Marcus Campbell and the non-giving up strategy

Marcus Campbell never let victory out of his sight

As you already know, the new champion of the EPTC 3 event is the Scot, Marcus Campbell. Although he is one terrific snooker player, he is still vaguely known in the world of snooker, and that’s given to his latest shadowing appearance in the charts.


Born in the evergreen Scotland on September 22, 1972 he felt in love with the sport of snooker and turned pro in 1991. He has never won a major ranking tournament but that doesn’t make him a less valuable player.
He reached the semifinals during the last PTC event, the sixth one, but he was hammered with a 4-1 scoreline by Martin Gould and his road ended there. Still he didn’t give up the fight and returned to win a title in the third EPTC event, as I told you before.
He had a very interesting evolution in this competition as he defeated Stephane Ochoiski 4-1, Mark Joyce by the same 4-1 score and Kyren Wilson 4-2. As he reached the Last 16, he returned to his prompt 4-1 result defeating Robert Milkins and Judd Trump. He struggled for the victory in the semis, as his Irish opponent Ken Doherty was in a very good form, but he finally ended the match on a 4-3 scoreline. The final is not a mystery anymore, for he totally whitewashed China’s Liang Wenbo 4-0.


But beyond this fresh success, Marcus had written history in 1998, as he crashed the one and only man who owns seven world champion titles, Stephen Hendry with a 9-0 score in the UK Championship (the last 64 round). Soon after, Stephen will have acknowledged that this was the lowest point of this career.
But there’s more to this story - still 1998 and the same Stephen Hendry was about to be defeated again, this time by a 5-3 score in the last 16 round of the Scottish Open at Aberdeen.
So it seems like Campbell was always so close to the victory, but not close enough to really touch it. He always had fought with big names from the snooker business, but not quite succeeded to be crowned.


In 2008 he saw his dream come true as he hit the maximum break of 147 during the Bahrain Championship.
"I’m chuffed, I can’t believe it. The reds were perfect from the start although I had a massive kick on 73. I didn’t land on anything but took a chance and managed to pot the black and move the three reds that were left," said the Scot.


Although he dropped out the rankings for a few years, leaving behind the top 50, his latest performances and achievements guarantees him a nice place into the top 32, as for the "Order of Merit" for the PTC/EPTC series he has a really good chance to enter the 24 players due to take part in the grand final next year.
For a snooker player to have an open mind and to keep it cool are the guns to success. For if you let doubt to surround your soul, fear or a bad moral to live and bread inside you, you are doomed to never touch a title again. Marcus Campbell is a very good example of a person who stood through the test of time, never gave up hope and never stopped practicing.
"I always kept the faith. I've always practiced hard, and sometimes you get the rewards, sometimes you don't. Two years ago, I switched clubs and started playing with the likes of Stephen Maguire, John Higgins and Graeme Dott. And that has made a big difference. Since then, I've got the rewards.", said Marcus.


I personally think that this guy showed us what determination and hope can do to a person. He described so good the sport of snooker with his ups and downs, with the rewards or the kick ass times. But in the end, what really matters, what really makes a difference, what makes YOU stand up from the crowed is that, as a very cool commercial says, you have to: “Keep walking!". ;-)


Congratulations to a real champ! :-)