Snooker's big break: ‘The dream isn’t just to turn pro, it’s more than that’, says York teenager Liam Pullen

And as the 18-year-old approaches the end of his first calendar year as a full-time professional on the World Snooker Tour, it’s fair to say his snooker apprenticeship is destined for a big break.

The rookie potter beat former world champion Graeme Dott in the International Championship – reaching the last 32 in China – while he also battled through to the same stage at this month’s Shoot Out.

And just this week, Pullen beat another Crucible winner – the 2015 world champion Stuart Bingham – 5-1 in the German Open qualifiers to secure safe passage to Berlin in January.

“Turning professional is your first target,” said Pullen, who lost to Halifax’s Stan Moody in the World Juniors final in Australia in February. “But the dream isn’t just to turn pro, it’s more than that.

“I have achieved turning pro, the first step on the ladder.

“I have had a couple of good tournaments, not as many as I would have liked.

“It was a good experience in China, that’s probably my best memory of the season so far. But I want more, and maybe towards the end of the season I can start to play better.

“People who know me will tell you I practice extremely hard. I try to improve all the time, I certainly put the hours in training.

“I am learning the game. I started my A-Levels, but I just couldn’t do them both together and I had to make a decision.

“I had to make a decision between A-Levels and snooker. Obviously I chose snooker and I do not regret it one bit, because of how I have progressed so far.

“From 16 I have always been disciplined with my snooker, a hard grafter. If you love something so much, you want to be the best you can be. It’s tough, but it just comes naturally,” said Pullen, who attended Joseph Rowntree School in New Earswick, York.

“With snooker, if you look at the top players, they all went full-time very early. When you are young you can absorb information very fast. To be honest I wish I had done it earlier.

“When you are a junior, how good you are can be how much you played. When I was a junior I only played three or four times a week, a couple of hours each time. I was competing against players playing full-time.”

Lockdown in 2020 during Covid was a setback. It meant Pullen went 12 months without picking up a cue, as he was unable to train.

He said: “Covid didn’t help. I didn’t play for a year. I know other juniors around my age were practicing at the time, and I wasn’t. When you are young, a year is quite a big chunk of time when you can improve.

“I didn’t play for a year. Picking up a cue after not playing, it just looked so thin. It was quite painful, I just couldn’t play. Very annoying.”

The teenager has come a long way from the little lad who used to watch snooker on television with his family.

“When I was six my grandma bought me a small table, and then I started playing on full-size tables when I was about 10,” he recalled.

“I always watched it on television, but I always wanted to be a snooker player. I never really thought about doing anything else.

“I used to play football, I played for Wigginton Grasshoppers. But I packed it in when I was 13. I was left-back, captain for about three years. I was the vocal one, telling people what to do. People say I am quiet, but I have quite a loud voice when I want to.”

There was plenty for Pullen to shout about in Sheffield on Wednesday, when he caused an upset by knocking out former world champion Bingham in the German Open qualifiers. He knocked in breaks of 73, 80, 56 and 72, and will fly out to play at the impressive Tempodrom next month.

But fellow York cueman Ashley Hugill lost out in the qualifiers on Thursday, going down 5-2 to Mark Davis.

Pullen trains at Northern Snooker Centre in Leeds, a hotbed for local talent including father-and-son Peter and Oliver Lines, David Grace and Sanderson Lam.

“The training is very good, especially for me for where I am at the moment,” said Pullen. “It’s perfect.

“I am quite a humble person, it keeps me grounded.”

The English Under-18 champion earned a two-year card on the World Snooker Tour after qualifying via Q School.

Life on Tour can be tough, both financial and emotional, but Pullen is fortunate to be surrounded by a good support team.

“I am very lucky, my parents (Nicky and Craig) help me a huge amount, I have a few good sponsors, and the Northern Snooker Centre help me. It’s been an alright year. I want to keep improving, but I have learned a lot. There’s plenty more to learn, but the way I am, I am very critical. The first target is to stay on Tour after two years. But it’s tough, very tough.”