Injured and Barefoot: Quinten Hann’s memorable 2000 UK Snooker Championship performance
Quinten Hann had to play shoeless and through the pain barrier at the 2000 UK Championship, but ended up enjoying one of the most lucrative weeks of his professional snooker career.
Colourful, controversial, charismatic, but very talented, Hann is one of the most memorable players from the top-flight snooker scene this side of the millennium.
It was apparent from an early age that Hann had supreme skills with a cue in his hand. The Australian - from Wagga Wagga in New South Wales - enjoyed a brilliant junior career that culminated in him winning the 1994 World Under-21 Snooker Championship held in Helsinki, Finland after ousting future ranking event champion David Gray, 11-10, in the final.
A few years earlier at the 1991 World Masters - a short-lived Barry Hearn project that resembled a Wimbledon tennis-style set-up with with different categories and events - a 13-year-old Hann became the youngest player to make a televised century break with an effort of 100 in the junior competition.
Having turned professional in 1995, during only his second season on the pro tour Hann made a breakthrough by reaching the quarter-finals of the 1997 Thailand Open in Bangkok. Hann had to navigate seven qualifying rounds and then a wildcard opponent just to feature in the ‘main draw’ where he defeated John Higgins and Mark Williams in consecutive rounds before being stopped by Nigel Bond.
Hann continued to make progress over the next few years, starting to regularly qualify for the main venue stages of ranking events, including making a World Championship debut at the Crucible Theatre in 1998.
By the 1999/2000 season, Hann broke into the world’s top 32 for the first time and was pushing for a spot in the elite top 16. However, he competed in just four events that term, mainly due to sustaining a broken wrist and collarbone whilst reportedly riding a scramble bike in his home country.
Having just held on to his spot inside the top 32 for the 2000/01 term, Hann faced another setback when he injured himself doing a parachute jump in Melbourne. Landing awkwardly, he broke a bone in his foot and was subsequently placed in a plaster cast.
Hann - who regularly travelled to and from Australia for tournaments in the UK - faced the prospect of withdrawing from the UK Championship for a second consecutive year. But with his cast removed, he made the decision to make the long journey for snooker’s second biggest ranking competition, and it was a judgement that turned out to be fruitful.
Not expecting to do well at the Bournemouth International Centre - having only packed clothes for a couple of days - Hann endured discomfort as he defeated Adrian Gunnell, 9-7, in the round of 48 before recovering from 4-1 down to deny world number 16 Joe Swail by the same scoreline in the last 32.
With the pain starting to reside, in the opening frame of his last 16 match against Gerard Greene, a hobbling Hann - who played without shoes on throughout the tournament - fashioned a total clearance of 141 which would stand as the tournament’s highest break of the televised stages.
During the qualifying rounds, Nick Dyson had made a maximum 147 break, and although he collected a £5,000 bonus for the feat of perfection (and a further £1,520 for the highest non-TV break), Dyson was not eligible for the £5,000 televised purse that Hann later trousered.
Aussie Hann would go on to record a 9-0 whitewash of Greene - in five of the nine frames Greene didn’t score a point - to reach the quarter-finals and equal his best run at a ranking event.
Speaking to the press after that last 16 victory, Hann explained how the parachute jump came about: “To be honest I don't like heights. I get scared looking down from a third storey building. But I decided to have a go because my friends were doing it.
"I don't think I will be doing another one. I took the plaster cast off two days before I came here because my foot would have swelled up on the long flight. It was pretty painful during my first match, quite sore during the second game but now, while it still hurts a bit, I wasn't too bothered."
Hann’s run was ended by Ronnie O’Sullivan, 9-5, in the last eight, but his work in Bournemouth equated to being one of the most lucrative weeks of his career, as he collected £11,200 for making the quarters, and the additional £5,000 high break jackpot.
That year’s UK title was eventually won by John Higgins who defeated Mark Williams in the final. In what was a blockbuster last four line-up, O’Sullivan and Stephen Hendry were the losing semi-finalists.
Three years later, Hann reached the quarter-finals of the UK Championship again, but once more, his title bid was ended by O’Sullivan. The two played each other six times on the professional circuit, with O’Sullivan winning them all.
Before his career ended in disgrace in 2006 after being found guilty of match-fixing and being issued with an eight-year ban, Hann’s best run at a ranking event came at the 2004 Irish Masters where he was pipped 6-5 by eventual champion Peter Ebdon in the semi-finals.
Hann did get into the world’s top 16 - climbing to a career-high of 14th - with his biggest payday of £22,000 arriving when he made the last 16 of the 2003 World Championship.