Neil Robertson
Interviewed 12
April 2006
Neil is currently preparing for the WC (World Championship) which starts on the 15th April and has kindly done an interview to let us know how he’s going!
Where are you staying in
England? I'm currently living in Cambridge
Who are you practicing with? My practice partners this year
have been Joe Perry, Mark King, Tony Drago and Matt Selt.
You grew up in Melbourne,
how hard has it been to suddenly move to England and live for long periods of
time? Moving to England has been easy this time round as I came over here
with Steve Mifsud and Johl Younger which was great to have some fellow Auissies
around. Also Cambridge is one of the nicest places in England which is great as
I have settled in now, got some great friends so I wouldn't want to be anywhere
else to be honest.
I heard you've got a practice table and there's a hundred fluoro
tubes in it, is this true? Well I don't exactly have 100 but I do have
quite a few in there. I had it specially built so I wouldn't find it that much
different to when I played on t.v.
Do you get Vinnie to clean these tubes? No I don't get
Vinnie to clean the tubes. It would have been a good suggestion to get him to
clean them if he didn't win a frame against me for the day. He would have been
cleaning them most days. Ha ha ha ha!
Vinnie also says you don't clean dishes... what do you have to
say? To be honest I am quite lazy when it comes to cleaning dishes. A
couple of years ago Steve Mifsud had a go at Johl Younger and myself for not
pulling our load. An angry Steve Mifsud is not a pretty sight!
Seriously, WCs are around the corner, how important is preparation
for such an event? Preparation is very important not only for the worlds
but for every tournament. I possibly could have prepared better for a few
tournaments this year as I haven't been slack but I feel I could have done
more. But for the worlds I'm doing everything possible to make sure I'm going
there a better player than I was a month ago and knowing that I’ve put in
everything will give me more confidence than any other tournament I've played
in.
Tell us about sheffield, what's it like to play there? Playing
at the Crucible is incredible. I've been really lucky that my debut at the
masters was against Jimmy White in front of almost 2000 people where as last
year on my debut at the crucible was against Stephen Hendry. The crowd are so
close to you that you can hear every little cough and whisper and someone in
the front row could reach out and touch you as you’re playing your shot,
hopefully that doesn't happen this year! It was pretty intimidating playing
there for the first time but this year I'll be much more prepared.
this new white ball with the red dots, here we are starting to get
them now, are you guys using it as well? Personally I don't mind the
spotted white as I've practiced with it a couple of times and don't seem to
mind it. We don't use it over here at the moment but I think it would be a good
idea to introduce it to a tournament next year like the premier league. Some
players like it and some don't, it would be great to watch it on television as
the audience can see how much side a player is transferring onto the cue ball.
Neil is there any advice you'd like to give to players back home? Study
how the top players play and breakbuild. Breakbuilding is one of the most
important areas to playing the game at the highest level. Also set your goals
to a realistic target compared to the amount of hours you can or choose to do.
Don't expect to knock in century after century if you don't put the work in.
that's about it champ, we all hope you do really well at the WCs
and can't wait till you win your first pro tournament!
I'm playing
really well in practice so hopefully I can produce it in the worlds.
Cya when I get back home mate. I'll be playing in a few
tournaments when I get back like Perth, Kings and a couple more.
Cool, thx again, good luck and play well!