Andy Hicks ‘haunted’ by Crucible disappointments as he plots long-awaited return

It is over a quarter of a century since Andy Hicks completed one of the biggest upsets in World Championship history by sinking six-time champion and number two seed Steve Davis in the first round at the Crucible.

Hicks, then 21, stormed all the way to the semi-finals on his debut appearance in 1995, also beating Willie Thorne and Peter Ebdon, but was never able to repeat his heroics, and would win only one more match in seven subsequent visits to the Crucible.

Yet the Cornwall-based Hicks continued to plug away on the professional tour, and will enter this year’s qualifying stages on Thursday buoyed by a wholly unexpected run to the quarter-finals of the UK Championship in November, guaranteeing his status for at least the next two years.

“It’s a great feeling to come into the qualifiers without the pressure of having to win to stay on the tour,” Hicks told the PA news agency.

“Reaching the UK quarter-finals has given me the hunger and the belief that I can still compete at the top level. I’ve been putting a lot of time in on the practice table and it’s always been a massive goal of mine to get back to the Crucible.”

Hicks had backed up his stunning debut by reaching the semi-finals of both the Masters and the UK Championships the following year, but that initial success soon waned and he would not return to the last four of a ranking event barring the lottery of the Snooker Shootout in 2017.

His only other win at the Crucible came against Quinten Hann in 2004, a match made memorable for the needle between the two players which resulted in the combustible Australian offering Hicks outside for a fight.

“As far as I’m concerned, it was done and dusted just as soon as it had happened,” shrugged Hicks, who went on to suffer a narrow 13-11 defeat to eventual champion Ronnie O’Sullivan in round two.

“It’s haunted me really that I’ve never been able to do anything else at the Crucible besides beating Quinten and playing well against Ronnie in 2004.

“It’s been hard for me to take quite a lot of the time – I’ve qualified and I just haven’t turned up, and that’s been frustrating for me. It would be nice for me to put that right at this stage of my career.”

Hicks has lost 11 times in qualifying since his last Crucible appearance in 2007

He needs to win three matches to get back there later this month, starting with Zhang Anda on Thursday.