Clive Everton

Clive Everton
birthday	September 7, 1937
nationality	Wales
Nickname (s)	The Voice of Snooker
professional	1981 - 1993
Prize money	£ 3,075
Highest break	74 ( UK Championship 1987 )
Century Breaks	0
World rankings
Highest WRL place	47 ( 1983/84 )

Clive Harold Everton MBE (born September 7, 1937 ) is a Welsh journalist , author and snooker commentator and former player. The author of more than twenty books, after a long amateur career, was a professional player for twelve seasons between 1981 and 1993. Before that, he worked as a journalist and snooker commentator for the Guardian and the BBC and was the founder and editor of the specialist magazine Snooker Scene .

Career as a snooker and English billiards player

In his youth, Everton was considered an excellent English Billiards player , having won both the British U16 and U19 championships and the Welsh championship five times in the same discipline and the final of their English counterparts five times . Furthermore, he reached the semifinals of the IBSF World Billiards Championship twice and was temporarily listed as number nine in the world. In terms of snooker, he won the Midlands Amateur Championship , and he also played tennis locally.

Beginnings as an amateur

In 1955, Everton first appeared when he qualified for the English Amateur Championship , where he defeated Jack Fitzmaurice and failed in the fifth round to Maurice Suckling. After losing to John Price in the fourth round in 1960 in the same competition , he lost the next year only in the second round of the Welsh Snooker Championship against Terry Parsons and then in the fourth round of the English Amateur Championship against Cliff Wilson . In 1961 he took part in the English Amateur Championship again, but this time retired in the third round.

It was nine years before Everton dared to participate again. In the meantime, due to the higher number of participants, the organizers of the English Amateur Championship had decided to hold two elimination competitions, the winners of which met in the final of the championship. Everton took part in the southern competition as a Welshman and lost to Roger Fletcher when he first played in 1971 in the round of 16. Even a year later he did not get past the second round and was defeated in this round by John Beech, before he reached both the quarter-finals of the Welsh Snooker Championship and the quarter-finals of the elimination competition in 1976. Just a year later, Everton made it into the final of the elimination competition, which he lost 8-1 to eventual world champion Terry Griffiths . In 1979 he made his first experience of playing on the professional tour when he took part in the Canadian Open , where he lost directly to the amateur Gordon Tekatch. Finally, a few years later, for the 1981/82 season , he became a professional player on the professional tour. However, Everton earned only £ 3,075 throughout his career , so his journalistic activities remained his main source of income.

First professional years

At the beginning of its first professional season, Everton came a round at both the International Open and the UK Championship by winning over Kingsley Kennerley and Matt Gibson . In the second round he was eliminated, by defeat against Mike Watterson and Jimmy White respectively . At the end of the season at the Bass and Golden Leisure Classic , he benefited from the non-fighting abandonment of John Phillips before he was eliminated there. He also took part in three other tournaments during the season, but without winning a game. As a result, Everton missed a world ranking and was without a position in the following season.

In the next season Everton's results deteriorated noticeably: Everton won only one of five opening games - at the Professional Players Tournament against Patsy Fagan - before he was eliminated there too. His defeats were mostly obvious, he lost in the qualification for the Snooker World Championship with 1: 10 against his compatriot Cliff Wilson or in the UK Championship with 4: 9 against Tommy Murphy . However, by winning the Professional Players Tournament, Everton finished 47th in the world rankings for the coming season. This remained the best world ranking for the rest of his career, as he then fell back on the world rankings with every season.

In the top 100 for last few years

Also in the following two seasons 1983/84 and 1984/85 Everton could not improve his results: In each season he lost six of seven opening games, mostly clear and sometimes with white-washs , only at the International Masters 1984 against Paddy Morgan and at the Grand Prix against Pat Houlihan , he survived one round each before he was eliminated from the tournament there. In the world rankings he lost 13 places in both seasons, so that he was ranked 60th from 1984 and 73rd from 1985.

In the following two seasons 1985/86 and 1986/87 his losing streak reached a new high, when Everton lost seven and six opening games respectively and only won one game at the Classic due to Eddie McLaughlin's abandonment without a fight . As a result, he only fell to 100th place in the world rankings and 112th place after the two seasons.

