Meet the three Liams – snooker’s subsequent era and ones to look at in future

Liam Graham cuts a frustrated figure, just like many other teenagers.

The 19-year-old is one of the best young stars of the game and reached the last-32 of the Scottish Open, but it’s clear to see he’s not best pleased with his work. He’s on the tour for the first time, having been awarded a card after he overcame illness to win the 2023 EBSA European Under-21 Snooker Championships, held in Malta.

But his maiden season has been littered with early knockouts in tournaments, with some coming from agonising defeats. “It’s tough settling to the tour,” Graham admitted. “It’s so different to the amateur side, so it’s just a big transition.

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“There’s obviously a lot of travelling, but it’s how I expected. If you don’t perform, you don’t win matches, and that’s the cut and dry of it.” Graham, who started playing snooker at the age of six, is one of a handful of ‘Next Gen’ stars looking to make their way in the game.

Stan Moody and Liam Pullen are also finding life tough on tour, though both sit above Graham in the rankings. But the Scot, who practised as a youngster with Alan McManus, and has spent time training with Mark Allen, is fully focused on himself.

“I just do my own thing,” he confessed. “I don’t really care what others are doing. The tour’s not really made for progression. The tour is made so if you’re good enough, you’ll do well. If you’re not good enough, you won’t.

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“There’s not really a progression state of the tour, it’s all really cut and dry. First rounds, you’re playing higher ranked players. You’re not really playing people at the same level very often. You always end up playing somebody who’s been on the tour for 10-plus years.

“They’ve changed it for the UK and the Worlds. And that would probably be the best way for us all to progress. It means you can progress through the tour rather than just being flung into the 128.

“I think it should be a tiered system. Say I draw a top 16 player for so many events in a row, and then the player above me or below me draws somebody of our own rank each time, it’s not really the same.

“He’s actually playing a different level of opponent to me even though we’re on the same tour. If it was a tiered system, then you’d play everyone within your own rank until the second or third round. It would make it a lot fairer.”

As he regularly faces opponents higher up the rankings, Graham has faced difficulty in gaining any momentum throughout a tough debut season. With qualifiers for tournaments often played weeks before the main draw, the two-time Scottish Under-21 Championship winner has struggled to build up a head of steam.

“It’s different going to qualifiers to play one match, you’re not playing a tournament,” he said. “You win a qualifier and you might not play the tournament for three months. All the momentum you have gained from winning, you’ve lost it because you’ve played other qualifiers and maybe lost a few.”

But it’s not always bad news. Graham’s run to the last-32 of the Scottish Open in December was helped by first round opponent Ronnie O’Sullivan pulling out on the eve of the tournament. Graham called the Rocket “disrespectful” for pulling out with the seven-time world champion missing the tournament due to “medical reasons”.

However, O’Sullivan pulled out when drawn against Graham again for the Welsh Open, with the Scottish teen beaten by replacement Alfie Davies. “I’d be quite surprised if he was afraid of me,” Graham smirked. “I think he’s rebelling against World Snooker and just happened to draw me twice.

“It was a positive in the Scottish Open, but if I didn’t win the next game, then it was worthless. I had to back it up by winning. It’s just one tournament. You need a good few runs like that to cement yourself.

“I’m definitely good enough to be here, I just need to produce at the right times.” Graham will take stock in the summer in an attempt to climb up the rankings with him only having one year remaining on his tour card.

He will fall off the pro ranks unless he climbs into the top 64 which currently looks a long way off. “I just want to have a better season than this one,” Graham said, already looking ahead to the next campaign.

“Most seasons are always defined by the World Championships. You can have a good season, but if you do bad at the Worlds, it’s nearly irrelevant.

“It’s really the most important tournament of the year, and the money being so big and with the Worlds being at the end of the year, the end of a season can be quite draining.”

Well, the World Championship isn’t going anywhere fast, so Graham needs to get used to the gruelling schedule. He has been warned.

Liam Davies: I’m going for the very top

By Ben Crawford‌

If snooker’s spectators were akin to darts, chants of “he’s got school in the morning” would’ve rung around Sheffield in 2022.

