Andy Hicks says he still has what it takes to compete against the best players in snooker.
The 49-year-old Devon-born player, who trains in Cornwall, is ranked 59 in the world and has been a professional for more than three decades.
He reached the quarter-finals of the UK Championship in 2021 and the second round of this year’s Welsh Open.
“Getting to the quarter-finals of the UK Championship was a pinnacle for me a couple of years ago,” he said.
Hicks told BBC Radio Devon: “That was a little bit of belief then, I actually played pretty good snooker through that tournament and that gave me a bit more belief that I know I can still compete against the top boys.
“It just becomes a little bit harder, you lose that consistency I think as you get a bit older, but generally I feel like I’m playing pretty good snooker and I feel like I can compete still.”
Hicks made a name for himself in ranking events in the early part of his career, reaching the semi-finals of the European Open and Dubai Classic in 1993 before losing to Nigel Bond in the last four of the 1995 World Championship – and Ronnie O’Sullivan at the same stage of the 1996 Masters.
He dropped out of the main World Snooker Tour in 2013 but returned to the world’s top 64 in 2019 after qualifying through Q School.
Living near Launceston in Cornwall Hicks is forced to travel long distances to most of his events, something which takes its toll as he gets older.
“Because a lot of the matches are best of seven that’s a good thing for people who are a little bit older on the tour, because it’s not taking so much out of you daily.
“I find it a bit more tiring practising, but I keep myself fairly fit so that’s not really an issue, it’s more the travel side of it for me.
“Every time I go to a tournament, because most of them are up country it’s at least a four or five hour journey, and that definitely takes it out of me more so these days than it ever used to.
“I generally travel up on the day before, but I don’t practise when I get up there like I used to, I just normally chill out and then practise just before my match.”
With Hicks just a few places above the cut-off for keeping his tour card for another year, he has thought about a future without snooker – although he says he will not give up straight away.
“If I play this season and I fall off the tour – because I have been competing at a high level all season, albeit I probably wouldn’t have done that well this season – I think I’d probably go to Q School and see how it went from there, just to see if I could get back on.
“If I didn’t get back on through Q School I think I would pretty much retire for certain.
“I turned pro when I was 17, if you’d said I was still a pro coming up to 50 I would have laughed at you at 17,” he added.
“All you’re thinking at a young age is ‘hopefully I’ll do OK’, you never think it’s going to on 30-plus years.”
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