This article contains a list of professional snooker referees and indicates those who have officiated at the World Snooker Championship finals. John Williams presided over the most (eleven) finals, nine of those at the Crucible Theatre, including the 1985 final between Dennis Taylor and Steve Davis. [1]
All of the World Snooker Championship finals from the start of what is known as the "modern era" [2] in 1969 are included in the list, with the exception of 1970 and 1971. The referees for these two years are currently not known. Some earlier years have also been included where the information about referees is available.
Name | World finals | Ref. |
---|---|---|
Junaid Ahmed (IND) | [3] | |
Erik Amberg (GER) | [4] | |
Andrew Barklam (ENG) | [5] | |
Julian Bell (ENG) | [6] | |
Desislava Bozhilova (BUL) | [7] | |
Terry Camilleri (MLT) | [8] | |
James Chambers (ENG) | [9] | |
Greg Coniglio (ENG) | [4] | |
Alex Crișan (ROU) | [7] | |
Kevin Dabrowski (POL) | [7] | |
Nico De Vos (BEL) | [7] | |
Deng Shihao (CHN) | [10] | |
Rod Eaton (ENG) | [11] | |
Marcel Eckardt (GER) | 2020 | [4] |
Sami Erkkilä (FIN) | [12] | |
David Ford (ENG) | [13] | |
Markus Freitag (GER) | [14] | |
Natalia Gradinari (MDA) | [15] | |
Jurgen Gruson (NED) | [7] | |
Colin Humphries (ENG) | [4] | |
Hristo Ivanov (BUL) | [16] | |
Mark Jacob (GER) | [17] | |
Małgorzata Kanieska (POL) | [7] | |
Maike Kesseler (GER) | [7] | |
Mark King (ENG) | [18] | |
Luise Kraatz (GER) | [7] | |
Nigel Leddie (ENG) | [7] | |
Peggy Li (CHN) | [19] | |
Lyu Xilin (CHN) | [20] | |
Olivier Marteel (BEL) | 2015 and 2022 | [21] |
Graham Mason (ENG) | [22] | |
Rudy Mathues (BEL) | [23] | |
Radosław Matusiak (POL) | [4] | |
Hilde Moens (BEL) | [7] | |
Thorsten Mueller (GER) | [7] | |
Peter Ogburn (ENG) | [24] | |
Miłosz Olborski (POL) | [7] | |
John Pellew (WAL) | [4] | |
Martyn Royce (ENG) | [7] | |
André Santos (PRT) | [25] | |
Jan Scheers (BEL) | [7] | |
Ingo Schmidt (GER) | [7] [26] | |
Leo Scullion (SCO) | 2019 | [27] |
Theo Selbertinger (GER) | [7] | |
Rob Spencer (ENG) | [7] | |
Monika Sułkowska (POL) | [7] | |
Glen Sullivan-Bisset (ENG) | [7] | |
Agnieszka Thomson (SCO) | [28] | |
Bart Tournel (BEL) | [29] | |
Anastasiya Tuzikava (BLR) | [4] | |
Proletina Velichkova (BUL) | [7] | |
Jan Verhaas (NED) | 2003, 2006, 2008, 2011, 2013 and 2017 | [30] |
Ian Wagstaff (ENG) | [31] | |
Wang Haitao (CHN) | [10] | |
Wang Wei (CHN) | [10] | |
Carl Whitby (ENG) | [32] | |
Ben Williams (ENG) | [33] | |
Tatiana Woollaston (BLR) | [7] | |
Xie Yixin (CHN) | [10] | |
Andy Yates (ENG) | [7] | |
Robert Zabłocki (POL) | [34] | |
Zhang Tao (CHN) | [35] | |
Zheng Weili (CHN) | [10] | |
Zhu Ying (CHN) | [10] | |
Snooker is a cue sport played on a rectangular billiards table covered with a green cloth called baize, with six pockets: one at each corner and one in the middle of each long side. First played by British Army officers stationed in India in the second half of the 19th century, the game is played with twenty-two balls, comprising a white cue ball, fifteen red balls and six other balls—a yellow, green, brown, blue, pink and black—collectively called 'the colours'. Using a snooker cue, the individual players or teams take turns to strike the cue ball to pot other balls in a predefined sequence, accumulating points for each successful pot and for each foul committed by the opposing player or team. An individual frame of snooker is won by the player who has scored the most points, and a snooker match ends when a player wins a predetermined number of frames.
Desmond Rex Williams is an English retired professional billiards and snooker player. He was the second player to make an official maximum break in snooker, achieving this in an exhibition match in December 1965. Williams won the World Professional Billiards Championship from Clark McConachy in 1968, the first time that the title had been contested since 1951. Williams retained the title in several challenge matches in the 1970s and, after losing it to Fred Davis in 1980, regained it from 1982 to 1983.
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The World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA) is the governing body of professional snooker and English billiards. It is headquartered in Bristol, England. Founded as the Professional Billiard Players Association (PBPA) in 1946, with Joe Davis as chairman, it was revived in 1968 after some years of inactivity and renamed the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association in 1970. Its current chairman is Jason Ferguson.
Leonard Ganley, was a Northern Irish snooker referee who refereed four World Snooker Championship finals between 1983 and 1993. Having taken up snooker aged nine, and worked as a chimney sweep, he moved to England with his wife and children in 1971 and worked as a milkman and bus driver.
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