Life can be difficult for overseas players adapting to the UK-centred snooker circuit, especially for Chinese players who have significant language and cultural barriers to overcome.
China has developed into a huge market for snooker, with a string of big events held there, but the majority of tournaments are still based in the UK, including the three biggest in the sport.
Almost every professional player is based in the UK as a result, including Xiao Guodong, who has been living here since 2007 when he first joined the main tour.
The 35-year-old has spent most of his time in Sheffield, via stays in Wales and Gloucester over the best part of two decades in the UK.
‘My first year in the UK was 2007 and I’ve been here since,’ Xiao told Metro.co.uk. ‘First I came to Sheffield, then I went to Wales to see Terry Griffiths and then Gloucester to the South West Academy, then back to Sheffield, so together I’ve been in Sheffield about 10 years. It’s a second home.
‘In Sheffield everyone knows the World Championship at the Crucible. When I first came here when I was younger it was the dream home, I wanted to go to the UK, I wanted to come to Sheffield, to the Crucible and play the World Championship.
‘That was the dream. I’m very lucky to be on tour until now.’
Xiao remembers his spell in south Wales with 1979 world champion Griffiths fondly, still recognised as one of the greatest coaches in the sport’s history.
‘He taught me a lot,’ Xiao said of Griffiths. ‘When you become professional your level is already good. He coaches you about the mental game and I was very grateful for that.
‘My English was not very good so I couldn’t understand some words, but maybe 70 or 80 per cent I knew. He coached me for two or three years and helped me a lot. Great thanks to him.
‘Snooker has a lot of coaches, in China and UK, but some coaches have never been on tour, or ever been to a final, they don’t know the feeling of these things. But Terry had already won the world title, done a lot of things, he knows how players think about things.’
Now Xiao is back in Sheffield, living in the city centre and based at the Ding Junhui Academy, which he says has been a huge boost for Chinese players.
‘I’ve know Ding for many years. When I first come here he’d already won titles. All Chinese players know him,’ said Xiao. ‘He made his academy good for the players. It doesn’t cost a lot but that place costs him a lot. He’s good for Chinese players and other players to make the academy a good place to practice.
‘There is Noppon [Saengkham], Zhou Yuelong, me, Ding, Tian [Pengfei], Marco [Fu] is there sometimes, Ken Doherty, [Stephen] Hendry sometimes, Indian players too. We all play each other.
‘When I first came to UK there was no place to go. You have to speak English because no Chinese people had made academies.
‘You want to say something but no one can understand. So it was just snooker, snooker, snooker, sometimes you’re worrying, you’re so nervous about things. That time was not good for life, not good for snooker. When you’re not happy you can play nervously.’
While players are chasing their snooker dreams on this side of the world, that doesn’t guarantee happiness, even with decent success, which two-time ranking event finalist Xiao has achieved.
‘You have to have a happy life, then maybe you play snooker differently,’ he said. ‘My friends, my family are all in China. I don’t have a manager here. I have to do everything myself. It’s hard to play sometimes.
‘Some English players go to China. Some places they don’t like going to because they don’t know what to do there, they don’t like the food. Same when we come here, everything is different.’
Xiao says the language barrier and cultural differences mean that overseas players can lead fairly routine lives, compared to local players.
‘Here we don’t know what to do, where to go,’ he said. ‘English players play golf, or some different sports.
‘The first thing when Chinese players come here is the language, our language is not very good. When I first came here I could only say “ok” and “thank you”, it’s hard to live. You have to do a lot of practice, to cook, to learn language, there’s not much time to do other things.
‘I learned English watching television and trying to talk. I’ve tried to make my language better. In Wales I stayed with an English family in a room in their house. Then I stayed a whole year with Terry when he was my coach. That year made my English better.’
Xiao now lives with fellow professional Zhou Yuelong after he moved to Sheffield from Darlington. The pair come from the same area in China and have long been friends.
He says that socialising in Sheffield can be difficult, though, feeling that night time entertainment is a bit limited unless you like a drink.
‘In the night time, here, it’s only club, you can drink and go there,’ he said. ‘If you don’t drink, maybe you just stay home. It’s much different.
‘In China if you want to go out you can talk to friends at restaurants all night or go to karaoke to sing songs, it’s different at night time. I stay home at night time because morning and afternoon is training. I don’t do a lot in Sheffield, but it’s good for snooker.
‘The one thing the same as my city in China [Chongqing] is Sheffield is like mountain city, my city is mountains also. I have to walk a lot and it’s hard to walk!
‘My city, we eat very spicy food, hot pork, it’s from my city. My city is quite busy, here is not very busy. You can see in the city centre, not many people walking outside, but in my city is much different, many people walking outside.’
Xiao feels that there is not a great deal of help from the powers that be for players trying to adapt to a completely different country, but he now tries to help youngsters moving over.
‘I think first help players need is the language,’ he said. ‘I help some young players, like Jiang Jun, it’s his first year here so I help him a lot.
‘I translate for him. How to eat, how to go to the tournament, how to learn English. I like to help them because they come to live out of home, not with family for the first time.
‘The second thing is if you come to UK it’s a different world for them. In China everything is so easy, ordering food on the phone, pay for hotel on the phone, everything on the phone you can do. But here you can’t understand it and you need somebody to help. These are big things.
‘Even entering snooker tournaments. Some players have been here 7 or 8 years and still don’t really know how to enter tournaments. World Snooker send emails, some players can’t understand them.’
Xiao is looking forward to making the trip home after next week’s Welsh Open for Chinese New Year, something he hasn’t been able to enjoy with his family for many years.
‘After Wales finishes I go back because Chinese New Year is coming,’ he said. ’10-15 years I’ve not been back for Chinese New Year. It’s a big, big celebration. The whole family comes. It feels like home.
‘I’ve never been back since moving here, only at Christmas time because there are not tournaments then.’
He is keen to make the most of his time in the UK, though, doing his best to enjoy his adopted home, which will hopefully see him produce his best snooker.
‘I’m still learning,’ he said. ‘My highest ranking is 19. I still have a chance to make top 16, I know I can do it.
‘It’s important to have a good life, be happy to stay here. Now I try to enjoy it,’
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