Joe Perry was born in 1974, one year before the “Class of 92” trio and started playing as a pro in 1992 just like them. He doesn’t have their record, but he has been, and still is, a very, very solid player, well respected by his peers. He has been ranked as high as 8th in the World, and, at 46, he is still ranked 20th.

Joe was interviewed by WST ahead of this season

Here it is

Perry Refreshed For New Season

World number 20 Joe Perry believes the starkness of the sporting reality throughout the coronavirus pandemic has acted as a catalyst for him to inject new enthusiasm into his preparation for tournaments this season.

The Cambridge cueman struggled to produce his best snooker during the 2020/21 campaign, registering just one quarter-final appearance, which came at the UK Championship.

Having toiled under behind closed doors conditions, 46-year-old Perry hopes that the light at the end of the tunnel in terms of the return of spectators can inspire him to up his standards.

With the new season just weeks away, we’ve spoken to Perry about how he coped last season, his thoughts on the year ahead and how he found working as a commentator at the World Championship…

Joe, how are you feeling about the new season and how much are you looking forward to potentially returning to a more normal circuit?

“Last year gave me an opportunity to think about what I want to do. I decided that I want to really get my head down, stay up the top for a bit longer and aim to win another trophy. Everyone has been forced into different sorts of situations over the last year. I was very lucky to have a table at home, so I could play when I wanted to. Ultimately I didn’t really utilise it. That made me look at things with a bigger perspective and I made a conscious decision to make more of an effort this season. I’ve realised that playing every other day for a couple of hours isn’t going to cut it. That may have been good enough several years ago, but it isn’t anymore. I’m looking forward to the season, getting back in the club and I’ve already had some games with other players. You need to be ready, because the standard is too high.”

Who have you been practising with so far this summer?

“I’ve had a couple of games with Peter Devlin, he is keen and happy to come to the club and play. I’ve got games lined up with Sean Maddocks and young Jamie Wilson as well. All of these people were contacting me for games last year and I just wasn’t really interested. I would come up with excuses and put them off. I’ve accepted the offers this time. I’m hoping to keep busy this year and see what happens. It doesn’t give you a God given right to win matches but it will give me a chance.

“I’ve really enjoyed playing with the younger guys. I know how tough it is when you are starting out to get games with the higher ranked players. Some of them can be pretty elusive and hard to get hold of, so I try to make myself available. Hopefully it can help them to progress and come through. I’ve never been very high on confidence as a player. When I play these young players, they are full of life and full of confidence. That helps me. It also reaffirms that I can play the game, because ultimately I do normally win these practice matches. It shows to me that I do have a future in the sport.”

Your only victory on the tour so far came in Thailand at the 2015 Players Championship. How much would it mean to you to win one on home soil and be able to share it with friends and family?

“That is the main thing that is keeping me going, my biggest motivation. Don’t get me wrong, I’d jump at the chance to win something overseas, but to do it at home and be able to share that with friends and family is a big motivation of mine. I do believe that I have that win in me. Whether it comes or not, I don’t know. There are 128 of us starting out the season all believing we can go out and win one. Things have to go your way on a given week. There is no reason if those things come together that I can’t do it. I just have to be on my guard at all times because it is so tough.”

What did you miss most last season from the normal snooker environment?

“One of the things I really did miss last season was not being able to go out and watch the matches in the arena. I’ve never been one for sitting around in my hotel room and watching box sets. Going out into the arena helps me to get a feel for things. I like to be in and around the player’s lounge, chatting to people and watching the snooker. I really missed that and found killing time in between matches really difficult last year.

“I think I get more benefit from watching a match in the arena for an hour, than I do having an hour on the practice table. Practising for an hour isn’t going to give me a better chance of winning a tournament, but if I stay engaged with the whole thing and concentrate on snooker stuff, I feel I’m better prepared for my next match. I turned up for so many matches last year feeling like I was about to go for a best of seven down at the club. Because the standard is so ridiculously high these days, you can’t afford to have that attitude. You need to be switched on at all times. I did lose a lot of matches last year which I was quite a heavy favourite to win. My normal preparation just wasn’t available to me and I found myself going into games very cold.”