A mere 15-minute drive away from the blessed Crucible, Liam Davies had made history, becoming the youngest-ever player to taste victory at the World Snooker Championship.

At 15 years 277 days old, even the now-omnipotent Luke Littler would’ve been jealous of such fresh-faced talent. “That victory was by far my favourite experience so far,“ he said. “It was just unbelievable, even though it was only in qualifying.

“I went in with no expectations and just wanted to give someone a game. All of a sudden, I found myself 5-5 against Jordan Brown, a few rounds before the Crucible.

“It didn’t go my way in the end, but it was stunning to have pulled off two good games. Some of those top guys, you’ve got to scrape them off the table.”

Now, the young Welshman is eager to follow in The Nuke’s footsteps and take his chosen sport by storm. “In the next few years, I see myself right at the very top,“ he added. “I have massive aspirations to be up there.

“For now, it’s been great having the experience to play in a load of rankings events the last couple of years. Having the little wildcards into the big tournaments and winning a few games has put me in good stead for the main tour – when I reach that.

“I’m an amateur at the minute, but I’m really hoping to get my tour card soon as it’s so expensive travelling around some of these events I’ve been lucky enough to get invited to. I wouldn’t be able to go to half these competitions without my sponsors, there’s not much prize money given out.”

Since speaking to Daily Star Sport he’s he secured his professional status, defeating Antoni Kowalski 5-3 in the final of the EBSA European Under-21 Championship in Bosnia & Herzegovina to earn a two-year World Snooker Tour card last month.

Davies, who is coached by World Championship quarter-finalist Lee Walker, hails from Tredegar, a stone’s throw from another Welsh legend’s place of worship.

He stated: “Mark Williams Snooker Club is unbelievably about a 10-minute walk from my house. I went down there for the first time when I was six. A guy behind the bar said to my dad, ‘You need to get somebody to have a look at him,’ and handed over Lee’s number – the rest is history.”

The Welsh Potting Machine often acts as a sparring partner for Davies, though the “Class of 92” cue star shares the role of “hero” with another.

“I’ve played with Mark every day for about two years now, and he’s been a great help to me. I’ve learned so much. He’s been a great inspiration and role model to have, but Ronnie O’Sullivan has to be another inspiration. Everybody just wants to be like him, really.

“You’d have had an unbelievable career if you won half of what he’s won. I think he’s my main hero, a hero for everyone my age. He’s the one everyone looks up to.

“He can just do whatever he wants, can’t he? I know people moan about him pulling out of tournaments and such but at the end of the day, he’s earned the right.

“If he doesn’t want to play one week, he doesn’t have to play.” The Rocket has achieved ranking title success on 41 occasions, and though just one is far down the pipeline for Davies, he’s already had a decent run at one close to home.

“The Shoot Out was amazing, especially being able to play in a game almost half an hour away from my house in Swansea,“ he added. The single-frame tournament, which was eventually won by Mark Allen and witnessed a stunning Shaun Murphy maximum, had a certain teenage Welshman reach its round of 16.

“There was a lot of moral support, and it was a massive buzz, said Davies. “Even though it was only the Shoot Out, it was still crazy to be only four frames away from winning a ranking title.”

The 17-year-old hasn’t exactly got a UK Championship in his cap like his idol O’Sullivan, but the youngest match-winner at the Worlds wants to come back for another go.

“I’d obviously love to win something like the Worlds a few times,“ he said. “But I think just to win it once would be such an achievement.

“If you could win it a couple of times, great, but I’m going to be taking things one tournament at a time. You never know what’s going to happen.

“Other than the Worlds, it’s The Masters or the UK Championship for me. They are by far the biggest events, and I’d love to get either of them ticked on my CV, too.”

Though he’s expressed an aspiration to lift a world title, he’s actually already achieved such a feat on multiple occasions, nevertheless. Holding five world titles all at once, including winning both the World Under-17 and Under-21 titles in Saudi Araba, are memories Davies holds fondly.

“I think I won around 55 games in a row, so that’s a nice record to have under my belt. Hopefully, I can push on into the professional game now. I don’t think that holding so many world titles will ever be done again.”

