class of ninety-cue
Inside snooker’s Class of 92 that gives Man Utd’s a run for its money with Ronnie O’Sullivan the star student
Three stars are world champions... while one is serving a 12-year ban
MANCHESTER UNITED'S Class of 92 is often thought of as one of the greatest generations of players to come though in a sport.
However, snooker can certainly make a case thanks to its own Class of 92, comprised of THREE world champions.
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It's been more than three decades since Ronnie O'Sullivan, Mark Williams, John Higgins burst onto the scene when they turned professional in 1992.
They incredibly remain at the summit of snooker, having all won multiple world titles and have all recorded 147s at the Crucible.
Meanwhile, a would-be fourth member - Stephen Lee - is in line for a potential return to the sport later this year.
Below we take a look at snookers fabled Class of 92 who have a staggering 39 Triple Crown titles between them.
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Mark Williams
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The 49-year-old Welshman is a three-time world champion, with his crowns arriving in 2000, 2003 and 2018.
He is unique among his peers in that he was the first left-handed player to win the World Championship and is also the only player to win all three versions of it; the World Snooker Championship, the Six-red World Championship and the World Seniors Championship.
On three occasions Williams, nicknamed the The Welsh Potting Machine, has been ranked No1 in the world with the last year coming in 2011.
In total he has 26 titles to his name, including seven Triple Crown victories.
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John Higgins
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Higgins, 48, ranks second among the group for titles won with 31 that puts him third on the all-time list of ranking titles won.
These include nine Triple Crown titles for the aptly named Wizard of Wishaw as reference to his birthplace in Scotland.
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His first ranking titles came when he was just 19, landing a hat-trick of them in 1995.
Higgins has been ranked No1 in the world four times, though like Williams the last of these was all the way back in 2011.
Stephen Lee
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Disgraced Stephen Lee may well have been a fully-fledged cast member of the Class of 92.
However, the 48-year-old is still serving a 12-year ban from playing snooker after being found guilty of seven charges of match fixing in 2013, though that ban expires in October this year.
The former world number five was fined £40,000 for the breaches which took place between 2008 and 2009.
Lee won five ranking titles in all, though his best performance in a Triple Crown event was losing in the 2008 Masters final to Mark Selby and a semi-final appearance at the 2003 World Championship.
Ronnie O'Sullivan
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A man that needs no introduction, The Rocket is the crown jewel of the Class of 92 with a whopping 23 Triple Crown titles to his name.
His first ranking title came when he was just 17 when he became the youngest player to ever win the UK Championship - and now the oldest after his win in December - while he has also managed the same feat with the Masters.
O'Sullivan, 48, is currently ranked the world No1 and has held that since 2022 and a total of title five times.
He is also just one title (80) away from matching Steve Davis (81) for the all time record of titles won.
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With his win at the UK Championship in O'Sullivan is chasing the £1million Ronnie Slam, with £250,000 earned at the Masters in January, £500,000 on the line at the Crucible later this month and £250,000 on the line at the UK Championship in November.
'I'd rather not have the snooker, just a normal family' - Inside Ronnie O'Sullivan's troubled childhood
RONNIE O'SULLIVAN has enjoyed an incredible career as snooker's biggest star.
But the Rocket's turbulent past has led to struggles with mental health, addiction and yo-yo weight battles.
O'Sullivan's parents ran a chain of sex shops in Essex and his father was jailed for 20 years for murder when he was just 16.
In the Amazon documentary The Edge of Everything, the snooker icon admitted his dad going to prison had a profound effect.
He said: "I didn't want to blame everything on that situation with my dad, but I was thinking, 'I'd rather not have the snooker. just a normal family'. Because… It was a dream, but looking back, it was a nightmare."
Just a year later, Ronnie became the youngest ever UK Champion, seven days before his 18th birthday. Then at 19, in 1994, he became the youngest Masters champion.
But he has already begun to binge on drink and drugs and, when his mum was sent to prison for tax evasion, in 1996, he struggled to cope with looking after his eight–year-old sister alone.
Click here to read more about Ronnie's incredible life...
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