You may not be into snooker, dear reader. You may not be into sport at all. But really, this is not about sport. In losing yesterday to Stuart Bingham in the quarter-final of the World Snooker Championship, Ronnie O’Sullivan proved himself a contender for the world’s most sporting sports star. He may have lost, but in doing so he showed there are still standards in public life, and some people do care about doing the right thing. Not something we see often these days.
Here’s what happened. Yesterday afternoon, with Ronnie leading by six frames to five, he potted a black ball. When it was returned to its spot, it should have obstructed his next red ball, making it trickier for him to progress. But there was a tiny divot on the table, and the black ball wobbled ever so slightly from its spot, making access to the red simple. Ronnie wasn’t having any of it. He asked the ref time and again to replace the black to make it more difficult for him. But the black wasn’t having any of it either, and kept bobbling away.
In the end, Ronnie did the unthinkable. He refused to pot the simple red. Instead, he played a difficult defensive shot to the end of the table. The shot cost him the frame and, arguably, the match. It’s one of the most noble gestures we’ll ever see. As Ronnie was lining up for the shot, the former snooker world champion Neil Robertson, who was providing TV commentary, said: “If he plays safe here this will be probably the greatest bit of sportsmanship I have ever seen in any sport.”
Sure enough, Ronnie played safe. “Unbelievable! That is incredible!” the awed Robertson concluded. Robertson’s right: it was incredible. This was a shot that both defined and transcended sport. It was everything we’d learned about sportsmanship at school (if we had decent teachers). But it was also about the best of humanity – morality, bravery, sacrifice and sheer bloody goodness.
Yes, I’m biased (I’ve written a couple of books with O’Sullivan and have declared my undying love for the Rocket before in these pages). And Ronnie’s not always behaved well at tournaments. Indeed, he was far from perfect in this match – punching the table in frustration, arguing with the referee, Desislava Bozhilova, and telling her to “chill”. But when it comes to the big decisions, Ronnie’s always going to make the right one.
What makes it so memorable is that it comes in an age when we expect political leaders to cheat, lie, profiteer and tell us black is white. Could you imagine Trump, Putin or Netanyahu refusing the pot? Or Sunak and Starmer sacrificing the easy win because it’s the principled thing to do?
Great sportsmanship is as memorable as great sport. Think of the time Jack Nicklaus conceded a two-foot putt to Tony Jacklin at the conclusion to the Ryder Cup in 1969, because he couldn’t bear the thought of Jacklin missing it. The match was halved, resulting in the first tie in Ryder Cup history. It was a magnificent gesture at a magnificent event.
Similarly, when Liverpool’s Robbie Fowler jumped over the Arsenal goalkeeper David Seaman in a vital match and the ref gave a penalty. Fowler frantically waved his hands to tell him Seaman hadn’t touched him. The ref ignored his noble protests and the penalty went ahead. Fowler took it, Seaman saved it and sadly, Jason McAteer scored from the rebound. Fowler won a Uefa Fair Play award for his reluctance to accept the penalty.
Great sporting gestures don’t need to involve sacrifice. They can be about empathy and compassion. In the second Test of the great 2005 Ashes series, Australia fell short of victory by two runs. The fast bowler Brett Lee had almost seen them home to victory. While others were celebrating, Andrew Flintoff knelt down to console the distraught Lee. Wonderful.
Ronnie himself has been involved in a similar moment. After he demolished Ding Junhui 10-3 in the 2007 final of the Masters, Ding wept. Ronnie gave him a much-needed cuddle, kiss and pep talk. It’s never nice for Rocket fans when he goes out of a major tournament. Actually, it’s not nice for snooker full-stop, as you’d be hard pressed to find a snooker fan who isn’t a Ronnie fan. But if he wasn’t going to break the record this year, he couldn’t have left us with a better memory.
Sadly, there isn’t currently a World’s Most Sporting Sports Star award. Perhaps it’s time for sport’s bigwigs to come up with one. In the meantime, we do have Sports Personality of the Year, and what could be more deserving of that title than Ronnie’s gesture to show integrity is even more important than winning? That’s a message many of our politicians and others in public life should heed.
Simon Hattenstone is a features writer for the Guardian