In the course of the next season Everton lost again seven opening games, but he was able to win another game on his own at the Classic against Jim Meadowcroft - for the last time in his career. Regarding the defeats, Everton suffered again two white-washs as well as a 1:10 defeat against Ian Graham in the professional play-offs . In the world rankings, he only lost eight places, so that he was led in the following season in 120th place.

Last professional years

With the 1988/89 season , the series of defeats took its course: Everton competed in nine tournaments and lost nine opening games, including five white-washs. On the world rankings, he lost twelve more places. Gradually, Everton's performance deteriorated, mainly due to health problems with his back, his knees and his eyesight. So it came about that he only took part in two tournaments in the next season : At the Dubai Classic he still benefited from Terry Whitthread's without a fight before he failed to Jim Chambers . Furthermore, he lost in the World Cup qualification with 2: 10 against the Canadian Brady Gollan . On the world rankings he only lost two more places, as the other players below him also had such results.

In the 1990/91 season , Everton signed up for three tournaments, albeit with little success: In the Classic , he lost 5-1 to Ian Black from Scotland . This was followed by a 5-3 defeat by Mark Wildman at the British Open . It was Everton's last professional game, as he did not play the match against Bill Werbeniuk in World Cup qualification and he subsequently did not play a professional match. Although he was in the 140th world rankings in the following season and in the season after next without a world ranking position on the world rankings and thus led as a professional, he did not play any more professional matches. With the end of the 1992/93 season he lost his professional status. During his professional career, he had only won about 9% of his games.

Journalism and television

Before he started playing as a professional, Everton founded the monthly magazine Snooker Scene in 1971 , which he has been editor of since then and which has become the most important snooker magazine under him. In 1976 he became the snooker correspondent for the Guardians , later engagements for the Sunday Times or the Sunday edition of the Independents followed .

In the early 1970s, ITV commentator Ted Lowe moved to the BBC and Everton got the job after an interview with Thames Televison . When, in 1978, when the World Snooker Championship moved to the Crucible Theater , the BBC increasingly broadcast snooker games on TV and Lowe needed support, Everton was added to the BBC team and quickly became one of the leading commentators alongside Lowe. In this activity he became known as The Voice of Snooker , as he accompanied numerous great moments of the sport at the commentary desk for over 30 years. He then worked for other broadcasters such as ITV and accompanied Ronnie O'Sullivan's 1000th Century Break in the final of the 2019 Players Championship as a commentator . He also reported for numerous BBC radios and provided national and regional newspapers with information with Everton's News Agency . After the snooker world championship in 2009 he was demoted after more than 30 years as part of a BBC campaign for more prominent commentators in the commentary team, after he had already been eliminated after the World Cup in 2008 and only after a conversation with the head of BBC Sport for two more tournaments and for the 2009 World Cup was engaged. This is said to have been due to Everton's "traditional" style, which the BBC no longer suited, so that he could no longer comment on games. Everton then continued his career as a commentator at Matchroom Sport tournaments such as the Championship League or Eurosport broadcasts.

Everton is also the author of over 20 books, including his autobiography Black Farce and Cue Ball Wizards shortlisted for the 2008 British Sports Book of the Year Award .

style

Everton's journalistic style is praised for his highly developed sense of the absurd, which has resulted in numerous anecdotes in Everton's writing. Due to his critical texts about the misconduct of the WPBSA , Everton was a thorn in the side of the world association, which is why an attempt was made to silence him with a costly defamation lawsuit against the snooker scene , which was unsuccessful.

Honors

In 2017, Everton was inducted into the Snooker Hall of Fame along with six-time World Cup finalist Jimmy White as the first and so far only television personality and only journalist . As part of the Queen's Birthday Honors on June 8, 2019, Everton was named a Member of the Order of the British Empire of the civilian sector for his services to snooker .

Trivia

Up until the last day of the 2007 World Snooker Championship, Everton was present on every day that the World Cup had been played at the Crucible since 1977, until he fractured the femoral neck while showering in the hotel and thus the last two sessions, i.e. the last day, of the final missed.

successes

output	year	competition	Final opponent	Result
Amateur tournaments
Second	1977	English Amateur Championship - South	Terry Griffiths	1: 8

Works (selection)

