Stephen Maguire eyeing retirement if he can’t relight his fire
'If I feel that I can’t get back up there then that will be it for me.'
Stephen Maguire does not intend to keep plugging away outside of the world’s elite for too much longer, saying he will hang up his cue if he can’t rediscover the form of years gone by.
The Scot was a fixture in the world’s top 16 for many years after his breakthrough year in 2004 when he won the UK Championship in some style.
After a long spell competing with the very best, things started to dry up over the last couple of years and Maguire has slipped down the rankings, failing to qualify for the Crucible last year for the first time since 2003.
There have been flashes of the old brilliance this season with two quarter-final runs and he powered through qualifying to return to the Crucible, where he meets Ali Carter on Saturday.
However, the 43-year-old is still looking for some sort of consistency in performance and he feels that if he cannot find it, his career is coming to an end.
‘Hopefully getting back to the Crucible can reignite me,’ he said. ‘Any venue with a crowd is good, as long as you can get the butterflies moving it’s good. That’s what I practice for, that’s what I’ve played for years and years for.
‘There are no butterflies in the qualifiers, even when the matches go close it’s impossible to get butterflies out there.
‘Listen, I’m lucky enough that I’ve never had an office job. But I’d imagine you don’t look forward to going in and sitting in an office. I don’t look forward to coming down to qualifiers, I find it hard to practice for and get up for it.
‘Maybe I’m being selfish, maybe I’ve been lucky enough over the last 15 years to be seeded through to venues and stuff.
‘It was an eye opener to keep coming down here a few years ago and I’ve not handled it well. I just go through the motions and take each game as it comes.
‘I’m giving it a go because if it keeps going the way it’s going and I’m just down in qualifiers then I won’t play on for a few years being ranked 40 odd.
‘I’ll call it a day because I don’t enjoy it that much. If I feel that I can’t get back up there then that will be it for me.
‘But then I’m looking at all the older boys and they’re still there and they’re older than me so maybe I can break back in the 16, who knows? But I definitely won’t be hanging about for a few years ranked 40s and high 30s.’
Maguire revealed that defeat in last year’s qualifiers did sting, but he had a plan for how to deal with i.
‘Last year I got blotto with a bottle of Jack Daniels after not qualifying so I didn’t miss it,’ he said. ‘It’s nice to be back at the Crucible though, you don’t want your season to end at the qualifiers.’
Maguire and Carter begin their first round match on Saturday afternoon, with the second and final session on Sunday evening.
The pair first met 24 years ago at the 2000 World Grand Prix and have met at the Crucible before with the Captain beating Maguire in the 2012 semi-final.
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