Everything about Mark J Williams totally explained
Mark J. Williams, MBE (born
21 March,
1975,
Cwm,
Ebbw Vale,
Wales) is a
Welsh professional
snooker player who has been World Champion twice, in
2000 and
2003. Often noted for his single-ball potting, he's earned the nickname,
The Welsh Potting Machine.
The only
left-handed player to win the
World Championship,
Williams has won 16 ranking tournaments (fifth on the all-time list), including the
UK Championship twice, in
1999 and
2002. He has also won the
Masters on two occasions. He has been ranked world number 1 for a total of three seasons in his career.
He is officially referred to as Mark J. Williams, to distinguish him from another
Mark Williams, an English player from the 1990s. On an occasion after winning a tournament, the prize money was sent to the other Mark Williams by mistake.
Career
Early Career
Williams started playing snooker at an early age, and scored his first century when he was 13. He won his first junior event when he was 11, and it was then that he realised that he wanted to pursue a career as a snooker player. If he hadn't had such talent as a snooker player he could well have followed his father, Dilwyn down the pits to work as a miner. When he was 15 he did a 12 hour shift down the mines. Williams was also a promising Amateur boxer but he was a runner-up in two other ranking events, the
UK Championship and
China Open, and he maintained his number 1 ranking, although his title defence in the
World Championship fell in the second round with a 12-13 defeat to
Joe Swail.
In the
2001/2002 season Williams only won one ranking tournament, the
China Open where he defeated
Anthony Hamilton 9-8 in the final. However, he lost to the same player 13-9 in the second round of the 2002
World Championship, and he lost his number 1 ranking to
Ronnie O'Sullivan.
Another strong performance came in the
2002/2003 season when he won the
UK Championship,
Masters and
World Championship titles. This made him the only the fourth player after Hendry, Davis and
John Higgins to hold these titles simultaneously, and only the third player after Davis and Hendry to have won them all in one year. These results enabled him to reclaim the number 1 spot at the of the season. In the
UK Championship final he beat
Ken Doherty 10-9, and in the
Masters he beat Hendry 10-4, in the last year of the event's sponsorship from Benson and Hedges.
Before the 2003 World Championship he'd a scare with his cue when it was damaged and badly bent on his flight with
Ryanair to play in the
Irish Masters, but he'd it repaired before the tournament.
On his way to winning the 2003 World title he beat
Stuart Pettman 10-4,
Quinten Hann 13-2, Hendry 13-7 and
Stephen Lee 17-8 before facing
Doherty in the final. He led 10-2 before Doherty fought back to 16-16. Williams regained his composure under intense pressure to win the last two frames and lift the trophy for the second time.
The following season he lost in the first round of the
UK Championship to
Fergal O'Brien, a match which saw an end to his run of 48 tournaments in which he'd won his first match, and saw him endure a run of poor form over the
2004/2005 season which saw him slide to 9th in the world rankings for 2005/2006.
His defence of the
World Championship started with a 10-7 win over
Dominic Dale, but he lost 13-11 in the second round to
Joe Perry.
2005-present
On
April 20, in
2005 he became the first Welshman, and the fifth player in history, to score a
maximum (147 break) at the
Crucible Theatre during the World Championship. This came in the final frame of a 10-1 first round victory over
Robert Milkins. But he lost in the second round to
Ian McCulloch 13-12, in a high quality match.
On
March 26,
2006, Williams won his 16th ranking title, and first ranking event in two and a half years, the
China Open in Beijing, beating Higgins 9-8 in the final. This helped him return to the top 8 in the world rankings, after a dramatic fall in the provisional rankings which saw him facing a possible drop out of the top 16. He also showed good form in the
2006 World Championships, beating
Anthony Hamilton 10-1 and
Mark Selby 13-8 to set up a quarter-final clash with
Ronnie O'Sullivan, the first time the two had met at the
Crucible, and the match was given extra tension considering they'd been rivals. Williams started well to lead 3-1 but was trailing 6-10 after two sessions, but won 5 consecutive frames to lead 11-10 before O'Sullivan took the next 3 to clinch victory 11-13. It was revealed during this tournament that Williams had split with coach
Terry Griffiths. The two remained very close friends, but Terry would no longer be coaching him. In late 2007, Williams returned to having Griffiths as his coach.
On
September 2,
2006, Williams won the
Pot Black trophy after racking up a century break (119) in the final against John Higgins. But, Williams had perhaps the worst season of his career in
2006/2007, losing his first match in a string of tournaments (including the World Championship, for the first time ever), but retained his top 16 place, mainly through the ranking points he'd earned the previous season.
He started the 2007/08 season at 12th on the official ranking list, but was out the top 16 in the provisional one. He lost his opening match in the
Shanghai Masters to
Stuart Bingham, which saw him slide out the top 32 on the provisional ranking list. He won his first match of the
2007/2008 season in the
Royal London Watches Grand Prix with a 4-3 win over
Ian McCulloch, but he still failed to qualify for the last 16 of the event.
In the
Maplin UK Championship, saw a return to some form. He beat
Ricky Walden comfortably 9-3 in the last 32, and in the last 16 he faced
Mark Allen who led 4-0 and 5-1. However, a remarkable comeback saw him win the remaining 8 frames to win 9-5. In the quarter-finals,
Stephen Maguire was too strong and beat him 9-5. Still, reaching the quarter-finals is a sign that Williams may be returning to form, boosted by the news that
Terry Griffiths is coaching him again.
However, after a 6-2 first round loss to Ken Doherty in the 2008 Masters, Williams revealed he was considering retirement from the game, although only 32 years old, if he dropped out of the top 32 and was forced to play in the qualifying competitions. But he also stated at the
Welsh Open at
Newport, that this statement had been blown out of proportion, and that he'd remain a professional. At the
Welsh Open he beat the current
Grand Prix champion
Marco Fu 5-4 in a thrilling encounter in the last 32, before being beaten 5-2 by an in-form
Shaun Murphy in the last 16. He also showed more consistency in the
China Open by reaching the quarter-finals with wins over
Marcus Campbell 5-1 and
Peter Ebdon 5-2 but couldn't reach his first semi-final for 2 years, being beaten 5-3 by
Ryan Day. His next outing was to the
World Championship where he cruised to a 10-3 victory over
Mark Davis. However, a 13-7 defeat to Ronnie O'Sullivan in the second round forced him out of the top 16, meaning he'll have to go through the qualifiers next year. In that match he was on the receiving end of a 147 from O'Sullivan.
Playing style
Williams is believed by some snooker pundits to be the one of the greatest long potters in the game. He has compiled over 200 competitive centuries during his career,
Personal Life
Williams is also a keen poker player. He is proud of his Welsh heritage, and has a tattoo depicting the
Welsh dragon eating the
English flag, he and his fiancée Joanne have two sons: Connor (born April 2004), Williams is good friends with
Matthew Stevens and
Stephen Hendry, as well as boxer
Joe Calzaghe. Williams was awarded an
MBE in June
2004.
Tournament wins and career rankings
Ranking wins
Other wins
Benson & Hedges Championship – 1994
Benson & Hedges Masters - 1998, 2003
Pot Black Trophy - 2006Further Information
Get more info on 'Mark J Williams'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://mark_j__williams.totallyexplained.com">Mark J. Williams Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
