Lockdown or Snooker Depression, or both?

Gary Wilson must be having a hard time of it lately.. In this match against Higgins, he really seems to lose it..

Fair play to the Ref and John Higgins for not making much of it....

Dominic Dale seems to be going into overdrive propounding all of the rules/infractions that Gary had broken..

I only saw this last night on YouTube, although I think it happened a few weeks ago...

Think it brings into sharp focus how much of a tough slog the old snooker game is, and how this lockdown (I'm sure it wasn't helping his mood) gets to everyone.

It's okay for folk like Ronnie, who sometimes says that he likes the way things are nowadays; with the peace/solitude etc,, and less hassle from fans..

But, for the ordinary journeyman that's not in the top 16, or flitting in and out of it; let alone those outside the top 32, with a decent payday few and far between; well it's not easy....

Just putting this up in case anyone's interested, or hadn't seen, or heard about this incident...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MUWp5lmsrQ

Gary is/was a quality player, and likely one that inspired a few others, with his run at the WC a few years back. Hopefully he'll come back brighter, as the song goes.

Joe_ Public

Looking at gary tonight, looks like he's going to pull through a sticky encounter with belfast man Gerard Greene. Some bit of badly needed good cheer for him anyway.

I would agree snooker is a tough life. Its a great sport and i'd dearly love to have been good enough to have a go at it, but never any illusions about the glory or glamour of it, traipsing around all those grimy northern english towns, playing qualifiers in cubicles in big soulless convention centres. Crack the top 64 and you might just earn a liveable income if you can find a bit of sponsorship on top of it.

I'd say if you were anyway prone to dark moods or introspection before you set out, a year or two on the circuit could easily push you over the edge. Fellas winning 2 or 3 matches a season, earning no money, in a spiral of defeat after defeat. That can't be fun. And not even the low ranked guys. I remember barry hawkins interviewed at the crucible last year, documenting how worn out and drained he felt. Reckoned a few players were feeling the same. I love the sport but i believe its got to be one of the most mentally demanding of them all. You're constantly in your head, whether in your chair or out of it. There's just no escape from it and i'd bet there are a lot more stories of lads struggling mentally than we get to hear about.

Gaoth Laidir

Poland's only professional snooker player, Kasper Filipiak, chucked it in after losing in the third Q round yesterday. He's made £15,000 this year, including the $10,000 he got for winning the first two rounds. He had announced a sponsorship deal with a Polish company only back in November.

https://www.onet.pl/sport/onetsport/snooker-kacper-filipiak-zakonczyl-sportowa-kariere/7s64nvd,d87b6cc4

Gaoth Laidir

I've hear that Filipiak's Polish sponsor, TT Plast, is embroiled in a corruption investigation in Poland in the last few weeks, so I wonder if this pulled the plug on him.