Liam Pullen: I love facing the best in the world

By Tom Sunderland

As far as debut seasons on the World Snooker Tour go, Liam Pullen looks like a man undeterred by professional company.

That’s considering some still wouldn’t consider the 18-year-old an adult, even if he is of legal drinking age. But the Yorkshire native has had to grow up fast since graduating from Q-School last year at age 17, earning his right to rub elbows with snooker’s elite for the next two terms.

Pullen is still getting used to the limelight and says “it’s a bit weird, people coming up to you for autographs,” albeit a change he’ll need to get used to in the years to come.

Earning rave reviews as a member of snooker’s Next Gen, the teenage talent already boasts wins over well-known stars like Stuart Bingham and Graeme Dott. Big names will inevitably grow more wary of his threat as his career progresses, but for now, Pullen is taking advantage of his lower profile.

“I think when you play a bigger name, you’re obviously the underdog,” he told us. “You can’t really lose, but in the long run, if you’re competing with the top players, it’s great for your game, just to see where you’re at.

“And exposing yourself to those situations at different venues, in front of the crowd in pressure situations against the top players – it’s what you play the game for. Yeah, it’s all good!”

It was a landmark moment when Pullen beat 2006 world champion Dott to qualify for last year’s International Championship in Tianjin, China. He later beat Thailand’s Noppon Saengkham to reach the last 32 of a ranking event for the first time, and the man who defeated him – Zhang Anda – went on to defeat Ronnie O’Sullivan and take home the £175,000 top prize.

He’s since had another education after losing 4-2 to Jack Lisowski in the first round of the 2024 Welsh Open. However, Pullen’s maturity is evidently way beyond his years as he takes such setbacks in his stride.

“It was great to gain experience in front of a crowd again,” he continued. “It’s just more experience under my belt. It was a tight game. I don’t think I was fully comfortable, so taking it into [future matches], I’ll have more experience to handle those situations better hopefully.”

While he may have already been toddling about by the time darts sensation Littler was born, it’s easy to see the comparison between two teenagers making waves in their respective sports. And it was in his equivalent of the World Championship that ‘The Nuke’ truly announced himself.

Pullen is hesitant when asked whether Littler’s breakout moment on the world stage gives him belief that he can achieve the same thing. Not down to a lack of inspiration, mind you, but simply due to the fact he doesn’t think such feats are feasible in his field.

“Yeah, sort of. But I think darts and snooker, they’re very different sports,” the Next Gen gem explained. “Darts, you’re not really playing against anyone. You’re just playing against the board and it’s about scoring as much as you can.

“I like my darts, and Luke Littler’s scoring is phenomenal. It’s good when you see someone like that, because I think everyone knew about him as an upcoming, tremendous talent. So his success at the World Championships was great, because him being a 16-year-old kid, really – even though he looks 30 – he’s made the sport a lot bigger.”

“[In snooker] because you’re playing against someone, you could just be sat in your chair! It depends how the game goes, but I think snooker, there are a lot of different parts to the game. Whereas I think in darts, there’s less to focus on maybe? But Littler’s an unbelievable talent. Ridiculous.”

Like Littler, Pullen dropped out of school to focus solely on his craft, though he did have an affinity for maths during his studies. It’s clear the York man never really considered a future outside the baize when asked what he might have been were it not for snooker, replying: “Maybe an accountant or something like that… I don’t know!”

It’s that same singlemindedness that drove success for the likes of O’Sullivan, whom he also considers his idol. However, there’s a second rival in that argument whom Pullen believes doesn’t get the credit he’s due.

“[Ronnie’s] the best player ever in my opinion, but if it’s not Ronnie, It’d probably be [Mark] Selby,” said the youngster. “Because I admire the way he battles. He’s quality. He can score like anyone when he’s on it and playing well.

“[Some] people think he’s very negative and this and that, but I think it’s quite disrespectful in a way. What he’s achieved as a player is just unbelievable.”

As far as idols go, a duo boasting a combined tally of 11 World Championships isn’t bad at all. And it may not be long before Pullen finds himself across a table from those same stars, not that he’s been dazzled in the slightest just yet.