You commentated for the BBC at the World Championship for the second year in a row. How did you find the experience and do you see TV work as the path you would like to go down when you hang up your cue?

“It was great, as I’ve already said, I’ve really missed not watching snooker. Being in the commentary box gave me an opportunity to watch snooker. I feel like I know the game pretty well and I’ve bridged eras in snooker. The game was very different when I started out and I watched a lot of that. I’ve now seen it progress to the modern style of snooker. I feel like I’ve got something to give with it and I enjoy it and like passing on my knowledge. I get a bit of a buzz out of watching the play and I have no favourites when I’m watching so I’m pretty impartial.

“You just say it as you see it and if it comes across well, then all good. You do learn though and get more comfortable with what you are doing. In the early days I was never sure if I was saying too much or not enough. Working with people like John Virgo this year was an eye opener.  It is great to be up close to these people. They are there for a reason, because they are so good at it. Virgo is a legend in the commentary box and I feel like I learned a lot working with him.

“It is something I’ve been thinking about a lot, with my results dipping in the last couple of years. I’m not silly, I know it is going to come to an end one day. There are players I grew up with who have been hanging on to their tour card. I’m not doing that. I’ll put it on record now and say that once I drop off the tour, I won’t be going to Q School. That will be me done. I’ve played snooker all of my life and I don’t really have that passion for anything else. So ultimately if the opportunity was available to go down the punditry and commentary route I’d go for it. That would be my dream really, if I could nail that down I’d jump at it.”

Joe has only won one ranking title, the 2015 Players Championship, when that tournament was the “conclusion” of the PTC/ATC season and the reward for the 32 “best” in that series of events. Joe had been the player who had dominated the Asian Tour Championship that season, earning 12000 points on that tour; only Stuart Bingham (10600) and Ding Junhui (11500) had come close. A lot of UK/European players had given the ATC a miss, but not Joe. He loves playing, always has and he would take every opportuniry offered to him.

In the above interview, Joe explains that he loves practicing with younger players and why. This interest, and care, for the younger players is nothing new. Joe has always been like that. When Neil Robertson arrived in the UK, a penniless teenager, Joe helped him massively. Neil has got a much better career than Joe, but he wouldn’t be where he is today without Joe’s help. It’s well worth reading this piece by Nigel Slater. As he was potting the last balls to win the 2014 Wuxi Classic, Neil had tears in his eyes. He would never lose on purpose but he would have been happier if it was Joe clearing the table that time.

Also, Joe mentions that he likes to sit in the arena and watch. Indeed I have spotted him doing that countless times when I was around the tour. Mark Williams is another one who does it too. Snooker is in his blood. Joe says that he won’t go to Q-School if he was to drop off the tour. Maybe… He certainly will not want to embarrass himself, but I’m not so sure that he will be able to stay away for good. Seniors Tour maybe?

After rookie Dean Young, it’s veteran Anthony Hamilton’s turn to get interviewed by WST.

Reinvention Refuelling The Sheriff

Former German Masters champion Anthony Hamilton says that constant reinvention has been crucial for prolonging his time on the tour and maintaining his standards.

The 50-year-old admits he is in the twilight period of his career, having suffered from eye and back problems in recent years.

Hamilton enjoyed a career highlight victory at the 2017 German Masters, defeating Ali Carter 9-6 in the final to pick up a maiden ranking crown after 26 years as a professional.

In the years that followed, world number 54 Hamilton has only reached a further two ranking event semi-finals. However, the Sheriff of Pottingham is now preparing for his 31^st season on the circuit and takes satisfaction in the longevity that represents.

Hamilton said: “I think the longevity is something to be proud of. At least it shows you can stay the course. You need to get out of bed every day and go again, which of course everyone needs to do in real life. To spend 31 years doing the same thing, you do have to reinvent yourself quite often. You need to try to find new goals and new styles of thinking to keep things fresh. Snooker doesn’t change. You may change as a person, but snooker remains exactly the same as when you were a 16-year-old. Once you start playing, you turn into a medieval man and start competing with others again. To me the competition is the best part of it.

