Opinion: Why Jimmy White is right to demand professionalism from chuckling snooker referees

The no-nonsense figure of John Williams – the retired Welshman who officiated a record 11 world finals, including the celebrated 1985 black-ball drama between Steve Davis and Dennis Taylor – was overseeing the match. He was in no mood to accept a lack of decorum from the Northern Irish sporting icon at snooker’s ultimate event.

“I played the late, great Alex Higgins, who was my hero, who inspired me to take up snooker and play at the World Championship,” said Doherty, recalling his 10-6 win in the first round.

“He was a little bit inebriated, as you might say. As the match wore on, he got very jittery and argumentative with the referee John Williams. At one stage, he told John Williams to stand on his left-hand side.

“Williams said: ‘No Alex, I’ve been standing here all day. I’m not in your line of sight’. And Higgins replied: “You’re not in my line of sight, John, you’re in my line of thought’.

“That is one of the greatest lines I’ve ever heard.”

When the Hurricane blew, there were large outbursts of horror and hilarity in various outposts, but there is also a serious side to such a hoary old tale.

John Williams set out an example of what the job specifications are for elite match officials in any sport: snooker players are out in the arena attempting to win matches, playing for their livelihoods, with respect a must for all invested in the match.

In such a respect, referees should be seen and heard as little as possible unless there is a necessity to interject. When the referee or umpire becomes the story, something has gone wrong in the potting process.

Jan Verhaas and Paul Collier are the two outstanding snooker referees of their generation because they are not there to interact with players as pals. Merely to get the job done swiftly and methodically in a dispassionate manner that befits the modern era of professionalism while also keeping unruly crowds at bay.

When White nominated the brown, Williams misheard the call and instead hollered ‘blue’. He was corrected by White before beginning to bizarrely guffaw.

“What’s funny about that? What’s funny about that?” wondered White.

To end up receiving a warning and a threat of losing the frame by Williams for raising his hand in bewilderment was absurd when he clearly did nothing wrong. All Williams needed to do was correct his own inappropriate timing and move on.

Perhaps through nerves or embarrassment, his reaction was instantly ridiculous. He made a mockery of the art of refereeing elite sport which is also about mastering self-awareness and respecting the intensity of certain moments when players are in the furnace of battle.

“I thought the referee was a little confrontational coming between Jimmy and the table, but in the heat of the moment that can happen,” said the 1994 Masters winner Alan McManus analysing the public tête-à-tête for Eurosport. “It’s a serious business at the easiest of times out there.”

Professional sport is no laughing matter and snooker is no different. There is a chumminess that permeates the old green baize that should be erased as it attempts to improve its lot outside of the UK. Especially when competing in a global market against larger and richer, yet less popular sports.

It is a cut-throat business with the vast majority of players affected by the cost of living crisis more than golfers or tennis players in similar individual pursuits. While men such as Ronnie O’Sullivan, Judd Trump, John Higgins, Mark Selby and Neil Robertson are self-made millionaires from their talent with a cue, they remain the exceptions to the rule.

The world No. 64 Stuart Carrington last season managed to avoid dropping off the tour with seasonal earnings of just over £25,000.

“There is such a high standard, but people always hark back to the golden days when guys like Terry Griffiths and Dennis Taylor would be sharing a joke around the table,” the four-time world champion John Higgins told me a few years back.

“You don’t get Tiger Woods and Rafael Nadal walking about smiling because it is a serious business. They’ve also moved on from the John McEnroes and the Gary Players of their sport.

“I think when you look across the board at sport, the players are just a lot more professional in everything they do.”

The era of good-natured characters in sport has long gone, if it ever truly existed. Snooker is a different world from the celebrated Beeb montage days of old Fred Davis chuckling, big Bill Werbeniuk ripping his strides and The Entertainer blaring out.

Match officials should not be in the business of chortling like the laughing policeman when a player is losing 3-0 and then doubling down on their own loss of acceptable etiquette.

“You play and I’ll referee,” was the ongoing message from John Williams to the Hurricane back in the day.

When referees interfere with the natural ebb and flow of sport, players have every right to question the unacceptable departure from professional standards.

Snooker is not a genteel sport despite the hush which envelopes men in sober suits. Men like Jimmy ‘Whirlwind’ White are not out there for a laugh.

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