Ian McKenzie on Chris Dittmar
Chris Dittmar has often been called the best player never to have won a World or
British Open title. He set a consistent standard however that has rarely been
matched and his career is not so much measured in tallies of titles but in the
determination he showed to improve his game, his competitive never say die
spirit, and the courage with which he came back from the knee injury that should
have ended his career.He says his proudest moment was in winning the world teams title for
Australia in 1989, but perhaps the best he played was in beating Jahangir Khan
in the 1989 World Open, 15-13 in the fifth in Kuala Lumpur in one of the sport's
classic matches.
The problem for Dittmar was that it was a semi-final, and he had to get up
and do it all the next day against one of the fastest, fittest and leanest
players the sport has ever seen - Jansher Khan. Dittmar's performance was
heroic. He went two games up on Jansher but, jaded, fell away as his opponent
took control.
Then Dittmar talked to his coach Len Atkins before the fifth game. "I was
inspired," he said. Dittmar pounced and set up a 6-0 lead but he was tired, so
tired and the young Pakistani was still running freely.
To beat two of the game's great players on successive days was too much. But
fresh could he have done it?