1988/89: Doug Mountjoy and his Indian Summer

How a former fishmonger rejuvenated the career of 46-year-old Doug Mountjoy at the start of the 1988/89 snooker season.

April 1988: As Doug Mountjoy shook hands with Neal Foulds at the Crucible, reality struck. The 13-1 defeat in the second round of the World Championship in Sheffield was bad enough, yet it was an appropriate end to a disastrous season that would see the Welshman slip outside of the top 16 for the first time in 11 years.

"I didn't have a game," Mountjoy revealed after the 1988 UK Championship. "It's difficult to find out what you're doing wrong." For a man about to turn 46, it appeared that he was past the point of no return. "I understood there was nowhere else to go unless it was surviving down the bottom end of the ladder."

Mountjoy had come to the sport relatively late in life. A former miner, he won the 1976 World Amateur title, before turning professional at the age of 34. Winning the 1977 Masters and 1978 UK Championship, Mountjoy's star continued to rise. 

Reaching the 1981 World Championship final - losing 18-12 to Steve Davis - Mountjoy moved to a then career high of No6 in the world rankings. Winning the Welsh Professional Championship four times between 1980-1987, Mountjoy also helped Wales win the World Cup in 1979 and 1980.

But as the 1980s progressed, the fortunes of Mountjoy declined. Struggling to remain in the top 16, a run of poor tournament displays in 1987/88 confirmed his departure from the top band of players in the sport. Even Yazz and the Plastic Population would have struggled to convince snooker enthusiasts that the only way was up for the popular Welshman.

Enter Frank Callan. A retired fishmonger and former amateur player of some repute, Mountjoy turned to the 64-year-old Callan for help in February 1988. Callan's coaching philosophy centred on finding out the dominant eye of a player, and his work with Terry Griffiths, John Parrott and women's world champion Allison Fisher showed that he could get results.

"Doug's game was in a dreadful state when we got together in February 1988," Callan writes in Coaching with Callan. "He had been playing by sheer instinct - he was that sort of player - but finally the game caught up with him." Changing Mountjoy's cueing action and address position - making sure his dominant right eye was over the cue ball - Callan was encouraged as the 1988/89 season developed.

There were ups and downs. Defeating defending champion Stephen Hendry at the 1988 Rothmans Grand Prix, Mountjoy looked set for a place in the last eight when he led Alain Robidoux 4-0 in the next round. His 5-4 loss was hard to take, but the signs were good. "What Doug had to do was to believe in himself again and realize he could be a winner," Callan said.

The 1988 UK Championship provided the world No24 with the opportunity to build on his new found confidence. Beating Wayne Jones, Joe Johnson and Dean Reynolds at the Guild Hall in Preston, Mountjoy set up a clash with John Virgo in the quarter final. He would succeed in reaching his first ranking tournament semi-final since 1986, but by the skin of his teeth.

Leading 8-3 and requiring just one frame to progress, Mountjoy looked on in horror as Virgo reeled off five frames in a row. When Virgo missed a black off the spot in the decider, Mountjoy took advantage. "He's been out of it so long at this level that he's forgotten how to win," Callan had stated after Mountjoy's win over Johnson. But finding a cure for his "Clincher's disease" against Virgo was a turning point.

"I've never felt as relaxed as this," Mountjoy revealed after his 9-4 semi-final win over Griffiths. Indeed, the Welshman was so laid back that he informed the press that he had fallen asleep in his dressing room during an interval. A final against Hendry - watched by a peak audience on the BBC of 13.2 million - would be a full examination of Mountjoy's new state of mind. But he would come through the test with flying colours.

Missing a frame ball for a 7-2 lead, Mountjoy watched Hendry bring the match back to 6-6, before the players exchanged frames for an overnight score of 7-7. And then came the session that justified all the work Mountjoy and Callan had put in. With Mountjoy winning all seven frames, Hendry was understandably in awe: "This afternoon's session was the best anyone's ever played against me."

When Mountjoy took the first frame of the next session with another century break - his third in a row, including the highest televised break of 131 - he was now one frame from claiming the £80,000 prize. The nerves increased when Hendry won five consecutive frames. But Mountjoy stood firm, winning 16-12 to claim the UK Championship ten years after his triumph in the same tournament.

An emotional Mountjoy was quick to praise his coach. "I went to Frank Callan. He's helped me so much, he must be sick of seeing me. Without that guy I'm nothing." "It was generous of Doug to give me so much credit afterwards," Callan recalls. "But it had been such a pleasure working with a genuine trier that the satisfaction of his success was the big thing for me."

Incredibly, Mountjoy was not finished there. The next ranking event in January 1989 would see him win again, the Welshman claiming the Mercantile Credit Classic at the Norbreck Castle Hotel, Blackpool. 

The road to the final was bumpy in places. Needing to win the last two frames to beat Nick Terry in the first round, Mountjoy then saw off Tony Knowles in another decider during a four-hour match. Fighting off a comeback from Paddy Browne in the last eight, Mountjoy would come up against Cliff Thorburn in the semi-final.

The Canadian had beaten Mountjoy in their last six matches, but despite leading 5-4 he was powerless to fight off a player in the form of his life. Winning five frames in a row, Mountjoy was through to the final to play compatriot Wayne Jones, a player who had been priced at 250/1 to win the tournament.

Jones had beaten Jimmy White, John Parrott and Willie Thorne on his way to the final, and at one point moved into an 11-9 lead. But Mountjoy came again, taking four frames on the spin to add £55,000 to his healthy season earnings, and another ranking event to his CV.

"It's amazing what's happened to me," Mountjoy said, after being unable to speak for a few tearful minutes. "I've struggled here in second gear and it can't be bad to win like that." Jones summed up Mountjoy's renaissance: "Doug has done fantastically to win these two ranking events in succession. It wasn't that long ago he couldn't win two matches in succession."

Later in the season Mountjoy would win his fifth and final Welsh Professional Championship. And although he exited the World Championship at the first round stage, there could be no doubting that it was a season to savour. Returning to the top 16, by 1990 he climbed to a career high of world No5, before a fight against lung cancer saw him drop down the rankings, and finish playing on the regular circuit by 1997.

"He was prepared to sink or swim with me," Callan reveals. Through hard work and dedication, Mountjoy floated back to the surface and glided through the previously choppy waters to enjoy a swansong. It was a partnership made in heaven that provided an Indian Summer for the popular Welshman.