Mark Allen admitted it has been a “crazy” rollercoaster last 15 months, from almost leaving snooker to the biggest win of his career.
The 36-year-old from Northern Ireland produced a superb comeback to beat Ding Junhui 10-7 and claim a first UK Championship crown in the first Triple Crown event of the season.
Allen, up to number five in the world rankings, is the dominant force on tour having also defended his home tournament in Belfast and reached the final of the British Open.
But just last year Allen’s life was in turmoil as a perfect storm of off-table financial and personal problems came to a head.
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The player was mired in legal issues having declared himself bankrupt. And Allen was also involved in divorce proceedings with ex-wife Kyla McGuigan, and a child support battle with former partner and 12-time women’s world champion Reanne Evans, who is now on the main tour.
At one time Allen – who admits his own actions contributed to the issues – could see no way out and was ready to turn his back on the game if he couldn’t keep any prize money. He still will not receive all of the £250,000 first prize from York – but there is a guaranteed income plan in place that has stabilised his life.
Allen, who also lost five stone over the summer and has been working successfully with sports psychologist Paul Gaffney, said: “Twelve months ago I had just pulled out of the Champion of Champions. It was touch and go whether I was even going to be able to play at last year’s UK. So it is crazy how much has changed - and I am in such a good place. Not everything is done yet, but I am close. Everything is going positively and I am getting the boxes ticked to get rid of all the problems from the past.
“The weight loss has helped me, as has working with Paul. But even with that, if all the other things were still there I’d be struggling. I just never knew what was going to happen from one day to the next. You’d wake up and be reading solicitors’ letters and get voicemails saying you owed this much money. It was constant for months. I’d go in to practice some days and my solicitor would ring and that ruined your practice. I am just glad those days are behind me - they were very difficult.
“I don’t have ‘quit’ in me. But I was worried it was being taken away from me, someone taking my livelihood. I wasn’t prepared to continue doing the long hours of practice, the sacrifice of being away from family just to pay someone off. I wasn’t going to do that. So just quitting wasn’t an option and my friend and accountant Michael Kane helped me through every single bit of it, and if it wasn’t for him I wouldn’t be here now.
“Without going into all the details, the Reanne situation is still ongoing and I would love nothing more than to get that sorted and then we could all move on. Because it is not nice. You come to tournaments and we are not even saying hello and we have a child together. As much as I don’t see Lauren I still think about her all the time.
“But the bankruptcy is completely done, and so is the divorce with Kyla. Since my bankruptcy things are different for me financially. I will not see all this money, and that is my own fault for the way I have had to sort my life out. I now have a more guaranteed income just to get everything sorted out.”
And having now won two of snooker’s ‘Big Three’ given his success at the Masters in 2018, Allen can turn his attention in April to trying to claim a first world title at the Crucible.
He added: “I have never made any secret of the fact that is a tournament I really want to win, and I think the weight loss and the work on the mental side will help there. But you only get one chance a year, and it is tough. The biggest thing for me is that I feel I still have improvement to come.”
*18+ | BeGambleAware | Odds Subject to Change
