‘I played Zhao Xintong before world title – we refereed ourselves’ | Other | Sport

Watching Zhao Xintong lift the World Championship trophy was a surreal moment for Steven Hallworth. Just a few months earlier, he had been playing China’s first Crucible king at a modest snooker club in Vienna in front of an audience of precisely one.

There was no referee, meaning the players had to retrieve their own balls from the pockets and score themselves. That’s the norm for life in the Q-Tour, snooker’s second tier and a gateway to full professional status. Zhao was obviously too good for such a level but it was a ladder he had to re-climb to get back on the World Snooker Tour after serving a ban for his minor role in the match-fixing scandal that rocked the sport in 2022.

“We were on Q-Tour together just over a year ago,” recalls Hallworth, who got back on the pro tour himself via the Q-Tour. “We played each other in a club with no one watching apart from my wife. We were refereeing for one another, picking balls out of the pockets.

“If you get to the semis, there are officials on-site but in the earlier rounds, it’s every man for himself. You do your own scores and hand in your sheet at the end.

“I think it was the quarter-finals and he beat me 4-2. He played unbelievably, making 137, 133, 90, he didn’t miss. My wife said to me as we were walking around the market in Vienna, ‘He’s good, isn’t he?’ So it was quite surreal to see him become world champion a few months later.”

Being less than 18 months older than Zhao, Hallworth, 30, has been aware of him since the Lincoln cueman’s first stint on the tour as a teenager. “I get on well with him,” says Hallworth, who will be part of the BBC commentary team at the Crucible. “We’ve grown up at the same time. When I first saw Zhao, he was a wildcard at some of the Chinese events when I was first on the tour.

“And I remember playing him on the Q-Tour back in 2018 in Burton upon Trent. We’ve kind of followed one another, although he’s gone on to do a lot more than I have!

“He always looked like he was going to be a handful but you never know if someone is going to fulfill their potential. He’s more than fulfilled it, hasn’t he?”

Given the circumstances surrounding his ban, his comeback wasn’t universally welcomed and he faced some difficult questions during his history-making run in Sheffield. Hallworth adds: “He’s served his time for whatever he did and he’s an amazing asset for the game.

“The game is better with someone like Zhao involved because he’s a special talent. Ultimately, the talent will shine through and people love watching him. I love watching him.”

Being world champion appeared to weigh heavily on Zhao over the first half of the season, where deep tournament runs were in short supply. However, he has made up for it over the second part of the campaign with wins at the World Grand Prix, the Players Championship and the Tour Championship. Zhao is many people’s favourite to retain his world title and break the ‘Crucible curse’, which has seen no first-team winner retain the crown.

“He’s the favourite for me,” says Hallworth. “The first round will be key because you can get some tough first-round ties at the Crucible. The opponent [a qualifier] will have at least two matches under their belt, so they’ll be sharp.

“He could play a former world champion or an event winner from this season. If he gets over that first hurdle, he’ll be the man to beat. Just look at how easy he made it look last year, and that was after coming through the savage qualifiers.

“He’s got this special ability to play the game without thinking of the externals. The Crucible curse won’t matter to him, he won’t care about that. If anyone’s not going to be bothered about it, it would be him. The way he plays – he conserves a lot of energy – that’s got to play a part over the 17 days.”