I have to get to and it’s good experience.
“Liam is really supportive and has helped me out in the past and given me little tips. All the professionals like to see people do well. They were there once.”
Jak Jones
He said how inspiring it is to have 2024 World Snooker Championship’s finalist Jak Jones a regular in Redz.
William said: “It’s nice having Jack here, just watching him play. He’s a good role model for all of us in the junior club as well.”
And he thanked Ric Washer, the coach of the Redz Snooker Junior Academy.
He said: “Ric is a great coach. He’s got a really good sort of curriculum. The way he does different types of challenges.
“My ambition is to go professional or if I can’t go pro to at least be a high standard of the game. It’s very hard to go professional so realistically I’m just trying to do as best I can as there is nothing else I can do really.”