Andy Lee is back on the World Snooker Tour as his fascinating journey with the sport continues, and this latest path he turns down is both a surprise and the proudest achievement of his career so far.
The 41-year-old won through Q School this month to earn himself a third crack at the professional tour and, after two years of inactivity at home in Hong Kong, he admits the success was a bit of a shock.
âI was pretty much speechless after I qualified, because I wasnât expecting it,â Lee told Metro.co.uk. âIâve been away for a couple of years now from elite level competition and I was in doubt as to where my game was at, especially under the hammer.
âThere were a lot of doubts and I didnât know whether I could respond, but I managed to tough it out.â
Leeâs snooker tale began in his home town of Hinckley, Leicestershire, where he grew up with the game and then the incredible junior scene based at Willie Thorneâs club in Leicester alongside the likes of Mark Selby and Tom Ford.
Winning the English ProTicket play-offs in 2008 gave him his first shot at professional status, but it was brutally difficult to make a living out of the game at that point so life on tour lasted just one year.
The financial pressures of trying to make it in snooker saw Lee break up with his then fiancée and have to pick up a job in recruitment, before he hatched a plan that would change his life entirely.
With parents from Hong Kong, Lee had the option of moving to there and become a funded player through the Hong Kong Sports Institute, getting a wage and financial support to play the sport, while being based over there.
It was a great option to have for Lee, but a tricky choice to make to move to the other side of the world.
âIt wasnât an easy decision because I didnât know anyone out there, my brother lives in China, I was moving to another country,â he explained. âBut luckily I speak Cantonese, which made it easier. Wayne [Griffiths] is over there, I knew Terry, so I decided to give it a crack and 10 years later Iâm still there.
âThe first two years I was betwixt and between as to whether my heart was in it. I wasnât really doing what was expected of me, because Iâd just dropped off the tour, people thought Iâd just go there and walk over everyone but it wasnât like that.
âI wasnât really enjoying it, the conditions there are very different, very humid and itâs a different style of play. I was enjoying off the table more because Hong Kong is such a great place, I settled in quickly, made a lot of good friends.
âThat kept me hanging in there and then I got my head down and we won the IBSF World Team Championships in 2015 and that was the pick me up I needed. I got a bigger contract, we won Sports Team of the Year, which is like the Oscars in Hong Kong sports.
âIt was amazing to go through all that. We beat a lot of Olympic sports to win that award, so I was really proud of that and helped me focus on getting back on the tour.
âIn 2018 I qualified to get back on tour, so I kept making plans and they came to fruition. Even now itâs going to plan, someoneâs looking down on me, maybe itâs the snooker gods.â
Lee came through Q School in 2018 as well, but his time on tour did not go to plan, before being cut short by the outbreak of the pandemic.
âI probably went in there with the wrong attitude,â Lee said. âI focussed a lot on ranking points, keeping my tour spot, I didnât want to be back at Q School. I put a lot of pressure on myself, I have high expectations of myself and feel like I can compete on tour.
âComing through Q School a second time proves I belong on tour, I think. I just didnât manage to play with any freedom last time round.
âI came out of Q School on a high, won my first game to qualify for the first China event. But I lost to Jimmy Robertson in my third comp 4-3, I should have won, I missed the pink clearing up and he ended up winning the tournament! I lost confidence and lost seven or eight matches without even competing.
âIf youâre competing itâs easier to swallow, but when youâre losing 4-0, 4-1, I started having doubts. I started not wanting to be there. It starts becoming a horrible experience, the highs go away and youâre in the doldrums.
âYou start to wonder where your next win is coming from. I was dreading going to tournaments. You start hoping for better draws and once youâre on that negative way of thinking itâs a vicious cycle.
âSo the first year was a struggle, second year was better, got a few wins under my belt, then my season finished with Covid. I didnât come back for the Worlds. So after that I did wonder if it was time to call it. But I know Iâm in a more privileged position than most, with the funding from the Sports Institute, itâs kept me going.â
Off tour and back in Hong Kong where a strict lockdown was in place, Lee was left questioning how his snooker journey could continue, unable to compete or even practice properly.
