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] | |
Chu Jun (CHN) | [ citation needed ] | |
Paul Collier (WAL) | 2004, 2016, 2021 and 2024 | [10] [11] |
Greg Coniglio (ENG) | [4] | |
Alex Crișan (ROU) | [7] | |
Kevin Dabrowski (POL) | [7] | |
Nico De Vos (BEL) | [7] | |
Deng Shihao (CHN) | [12] | |
Rod Eaton (ENG) | [13] | |
Marcel Eckardt (GER) | 2020 | [4] |
Sami Erkkilä (FIN) | [14] | |
David Ford (ENG) | [15] | |
Markus Freitag (GER) | [16] | |
Natalia Gradinari (MDA) | [17] | |
Jurgen Gruson (NED) | [7] | |
Colin Humphries (ENG) | [4] | |
Hristo Ivanov (BUL) | [18] | |
Mark Jacob (GER) | [19] | |
Małgorzata Kanieska (POL) | [7] | |
Maike Kesseler (GER) | [7] | |
Mark King (ENG) | [20] | |
Luise Kraatz (GER) | [7] | |
Nigel Leddie (ENG) | [7] | |
Peggy Li (CHN) | [21] | |
Lyu Xilin (CHN) | [22] | |
Lyu Zhiwei (CHN) | [ citation needed ] | |
Olivier Marteel (BEL) | 2015 and 2022 | [10] [23] |
Graham Mason (ENG) | [24] | |
Rudy Mathues (BEL) | [25] | |
Radosław Matusiak (POL) | [4] | |
Hilde Moens (BEL) | [7] | |
Thorsten Mueller (GER) | [7] | |
Peter Ogburn (ENG) | [26] | |
Miłosz Olborski (POL) | [7] | |
John Pellew (WAL) | [4] | |
Martyn Royce (ENG) | [7] | |
André Santos (PRT) | [27] | |
Jan Scheers (BEL) | [7] | |
Ingo Schmidt (GER) | [7] [28] | |
Leo Scullion (SCO) | 2019 | [10] |
Theo Selbertinger (GER) | [7] | |
Sheng Chunyu (CHN) | [ citation needed ] | |
Rob Spencer (ENG) | [7] | |
Monika Sułkowska (POL) | [7] | |
Glen Sullivan-Bisset (ENG) | [7] | |
Sun Yanqian (CHN) | [ citation needed ] | |
Agnieszka Thomson (SCO) | [29] | |
Bart Tournel (BEL) | [30] | |
Anastasiya Tuzikava (BLR) | [4] | |
Proletina Velichkova (BUL) | [7] | |
Jan Verhaas (NED) | 2003, 2006, 2008, 2011, 2013 and 2017 | [10] |
Ian Wagstaff (ENG) | [31] | |
Wang Haitao (CHN) | [12] | |
Wang Wei (CHN) | [12] | |
Carl Whitby (ENG) | [32] | |
Ben Williams (ENG) | [33] | |
Tatiana Woollaston (BLR) | [7] | |
Xie Yixin (CHN) | [12] | |
Andy Yates (ENG) | [7] | |
Robert Zabłocki (POL) | [34] | |
Zhang Tao (CHN) | [ citation needed ] | |
Zheng Weili (CHN) | [12] | |
Zhu Ying (CHN) | [12] | |
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 cue stick, 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 time the opposing player or team commits a foul. An individual frame of snooker is won by the player who has scored the most points. A snooker match ends when a player reaches 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.
The 1927 World Snooker Championship was a snooker tournament held at several venues from 29 November 1926 to 12 May 1927. At the time, it was titled the Professional Championship of Snooker but it is now recognised as the inaugural edition of the World Snooker Championship. The impetus for the championship came from professional English billiards player Joe Davis and billiard hall manager Bill Camkin, who had both observed the growing popularity of snooker, and proposed the event to the Billiards Association and Control Council. Ten players entered the competition, including most of the leading English billiards players. The two matches in the preliminary round were held at Thurston's Hall in London, and the semi-finals and final took place at Camkin's Hall in Birmingham. The players involved determined the venues for the quarter-finals, resulting in matches in London, Birmingham, Nottingham and Liverpool.
Clive Harold Everton is a sports commentator, journalist, author and former professional snooker and English billiards player. He founded Snooker Scene magazine, which was first published in 1971, and continued as editor until September 2022. He has authored over twenty books about cue sports since 1972.
The International Billiards & Snooker Federation (IBSF) is an organisation that governs non-professional snooker and English billiards around the world. As of January 2020, the organisation is headquartered in Doha, Qatar.
In snooker, a century break is a break of 100 points or more, compiled in one visit to the table. A century break requires potting at least 25 consecutive balls, and the ability to score centuries is regarded as a mark of the highest skill in snooker. Ronnie O'Sullivan has described a player's first century break as the "ultimate milestone for any snooker player".
Michaela Tabb is a Scottish snooker and pool referee. She established significant milestones for female officials in professional cue sports, beginning in pool, where she officiated at top tournaments such as the WPA World Nine-ball Championship and the Mosconi Cup. She qualified in 2001 to referee on the World Snooker Tour and was the sport's highest profile female referee for the next 14 years. She became the first woman to officiate at a professional ranking snooker tournament at the 2002 Welsh Open, and the first woman to referee a ranking tournament final at the 2007 Welsh Open. As of 2022, she is the only woman to have refereed the World Snooker Championship final, which she did twice, in 2009 and 2012.
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.
The World Billiards Championship is an international cue sports tournament in the discipline of English billiards, organised by World Billiards, a subsidiary of the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA). In its various forms, and usually as a single competition, the title is one of the oldest sporting world championships, having been contested since 1870.
John Williams is a Welsh retired snooker referee. He presided over eleven World Snooker Championship finals, nine at the Crucible Theatre, including the 1985 final between Dennis Taylor and Steve Davis – the most watched snooker match in history. Having begun refereeing in the 1960s, Williams left the civil service in 1981 to work as a referee full-time. Having the chance to referee tournaments at Pontins, he quickly took charge and organised the events for many years. He gained national attention following a match between Fred Davis and Alex Higgins where the roof collapsed after rainfall and flooded the snooker table. Williams was pictured in many national newspapers after the event, resulting in more television coverage.
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The World Professional Match-play Championship was a professional snooker tournament established in 1952 as an alternative to the professional World Snooker Championship by some of the professional players, following a dispute with the Billiards Association and Control Council, the sport's governing body. Fred Davis won the first five editions of the tournament, but didn't participate in 1957, when John Pulman won. After this, the event was discontinued due to a decline in the popularity of snooker.
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The Billiards and Snooker Control Council (B&SCC) was the governing body of the games of English billiards and snooker and organised professional and amateur championships in both sports. It was formed in 1919 by the union of the Billiards Association and the Billiards Control Club.
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