Snooker / Ralph Ellis / 11 September 2008 /

Premier League Snooker is back so that's Thursday night's telly sorted again! Betfair went for an exclusive chat with this year's new boy Joe Perry to see if he's ready to beat the clock as well as the world's best players.

Hi Joe, how are the nerves and how do you feel about qualifying for this event?

It's massive - before they created the qualifying event the only way of getting into this was to do something really fantastic like winning a couple of events or the world title, so it's brilliant for me to get into that little clique of players that are involved in this tournament

Is playing against the top names what makes it so special then?

No, I think it's more about the way the whole event is set up. There's more razzamatazz, it's a more exhibition style event. I've played all the best players over and over again in ranking events, but I'm sure it will be more daunting this time round.

So are you feeling like, say, the Hull players getting ready to face Manchester United for the first time?

In a way, yes. Just to pick one name out, I meet Steve Davis in a couple of weeks. I'm sure if I was going into a ranking event your punters would make me quite a strong favourite for that, but Steve is a different kettle of fish in the Premier League. He's very at home with it, he's used to the surroundings, used to the shot clock and stuff like that. So that will be a tough one in itself, and then you have the likes of Ronnie, and Ding, and John Higgins, who seem to thrive on it

You're known as one of game's later developers, so is this a bit of a landmark for you?

Yeah, definitely, I was chuffed to bits when I won the qualifier. It was an event I didn't think I would ever play in. You have dreams of winning the world title which is one thing, but you still have to go out and do it which is another. It's something I've watched on TV and thought long and hard about what it would be like to play in, and now I have the opportunity so I will find out for myself. No matter what happens I'll enjoy every single week and every match I play.

Will the 25 seconds clock be a help or a hindrance?

I've not really done anything special so far to find out, but I don't see myself as a slow player. If anything I border on quick as opposed to just steady. I'll have to have my wits about me, learning how to use the time-outs because you don't always see the shot straight away, but in general I normally see them pretty quick and get on with it. I'm sure I'll get caught out a couple of times with the bleeping, though.

Have you set a clock on yourself in practice?

No I haven't as yet. I might have a couple of goes next week, I think have a frame and get somebody with a stopwatch to see what sort of time I'm playing at, just so I'm confident I haven't got to be watching the clock and I can try to play as naturally as possible.

Tell us how you got into snooker in the first place...

There's various stories about me and not much of them true! I was brought up in London rather than Huntingdon, and just got into the game myself. My dad used to catch me watching it on TV when I was very little, you are talking early 1980s, and he got me a little four foot by five foot table and I played at home on that. Eventually he took me to play on a full size table when I was nine. When I was 11 I started playing on a regular basis. I just got myself into it, and from then on I can't remember doing anything else.

So it sounds like you'll have one of those old school reports saying "if you paid as much attention to maths and English as to snooker you'd do better"!

Yeah, a bit like that. To be fair I wasn't too bad - it was part of the deal with my parents for taking me everywhere to snooker tournaments that I would see school through. I remember when I went to do my A levels my attendance was the lowest in the whole college. My law teacher was very understanding and the day I got on TV, I beat Steve Davis at the crucible for the first time, he sent a telegram saying all those lessons I missed were worthwhile! It paid dividends in the end but I wouldn't advise it for my own children

Tell us about your children then...

It's one at the moment, a little girl called Lexie, she'll be two in October and we plan at least one more.

We saw you quoted that being a dad had changed you...

I think that's made more of a difference to me than anything in my whole career, really. I still take the game seriously, probably more so than ever, but it's seriously in a different kind of way. It's not life or death seriously anymore, there are other things that are far more important. It's sort of taken the edge off and I'm a lot more relaxed away from the table. I'm honest enough to say nerves did stop me progressing when I was younger. I was always climbing but I think it held me back that I suffered with nerves a bit, but I've learned to deal with them as good as I can and now it's just made it all a lot more enjoyable. I enjoy the surroundings and enjoy the pressure rather than shy away from it.

What's your summer been like? Do you have to still practice on holiday?

I did well in the World Championship this year and on the back of that I got invitations to play in a few other things, I went out to China, and still had the Championship of Snooker to complete, so I carried on playing after The Crucible a lot more than in previous years. I think I had four weeks off that was the biggest gap when we went away, and that was deliberately to a destination without a snooker table!. Once we were home though the weather's been so bad there's been nothing else to do but more practice! My golf hasn't got any better. I normally try to improve my golf in the summer but it really hasn't happened this year.

You're a bit of quiet man among the snooker players. We found most of the stuff on Joe Perry on Google was about the Aerosmith guitarist! Have you ever met him, or do you play guitar or even like Aerosmith, come to that?

I wouldn't mind the bank accounts getting muddled up instead of the Google entries! But no, I've never met him, I know a couple of their songs but that's about as far as me and music go. I keep myself quiet, I feel as if I'm pretty popular in and around the snooker scene when we are away. I'm always up for having a laugh and some fun or whatever, but I lead a pretty normal life away from it. My golf is my only other interest, but that's turning into just brain damage now to be honest. I thought I was getting good, but I've hit a point I just can't improve from and I don't play as much now.

The rest of us are like that at snooker!

Ah well, I'm self taught at snooker and self taught at golf but I think that's where the similarities end. You can only go so far with a swing like mine. I did get down to 14 and I had a month where I didn't shoot more than 81 so I was getting accused of being a bandit, but I just couldn't get better and it drove me mad. I play off 18 now and if I can play to that I'm over the moon!

So Ronnie O'Sullivan in your first Premier League game next week. Will you be watching him tonight?

He beat me last week in Northern Ireland so I've just had a reminder about him, but everybody knows Ronnie's game anyway. I'm being thrown in at the deep end starting out against him, but like my dad says it's probably good to get that one out of the way early! I'm looking forward to it. If I'm honest I would have liked to have a couple of games before taking him on, he's pretty unbeatable. But I'll watch all the ones I'm not playing in. I've always watched it when I wasn't involved, so it won't be different now. I'm a snooker fan as well as a player

Thanks for your time - we've got a free £50 bet for your favourite charity

Great, that can go to Cancer Research due to some recent events. And I'll back Manchester United to win at Liverpool on Saturday morning at [2.68]. I'm an Arsenal fan so it's not really the result I want, but it's the one I expect - and it at least means if United win it won't be all bad!

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