An interview with Patsy Fagan

Fagan is best known for becoming the first ever winner of the UK Championship in 1977 when he beat Doug Mountjoy 12-9 in the final in Blackpool.

 

The Champion of Champions crown soon followed which was a one-off tournament that was reserved for the current World Champion (John Spencer), Welsh Champion (Ray Reardon), Irish Champion (Alex Higgins) and Fagan himself of course as UK Champion.

 

26-years-old at the time, Fagan won the all-Irish final against 'Hurricane Higgins', which was staged at Wembley.

 

Fagan still enjoys being involved in the game with coaching and has been long-term coach of professional Alfie Burden as well as a few young upcoming players such as Jake Gill.

 

We met at my local club, the Brentham Club, where Fagan remembered having played before. On introducing the 58-year-old Irishman to some club players enjoying a frame, the current first team captain and secretary pointed to the table where they played each other back in the 70's and Fagan scored a century.

 

Over a cup of tea, he tells me how he was introduced to the game at 12 years of age by his older brother of a couple of years.

 

"My brother took me to the local snooker club in Dun Laoghaire, County Dublin, for the first time after he'd been playing a couple of years," he said. He showed me what to do, explained the basic rules like the order of the colours, and I picked it up quickly and could easily beat him straight away."

 

It was only after a few visits to the club that Fagan was making breaks of 30 and 40 and that tally rose to 60's and 70's after only a further six months.

 

"The game seemed to come so naturally to me that I fell in love with the game and after I turned 14, it was then I decided I wanted to try and become a really good player."

 

"It soon got to the stage when I wouldn't go home for dinner and my Mother was going mad saying I was 'living down that snooker club.' But I was making centuries now at 15 and then I had to go away because nobody [in the club] would play me so I had to start going into Dublin itself to play."

 

Fagan's first recognised tournament win came in the Irish Youth Championships. At the same time the wily and confident teenager, realising his potential, attempted to enter the Irish Amateur Championships by lying about his date of birth on his application.

 

There were many age restrictions surrounding the game of snooker back in the 60's however and Fagan was found out.

 

"They came to me just before the final of the junior tournament and told me I couldn't play in both tournaments. I think it should have been open to all ages and that I should have been allowed to play. It was a real shame because I probably would have won the Amateur [Championship] even at 15."

 

Fagan still loves to remember and talk about the days of self-promoted 'money matches' before snookers big boom and the start of televised professional tournaments.

 

"I remember going up to Manchester in 1972. Peter Caswell was my manager/backer at the time and he would fix matches for me with Paul Medarty, John Virgo and Willie Thorne. The atmosphere was great, all the money was in and we'd play the best-of-nine."

 

On one occasion, before Fagan was introduced to Caswell, another fixer, Johnny O'Dee, set up a match against Des Elrick at the Lucky Strike club in Stoke Newington, which was to be for serious money.

 

"We went into this place and there was only one table there as it was more of a card place which was full of gangsters. O'Dee was taking all the bets and there was £500 going on just the first frame."

 

"The bets got lower and lower as people realised I could play and I won five out of the first six frames. Anyway, I'm just about to clear up on the black in the next frame and a chair comes flying towards me, which ends up on the table."

 

The culprit claimed the match was fixed before a well-known local character, Jimmy Nash, calmed things down.

 

"Listen!" Nash said. "The kid is only winning a bit of change. I'm winning all the money. Now move that chair back, sit down and behave yourself." 

 

Thanks to Nash, Fagan and O'Dee managed to leave the premises safely with a good nights earnings of a few grand.

 

Coaching is increasingly becoming part of the game now but as Fagan explains it was all about teaching yourself and learning through trial and error when he was a young player.

 

"I was never coached at the game myself. You might have one or two people come and say something but I never had a coach. It would have been nice to have had a coach when I was younger which might have made a lot of difference."

 

"You can easily get into bad habits at this game and want to do things your way and you learn things as you get older."

 

"I was learning things in my twenties which I feel I should have picked up years before. With a coach, I'm sure I would have learnt those things earlier and so would have been a better player earlier.

 

"I didn't really peak until I was about 27 but I would probably have peaked five years before that with the help of a coach."

 

Fagan explained that it's not easy for a player to notice their own technical faults when down on the shot. But having a coach watching on would notice any problems straight away and prevent a player going on playing with the same flaws for weeks or even months. 

 

"When I watch Alfie [Burden], because I know his cue action so well, when he does something wrong I know right away. Even if he pots the ball I can see if there was something not quite right and pull him up on it."

 

Having had a few lessons from Fagan myself, I fully understand what he means and know how useful a coach can be in improving one's game. My striking of the cue ball has much improved and as a result, so too has my control of the white, thus helping my positional game.

 

Patsy Fagan is available for coaching and is based in northwest London. Rates are charged at £30 per hour.  You can book Patsy here at Maximumbreak.com