The Saturday Interview

WHAT is it with snooker players sharing the names of music legends?

There's David Gray, not to be confused with the singer of such hits as 'Babylon' and 'This Year's Love', there's Mark King, who most certainly isn't the same bloke as the vocalist/bass guitarist from Level 42, and there's Ian McCulloch.

No, not the frontman of Echo and the Bunnymen, but the local pro who's currently developing an impressive record of his own.

McCulloch, who lives in Preston but practices at Potters Snooker Club in Great Harwood, is going up in the world - the world rankings, that is - having ascended to number 17 in the charts thanks to a great finish to the last snooker season.

He reached the quarter finals of the last two events, the Players Championship in Glasgow and the Embassy World Championship at the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield, where he beat 2002 champion Peter Ebdon and world number 10 Alan McManus on the way to the last eight -- having never previously won a single match at the Crucible.

And at the launch day of the first event of the new season, October's Grand Prix at the Preston Guild Hall, McCulloch said: "If you'd have offered me the quarters finals of the last two tournaments, I'd have been more than happy, although I don't think I played as well at Sheffield as I did in other matches during the season.

"This year I want to get into the top 16 and do as well as possible. But once you get into the top 16 you can't stop there, you've got to push and try to get further."

His approach to the game is epitomised by the fact that the player he looks up to the most is seven-times world champion Stephen Hendry.

He said: "I just think you've got to admire how professional he is, he's just an out-and-out winner - being runner-up isn't good enough. If you can't model yourself on his attitudes, who can you model yourself on?"

The 33-year-old, whose best ever tournament performance came when he reached the final of the 2002 British Open in Telford, admits that he owes a lot of his success to the owner of Potters, Mick Caddy, who has overseen his rise through the professional ranks.

McCulloch said: "I've known Mick for a long, long time, probably about 15 years now, he's somebody I class as a very close friend.

"He's been helping me for years on the technical side, and he's doing really well for himself with the club, and I'm really happy for him.

"As far as somebody I'd look to for advice and guidance, he's been there a long time."

But the breakthrough into the upper echelons of world snooker has not been instant for McCulloch, who has been a professional now for 12 years, and he isn't altogether sure of the reasons behind his late development.

"I don't know why it is," he admitted. "The standard's very high nowadays.

"I've never been one to blast through a tournament, and then never be seen again. I've always come through the back door.

"I've just crept up, I've gone up the rankings every year that I've been a professional, without setting the world alight really, so to get to the top 16 would be a great achievement.

"But I've never had doubts because I've always had good people around me, sensible people, and there's always been something that's happened each season that made me believe that I could push on the season after."

McCulloch was spotted at the recent Blackburn v Manchester United match, but although wishing Rovers well, he admits to being a Preston North End fan.

"I'm not a die-hard Blackburn fan in any shape or form," he said. "But a lot of the lads from Great Harwood are Rovers fans, so every now and then they drag me along. But my heart lies with Preston."

And the man whose practice partner is world number 34 Dave Harold, had some interesting - if not completely serious - advice for any youngsters thinking of taking up snooker.

"Buy some golf clubs!"