He had an even worse attack in the quarter- finals. He was five up with six to play on John Virgo, but Doug started to flounder. John started to play well and Doug only just dropped over the line 9-8. He kept telling himself. 'The Drill! The Drill! Hang in there. Don't panic'. But it's not so easy to do.

Once he had managed to hold himself together just enough to win, all the tension went out of him. When he beat Terry Griffiths 9-4 in the semi-finals he said he had never felt so relaxed. He'd been confident of his technique for some time. Now he was confident of himself.

At the outset of the event I had still needed to get across to Doug not to expect too much. I didn't want to put pressure on him in any way. My last words each time he went to the table were simple. 'Stick to the drill and enjoy yourself. I even added: 'If the drill is good enough for you to be a winner, fair enough. If it isn't, well, that's too bad.'

But when Doug played Terry in the semi- finals, I told him to give it a whirl. His game was together and it was only human of him to start thinking about the final when he was so close to it. Beating Terry proved to him he was back in the big time and that his new action would stand up to the challenge of winning really big matches.

But now came Stephen Hendry, who had just beaten the best player in the world at that time, Steve Davis. Who was Doug Mountjoy to Stephen Hendry after such a victory? Forget about Doug having beaten him 5-1 in the Rothmans. The circumstances were completely different. Stephen respected Doug in a professional way, but did not really believe Doug could beat him over 31 frames.

Stephen had played his best snooker against Steve. Could he reproduce it? Certainly he could if he was given enough chances, but how would he play if Doug could put doubt in his mind?

I explained to Doug that he should treat Stephen with the same respect as he would Steve Davis. But for Stephen the challenge wasn't quite the same. He had a lot to lose precisely because he was now such a hot favorite to win the title.

I also kept reminding Doug whom he had beaten on the road to the final: two former world champions, Griffiths and Johnson, and a former UK champion, Virgo. Deep down I suppose I would have been quite happy to see him finish runner-up, but I never once ruled out victory.

As it turned out, Doug's performance surpassed everything I'd hoped for, particularly on the Sunday afternoon when he won all seven frames to lead 14-7, knocking in century breaks in the last two. A third century followed at the start of the last session to put Doug eight up with nine to play. Stephen fought back, but Doug eventually won 16-12.

My finger-nails were a little shorter than they had been at tea- time, but even with Stephen winning five frames in a row I could see Doug was still pretty well together - nothing like the man he had been against Virgo.

It was generous of Doug to give me so much credit afterwards, but it had been such a pleasure working with a genuine trier that the satisfaction of his success was the big thing for me. As well as he was now playing it was still, more than either of us could reasonably expect that a few weeks later Doug should win the next ranking tournament, the Mercantile Classical at Blackpool, beating Tony Knowles, Paddy Browne, a surprise quarter-finalist, and then Cliff Thorburn, the first time he'd beaten him in seven attempts.

Wayne Jones, who used to be Doug's regular practice partner, did wonders to get to the final from the other half and led Doug 11-9 at one stage but Doug's experience and technique carried him through 13-11.

Doug ended the season 10th in the world ranking, up from 24th. His prize money earnings for the season were £181,934, far and away the best of his career.

We still had things to work on, such as using the rest. He was very inept with it for a player of his standard. Even during the UK Champion- ship there were times I dreaded him using it. I also wanted to take him through various situations he could possibly find at the match table and practice them time and again. Not only potting but safety, snookers and escape routes figured in his schedule.

Doug has been the perfect pupil, even more in harmony with my thoughts than Terry Griffiths. He was prepared to sink or swim with me. He was over the moon at winning the UK. But neither of us ever thought: 'That's it.' There was still more hard work to do.

There Always Is!

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