“The adrenaline rush of going to a match and preparing for a match still gives me a buzz. I am quite a finicky guy, so it takes a couple of hours preparing for a game and doing very precise things. It all builds up and is a routine I have from over the years. I like that. It takes up your soul and all of your thinking. Then you go and play like an idiot and get back to improve in the next one! Hopefully you get your day in the sun. Fortunately, I’ve had a couple of days where I’ve experienced the starry bit at the end of it. That is really fun, but I even enjoy qualifiers and trying to beat the youngsters.

“The reinvention is mostly thinking and mostly mental. You also can’t keep doing the same thing if it isn’t working, as that is madness. If you are playing at a certain speed or being too defensive or too attacking, you just have to see what works. Nothing works forever in snooker, unfortunately everything has a shelf life. The brain works out that you are hoodwinking it and it gets bored. That is just how it is. You can change your thought pattern, but you always have to be humble and know the game will always win. You just have to do as well as you can.”

Having spent a large part of his career chasing a maiden ranking title, Hamilton believes that he could have been more malleable with his mindset during his younger years. With his playing career heading towards its latter stages, Hamilton is starting to look towards a potential move into coaching and hopes that his experiences, both positive and negative, can help budding professionals.

“I don’t think I did enough reinvention when I was younger. You get stuck in a rut thinking you are doing the right thing, but the results should tell you that. If the results are great, just keep on doing it. When the results weren’t going my way, I should have changed my mindset a little bit more. When you are younger there are more things going on, life gets in the way and you just can’t be bothered going that deep into it. You also think you are invincible when you are younger. When you are older you realise you need to put more into it. That is what coaches are for, trying to pass more advice on. Hopefully when I get into coaching I can pass my advice and my experiences on. I think by doing that, it can cut down the learning process. It took me 30 years to figure things out, hopefully I can cut that down to three or four months with another player.

“I’m interested in all walks of coaching and all standards, but especially young professionals finding their feet. I think it is helpful for young players to listen to people who have done it, good and bad, but especially bad. They learn more off that. Most of my coaching will be based off what I should have done rather than what I did. You learn more if you are struggling then when you are doing well. Hopefully I can impart some of that knowledge.”

Despite being one of the sport’s most respected figures, Nottingham’s Hamilton is typically modest about his achievements in snooker, a trait which contributes towards his popularity on the circuit and among fans. The former world number ten does believe that he has underachieved, but Hamilton carries no regrets and is determined to make the most of his remaining days on the tour.

“I’m not particularly proud of my career. I did alright. I lived too much of a lifestyle in my 20s and 30s. I’m not bothered about that, because I had a good time. Winning a tournament was the icing on the cake for me. Playing tough matches, losing tough matches, winning tough matches and getting out of bed for something I wanted to do was a blessing. Most people live doing something they don’t want to do. I’ve been very lucky in that regard.

“I’ll lose a little bit of focus and direction in my life when I retire, until I find something else to do. Sportspeople are a little bit wacky, as we need all of these things in place to get through the day and a tournament. I’ll miss that, but I’ll replace it with other things, whether that be coaching or commentary. Hopefully I’ll change my lifestyle and be more relaxed, because as a professional snooker is always in the back of your mind. It will be nice to shut those voices down and chill out.”

As you would expect with Anthony, it’s a quite interesting interview. Anthony is intelligent, modest, unconventional and blessed with a wicked sense of humour. He’s also his own man and a very, very fine player. It’s hard to understand how he hasn’t won more: only he will know… maybe. If he takes on coaching, those who are willing to listen will learn a lot, mainly about the mental and tactical sides of the game.

This may be his last season. He’s provisionally 75th on the end-of-season ranking list. He needs to catch up about 10000 to get in the top 64, which of course earning a lot more.