Snooker enthusiast Lee Hague puts bad times behind him after 'meltdown'

Lee Hague with his European bronze medal

A SNOOKER player who was banned after having a “meltdown” at a tournament has returned to the sport a better competitor and person.

Lee Hague, who is autistic, was suspended for a year by Word Disability Billiards and Snooker after an incident at the Belgium Open.

The 39-year-old from Rotherham has marked his comeback by runs to the semi-final of the German Open, the quarter-finals of the UK Championship and, most recently, the last four of the European Championships in Portugal.

The successes have made up for a difficult 12 months and an incident he regrets.

Lee Hague of the Snooker 4 All Academy. Picture by Kerrie Beddows

“I had a bit of a meltdown after a game in Belgium, I don’t mind saying that,” said Lee.

"I have to take responsibility for what I did.

"You spend all your time, your efforts and your finances on playing snooker. It’s everything to you and you come crashing down. With your mental health, it makes it a lot more difficult to cope with.

"It triggered a lot of things from my past about not being good enough and things like that and I had a bit of a breakdown and it wasn’t very nice.”

Lee put his time away from competition to positive use, setting up the Snooker 4 All academy for people with similar mental health issues.

"People can change,” he added. “I did a lot positive things for Rotherham and with the Academy during my suspension and since I’ve come back I’ve been doing quite well. I’ve left my talk on the table.

"The only other two players I know of who have made comebacks from bans were Alex Higgins and Ronnie O’Sullivan, so I’m not in bad company.”

Although Hague lost to the eventual champion at Europeans in Portugal, his form has pushed him up to no.8 in the world in the WDBS rankings.

He added: “There’s talk of Talk of a first ever World Championship taking part in Thailand and I’d love to go there if I can raise enough money.

"I have a couple of sponsors and I run the Academy but I don’t take any money from that. Competitive snooker is my personal thing.”

"I’m enjoying my snooker again. Everyone deserves a second chance.”