Dominic Dale will bring his snooker career to a close at the end of the season, saying there is no way he will change his mind due to mounting injuries and a desire to focus on commentary.
The Spaceman turned professional in 1992 and has been on the main tour ever since, climbing as high as 19 in the world rankings and winning two ranking titles.
The flamboyant 52-year-old has been a much-loved fixture of the snooker circuit for over three decades, but he will step away from the pro game at the end of this campaign, a decision he announced at the recent Xi’an Grand Prix.
The Welshman has enjoyed a significant upturn in form over the last year, reaching two quarter-finals and returning to the Crucible for the first time in 10 years, before continuing that impressive streak in Xi’an.
Dale downed dangerous Thai player Noppon Saengkham before ousting former world champion Shaun Murphy in the last 32.
He was then beaten by Daniel Wells who was on his way to the semis, but it was after the brilliant win over Murphy that Dale said he plans to hang up the cue at the end of the season.
Far from a spur of the moment decision, he has confirmed that, despite his good recent form, this will certainly be his last campaign as a pro.
‘I will retire at the end of the season. It doesn’t matter if I win five ranking events, I’ll still retire,’ Dale told Metro.
‘I can’t do three days of practice now without getting stresses and strains in my joints. Particularly my fingers. I feel stiffness in my fingers after practice, I go to bed and there’s a tingling and it’s painful. I wake up and it’s swollen and it hurts, I can’t make a fist properly. If it’s in the wrong finger I can’t practice properly.
‘I’ve also had problems with tennis elbow in the last few years, which I’ve never had before. My left shoulder, I get a sharp pain there sometimes.
‘I don’t enjoy practicing, I haven’t done for probably seven or eight years, if I’m honest. I have different priorities. I enjoy the commentary work.
‘It is two-fold and they’re fairly equal, but it’s the aches and pains and that I want to do more commentary, I really enjoy that, I’d love to do that as full-time as possible. Those two things combined have made the decision irreversible really, I will retire at the end of the season, I’m not going to change my mind.’
Dale sounds extremely comfortable with his decision to call it a day, partly because he came very close to retiring in 2022, narrowly staying on tour and then being motivated by the WPBSA’s minimum guarantee of £20,000 for the season.
The veteran says there is a mental strain to being on tour for so long which is also getting to him now and he looks forward to playing away from the pro ranks which won’t take such a toll.
‘I nearly retired a few years ago but the governing body introduced the scheme of guaranteeing everyone £20,000,’ he explained. ‘I thought I could practice half an hour a day, lose most matches and still make a profit!
‘I’ll not play in every tournament for the rest of the season. I probably will play the Shoot Out, but if I could be a pundit and not play then that would be a close decision. I hate the Shoot Out, the pressure is immense. I’ve been to the semi and quarter the last two years and I don’t know how, the pressure is terrible, I’ve had enough of it.
‘I’m 52 years old now and I’ve had enough of the pressure. When are you going to let go and live a normal life? Not have an opponent who’s trying to take money out of your back pocket. That’s not good for the mind. Mental health does come into it.
‘I will go on the Seniors tour. I’ll love that. Giving something back to the game, having fun with the audience. I won’t be practicing three hours a day, pint of blood every shot, I’ll play it as it should be played, in good spirit and have fun. So those are my plans.’
Dale’s achievements on the baize include winning the 1997 Grand Prix and the 2007 Shanghai Masters, reaching two World Championship quarter-finals and claiming the Shoot Out title back in 2014, despite his hatred for the event.
He looks back on his career with pride, having felt privileged to play the sport he loves against the best in the world for over three decades.
‘I could look at some players who haven’t won a ranking event while I’ve won two and these are players that are just better players than me,’ he said. ‘They’ve done more on the practice table than I have, but I’ve won a couple of ranking events and a few other tournaments as well.
‘And I’ve left my mark on the game, I think. The game that I love and set out to do as well as I could at. When I was 20 I left the police force to turn pro and was promised that if things didn’t work out in two or three years I could go back there. 32 years later I’m still playing the game.
‘I’ve played everybody in the game, all the biggest names. It’s been a privilege to play them and to know them. I’m delighted to have left my mark in different decades. Looking back at the history of the sport I’ve dedicated my life to and knowing I’ve won some major tournaments, it certainly means a lot and makes it worthwhile.
‘One of my favourite singers Roy Orbison had a great quote, somebody asked him how he’d like to be remembered and he replied: “I’d just like to be remembered.” I think I will be, with my character, my flamboyance, not so much on the table, but my personality.
‘It’s been fantastic over 32 years, but it has been a lot of dedication, it does alter your personality, you have to become single-minded and to have that killer instinct for so long in life isn’t natural. I don’t like that side of it, but it’s something you have to have.’
Dale would love to wrap up his career with another trip to the Crucible, although his love of all levels of the game shines through when he mentions that a return to the Invitational Championship League would be a highlight of his final season.
‘That [the Crucible] would be wonderful, if I could qualify. I’ll do my best,’ he said. ‘I just want to do as well as I can. It’ll be nice to play in the invitational part of the Championship League because I’ve not played in that for a long time.
‘Just steady performances, win my first round and see what happens. There’s no ranking pressure on me now, but when you’ve been a pro for 30-odd years it’s hard to change your mindset and not feel that pressure so I probably will. I’ll just see what happens really.’
As for what’s immediately next for Dale, it won’t be the Saudi Arabia Masters which starts on Friday in Riyadh as he is not in the draw.
The new event carries guaranteed money of £2,000 even for first round losers and a top prize of £500,000 so it seems an odd one to miss, but the Spaceman has gone off flying so much he didn’t fancy it.
‘I’ve not really made a decision on all the tournaments this season but there’s one or two I’ll not enter,’ he said. ‘The rankings aren’t going to come into it anymore.
‘The older I got the less I like flying, I get quite anxious now. I’ve never had a bad flight, never even had bad turbulence and I’ve just started to think that something’s going to happen at some point! It’ll be baking hot in Saudi Arabia, I knew it’s straight after Xi’an, where I did want to go. I didn’t want to come home and go straight there, I’m just a bit too old for that really.
‘There might be one or two other tournaments I won’t bother playing in, just to stay fresh for the UK and the Worlds.
‘I hated flying back from Xi’an, 12-and-a-half hours, I can never sleep. I watched all three Equaliser films, followed closely by Pride and Prejudice.’
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