Player profile: Hugh Nimmo

I was at Sheffield a year or so ago and talking to one of the players. It was shortly after a man had been beaten way over the horizon by a far better player. The conversation turned on the fact that there are many players, including some professionals, who are nowhere near as good as they think they are. The player I was chatting to summed it all up in the two lines of Robert Burns quoted above. He was one of those who is very well aware of his limitations and, though not lacking in confidence, does not need to see himself in the light that others see him. It was, of course, that kindly Scot, Hugh Nimmo. Hugh is one of that band of players from the North who took the ' opportunity to turn professional, not because he thought he would ever become the champion, but because of a love of the game and a strong desire to play to the limit of his capabilities. Billiards in Scotland is so little played that competition with the English professionals seemed to be the only road to improvement. The others are David Seddon, John Caven, and Tom McFarlane - though Tom is not a professional.

Hugh was quite surprised that I knew that the quoted lines were by Burns. I told him that I also knew the meaning of the name of the famous tea clipper, "Cutty Sark, " that it originated from the poem, "arn o'Shanter," by the great Scottish poet, and that it meant the kind of head scarf that was worn by the nanny in the poem. I just happen to have come upon this when reading a history of the China tea trade. Hugh was astonished that I should know this. He said that I was the only, "sassenach," he had ever come across who knew of anything of Burns apart from, "Auld Lang Syne." He then treated me, and I mean treated, to a fascinating twenty minutes or so of reciting great chunks of Burns in a melodious Scots dialect and with great sensitivity. It was such a pleasure and I could have listened for much longer, but Hugh had to go off to play his match. It is a fact that one gets to think that billiard players can talk of nothing but the game and it comes as a bit of a shock when one of the fraternity shows such wonderful enthusiasm for something totally unconnected with hazards and cannons.

Hugh Nimmo was born in Kilsyth, Stirlingshire, some 55 years ago, one of a family of four. Not surprisingly his first love was football and he was good enough to play for the Stirlingshire schoolboys team. He even played a bit of cricket, but, well, there was a Billiards hall just down the road, and although youngsters were not allowed on the full-sized tables, there was a small table in a back room which boys were allowed to use. Hugh started billiards when he was about eight and remembers having to stand on a chair in order to play. He learned the rudiments from a couple of older players, one of whom, a Mr Hamilton Bowie, died only a year or two ago at the age of 99. Hugh progressed well and made his first century break when aged about thirteen.

On leaving school he had to find a job and the one that he found put a full stop to his youthful billiards playing though it was to take him to many distant parts of the world. Hugh became a merchant seaman spending fifteen years at sea before returning home aged about thirty and finding a job in insurance. He spent the best part of thirty years in that work and eventually became an insurance manager. Hugh Nimmo was getting on towards forty before he started to play billiards again. He very soon reached a good standard, good enough to be Scottish champion and be invited to play in the world amateur championship. It was about this time that he made his personal best competition break of 286 against Alec Sutherland in the Scottish Championship. But there was little billiards north of the border and when the professional game was thrown open it did not take long for Nimmo and Seddon to take the plunge.

Neither of the two expected to make a great impact but it was not all simply long distance travel to act as a chopping block. Although Nimmo suffered some heavy defeats he had some good wins. A 4- 0 defeat of Ian Williamson on his home territory in the 1988 Yorkshire Bank was a highly creditable performance, and his subsequent 4 - 0 defeat by Michael Ferreira included three games that could have gone either way. Things were not made any easier by the arrival of the young lions and particularly Russell, Gilchrist, and Foldvari. Undaunted Hugh battled on and fine wins over Mark Wildman and Clive Everton took him to the semi-finals of the 1989 British Open where he was beaten by not too many by the eventual winner Peter Gilchrist. This took him into 11th position in the rankings and though some heavy defeats followed at the hands of Dagley, Karnehm, and one or two others, his best performance was yet to come. In the preliminaries of the 1991 World Championship he found some very good form to beat Jack Fitzmaurice, making breaks of 137, 127, and 105 for an average of 19-4 and earning himself a trip to India. A trip to India and a date with Michael Ferreira! Hugh confesses to feeling a little nervous,

Well, there may have been a little panic at the thought, but Hugh Nimmo was never one to be timid or cower, and in the event, he put up the best performance of his professional career to score breaks of 122, 105, 100, with an average of 18-3 to beat the great Ferreira on his home ground. Now there is no denying that Ferreira is nothing like the player that he was in his thousand-break days, but anyone who thinks that the Indian is therefore a pushover should actually try playing him. Ferreira can still make his big breaks and hold a good place in the rankings. Hugh then had to play Gilchrist in the quarters. He put up a good performance making a break of 131, averaging 17-1, and losing by just under 300. There are plenty of players who fancy having a go at the professional game but there are not too many who are ever going to reach the world professional championship quarter-finals and get to eleventh place in the rankings.

This Indian trip was the high point of the Scot's career. There were more wins to come and over some good opponents including a 4 - 0 victory over fellow Scot John Caven; and there were some highly creditable performances against higher ranked players including losses by only the odd game to both Ferreira and Williamson. Nimmo has been known to play a frame or two of snooker. He won the North of Scotland Championship four times from a very large field; he has made a few centuries and is proud of the fact that one of them was against Stephen Hendry.

Hugh has faced many challenges but now faces one greater than any he ever faced on the billiard table. It was on the 31st May of last year that, whilst preparing to go to work he felt ill and collapsed. He had suffered a stroke. I well remember the concern shown at the last lot of Sheffield preliminaries when his fellow professionals became aware of what had happened. This was a period of great anxiety for his wife and family but he eventually returned from hospital and set about the process of recuperation. Just recently he has been taken to his club and has tried a few shots but is unable to keep on his feet for very long. Hugh is a pretty determined character and says his ambitions are first to start walking properly again and then to make a hundred break at billiards.

I'm not much of a betting man Hugh but I wouldn't mind having a little bit on you making it - and pretty soon at that. Anyway, remember that all your billiards acquaintances down this end of the country will be wishing you well and awaiting your news. I think you will forgive me just one more quote from your beloved Burns; whether you ever get back to hundred break form, is not so important, remember,