âWe had six or seven months of lockdown with zero practice,â he said. âAll the snooker clubs were shut. There were two blocks of three months where I didnât pick my cue up. Either side of that Iâve been practicing, but other than Marco, we donât have a great array of players who will punish mistakes.
âItâs been hard to stay motivated because we didnât know when weâd be back, I thought maybe that was that, I considered walking away from the sport because the loggerheads with government about travel restrictions. I doubted whether Iâd carry on, because we were practicing for nothing. There was no light at the end of the tunnel.
âThankfully the government have changed their minds a bit, letting us travel and compete again so Iâm thankful to be given the opportunity. I was delighted to have even a slim chance to do something again.â
Uncertainty remains, though, with the Hong Kong Sports Institute demoting cue sports from Tier A to Tier B, seeing two thirds of the funding cut from April 2023.
It looks like Leeâs Hong Kong adventure will come to an end then, but no decisions have been made just yet.
âWe donât know whatâs going to happen,â he said. âWeâve had meetings, but itâs an unprecedented situation, because what normally happens is sports are cut completely, weâre the first to be demoted to Tier B, so thereâs a lot of things not set in stone.
âA lot of players are seriously thinking about their futures. At my stage of my career, I couldnât live on what theyâre putting on the table at the minute, I couldnât carry on playing, itâs too much of a drop. Especially living in Hong Kong, which is part of the contract, that you have to live over there.â
Lee knows he has been very fortunate to have the support in Hong Kong to fund his snooker dreams, but he has felt like he has lacked emotional support, in fact he has felt attacked by the snooker community in his adopted homeland.
âItâs hard. Social media is vicious,â he said. âYou donât want to take to heart what people say when youâre losing matches, itâs hard enough anyway.
âI got a lot of stick in Hong Kong and it really hit me for six, I should have got more support. This time qualifying is a bit like Iâve proved them wrong, to the people who didnât stand by me when I was struggling on tour.
âThis has given me so much satisfaction, itâs probably my proudest achievement, I know I havenât won anything, but what Iâve come through and the stick Iâve taken from the so-called snooker community in Hong Kong, itâs been horrendous. I felt like I deserved more respect.
âHalf of me getting back on tour is âI told you soâ. I donât know if itâs because Iâm not a local Hong Kong player, I came through the British system, grew up in the UK. I donât know whether they donât quite class me as one of their own because of that, Iâm not sure.
âIt doesnât sit well with me. I was almost trying too hard to try and prove people wrong, I was playing for them rather than myself. It was mental turmoil. I was not just dealing with self doubt over losing matches, but the social media side of things, it was not enjoyable, put me off the game a bit. Iâm glad to have proved them wrong. I donât want to upset anyone in Hong Kong, Iâm glad Iâve done it for my country, but Iâm more glad Iâve done it for myself.â
Lee, who was practicing hard in the Ding Junhui Academy ahead of Q School, is now ready to give the tour his all again, confident after winning his place back and with the benefits of his experience from 2018-20.
âIâm looking to improve on what I did previously and I hope to do better thanks to my experiences,â he said. âThere were lots of matches where I collapsed like a cheap tent once I got behind, I wasnât fancying the job and couldnât wait to get out of there.
âThis time will be different because Iâve learned from that experience. Iâve learned to tough it out, play the right shots and not hand it to anyone on a plate, make them win it and keep believing.
âI took the losses and giving up so easily harder than anyone else. I was almost thinking I was rubbish at the game. Itâs the nature of the beast unfortunately, itâs impossible not to have self doubts. Then youâre tinkering on the practice table, technically or mentally and it breaks you down, back to the drawing board all the time searching for the magic formula. Even people like John Higgins, Mark Selby do it, weâre all perfectionists, searching for that magic formula. Iâm not going to do that this time round.
âGetting through Q School this time has given me the extra belief that itâs where I belong. The first time you wonder if itâs a fluke, Iâd been nine years away, was it the snooker gods on my side? Getting through this time, picking myself up off the floor after two years out, getting up for the scrap, Iâve proved beyond reasonable doubt thatâs where I belong. I donât have to prove to myself. I belong there.â
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