SEVENTY miles from the most famous snooker arena in the country, Shokat Ali is enjoying his first sabbatical in five years.

He hasn't lifted his cue since being beaten in the British Open by Willie Thorne - he of the bald pate and taste for gambling - early last month and has no intention of doing so again before August.

A place in the top 64 in the world, he is sitting cosily on 56, has guaranteed him entry to the final stages of next season's ranking tournaments following the revolution in the game.

For the first time, therefore, since turning pro in 1992, he does not have to endure the anxieties of going through qualifying at Blackpool, the graveyard of former champions and the undoing of so many others, over the summer months.

"It's the first rest I've had after five solid years on the professional circuit and it will hopefully leave me refreshed for the new season in September," said Shokat, a dignified and personable 27-year-old, when we talked this week in the living room of his sister's home, next door to his parent's house, in Accrington.

After the season he's been through, it would not be surprising if a recharging of the batteries was required.

In addition to making the final stages of the British Open, he reached the second round of the UK Championship in Preston where only an in-form Steve Davis forced him out 9-7.

Crucially, he accumulated enough ranking points to crack the top 64, no mean feat when you consider that only eight new players are allowed in each year out of all the competitors in the world.

But those in the game will tell you that he has the talent to enter the elite top 16, a conviction borne out by the adversity Ali has overcome just to be a snooker player at all.

Born into a devout Muslim family, Shokat was sent to live with his grandparents in Pakistan at the age of five.

Parents Sohbat and Asia, two of the original generation who came to East Lancashire in the 1960s, believed that there their son would receive a proper education in keeping with the family tradition.

He returned to England every two years and made up his mind at 10 that it was with his parents where he wanted to stay. Though keen to learn especially practical skills like woodwork and metalwork, his poor grasp of English held him back at Moorhead High School and he was told this would prevent him entering college to do an engineering or mechanics course.

It was a huge blow.

"I thought to myself, 'That's it, I might as well quit'," he reflected.

"My obsession always was - and still is - with cars.

"And that was the line of work I wanted to do."

Crushed, he increasingly found solace in the local snooker halls, progressing to the stage where he would save up his lunch money to pay for a game one day a week, usually a Friday.

This he kept from his parents whom he knew would be against the idea of him taking up a game like snooker.

"Being strict Muslims, my parents didn't want me to become involved in a sport where there would be access to gambling and alcohol," said Shokat.

"Asian people prefer secure jobs like law or medicine for their children.

"In snooker, you either make it or you don't - there's a risk.

"So my parents completely disagreed with it."

On several occasions Shokat had to hide under tables to avoid being caught by a suspecting father.

Shokat has never faced up to Sohbat, man-to-man, and discussed his career in snooker but his parents support him implicitly.

But as he got proficient at the game and started to do well in tournaments, his name got into newspapers and Sohbat's fears were confirmed.

It says much for the bond between father, mother and son, and the respect Shokat has for them, that the relationship never became strained.

Outside influences, however, in the shape of racial intolerance further threatened his continuation in the game.

"I did have problems at the start in some of the working men's clubs," admitted Shokat, who was man enough to put up with the verbal abuse, and sometimes worse, which came his way.

"The usual things were said like, 'All you'll ever be is a taxi driver'.

"That only motivated me more, determined to prove them wrong.

"I don't think I'd have achieved anything in snooker if it wasn't for that." Bookmaker John McLoughlin, recently deceased, played a significant role too, arranging challenge matches for Ali against the likes of world finalist Ken Doherty, Dave Harold and Joe Swail that improved his game by 15 to 20 points.

In 1992, when the game, went open, he was able to turn pro and his rise has been sharp, culminating in a successful first stint as captain of Pakistan in last year's World Cup and his progress in the UK Championship before encountering Davis who got to the table at crucial stages in the match.

Snooker is unique among sports in the sense that there is nothing you can do while your opponent is scoring.

It is like a boxer having to sit on his stool through a fusillade of blows without being allowed to counter.

The pain, of course, is less apparent but can frequently be just as traumatic.

To avoid being overcome by it all, Shokat maintains a healthy interest in life outside snooker.

His passion for cars remains - after bringing home a trophy recently from a go-karting race in Blackburn, his mother said: "Well done," before adding, "but promise me you won't do anything so dangerous again".

His hero from a young age was Ayrton Senna, the brilliant Brazilian, who died tragically at Imola three years ago. Shokat hopes to be at Silverstone for the British Grand Prix in July.

At a deeper level, he understands the responsibility he bears as one of the few Asian players in professional snooker.

Only blatant honesty compels him to say that he is not a "100 per cent practising Muslim".

But by today's liberal standards, he has sounder values than most.

His parents, and those of us who know him, can be proud and confident that however successful Shokat becomes, his feet will never travel in the direction his world ranking is surely headed.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.