• Clive Everton: Better Billiards and Snooker . Littlehampton Book Services Ltd, Worthing 1976, ISBN 0-7182-1441-2 , pp. 96 .
• Clive Everton: Story of Billiards and Snooker . Littlehampton Book Services Ltd, Worthing 1979, ISBN 0-304-30373-9 , pp. 192 .
• Clive Everton: Snooker and Billiards: Techniques, Tactics, Training . The Crowood Press Ltd, Ramsbury 1991, ISBN 1-85223-480-6 , pp. 128 .
• Clive Everton: Black Farce and Cue Ball Wizards: The Inside Story of the Snooker World . Mainstream Publishing, Edinburgh 2007, ISBN 978-1-84596-199-2 , pp. 400 .
• Clive Everton: Snooker and Billiards: Skills - Tactics - Techniques - Second Edition . The Crowood Press Ltd, Ramsbury 2014, ISBN 978-1-84797-792-2 , pp. 96 .
• Clive Everton: Simply the Best: A Biography of Ronnie O'Sullivan . Pitch Publishing, United Kingdom 2019, ISBN 978-1-78531-444-5 , pp. 384 .

Web links

• Profile of Clive Everton on CueTracker
• Clive Everton in the Internet Movie Database (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g} Ron Florax: Career Total Statistics For Clive Everton - Professional Results. CueTracker.net, accessed July 3, 2019 .  
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Clive Everton to receive MBE. World Snooker , June 8, 2019, accessed July 4, 2019 .  
3. ↑ ^{a b} Author Bio: Clive Everton. The Crowood Press, accessed July 5, 2019 .  
4. ↑ ^{a b} Donald Trelford: Clive Everton tells snooker's inside story. The Telegraph , January 2, 2008, accessed July 5, 2019 .  
5. ↑ Ron Florax: Clive Everton - Season 1954–1955 - Non-professional Results. CueTracker.net, accessed July 3, 2019 .  
6. ↑ Ron Florax: Clive Everton - Season 1959-1960 - Non-professional Results. CueTracker.net, accessed July 3, 2019 .  
7. ↑ Ron Florax: Clive Everton - Season 1960–1961 - Non-professional Results. CueTracker.net, accessed July 3, 2019 .  
8. ↑ Ron Florax: Clive Everton - Season 1961–1962 - Non-professional Results. CueTracker.net, accessed July 3, 2019 .  
9. ↑ Ron Florax: Clive Everton - Season 1970–1971 - Non-professional Results. CueTracker.net, accessed July 3, 2019 .  
10. ↑ Ron Florax: Clive Everton - Season 1971–1972 - Non-professional Results. CueTracker.net, accessed July 3, 2019 .  
11. ↑ Ron Florax: Clive Everton - Season 1975-1976 - Non-professional Results. CueTracker.net, accessed July 3, 2019 .  
12. ↑ Ron Florax: Clive Everton - Season 1976-1977 - Non-professional Results. CueTracker.net, accessed July 3, 2019 .  
13. ↑ Ron Florax: Clive Everton - Season 1979–1980 - Professional Results. CueTracker.net, accessed July 3, 2019 .  
14. ↑ Ron Florax: Clive Everton - Season 1981–1982 - Professional Results. CueTracker.net, accessed July 3, 2019 .  
15. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h} Ron Florax: Ranking History For Clive Everton. CueTracker.net, accessed July 3, 2019 .  
16. ↑ Ron Florax: Clive Everton - Season 1982–1983 - Professional Results. CueTracker.net, accessed July 3, 2019 .  
17. ↑ Ron Florax: Clive Everton - Season 1983–1984 - Professional Results. CueTracker.net, accessed July 3, 2019 .  
18. ↑ Ron Florax: Clive Everton - Season 1984–1985 - Professional Results. CueTracker.net, accessed July 3, 2019 .  
19. ↑ Ron Florax: Clive Everton - Season 1985–1986 - Professional Results. CueTracker.net, accessed July 3, 2019 .  
20. ↑ Ron Florax: Clive Everton - Season 1986–1987 - Professional Results. CueTracker.net, accessed July 3, 2019 .  
21. ↑ Ron Florax: Clive Everton - Season 1987–1988 - Professional Results. CueTracker.net, accessed July 3, 2019 .  
22. ↑ Ron Florax: Clive Everton - Season 1988–1989 - Professional Results. CueTracker.net, accessed July 3, 2019 .  
23. ↑ ^{a b c d} Clive Everton. Pro Snooker Blog, accessed on July 7, 2019 .  
24. ^ Ron Florax: Clive Everton - Season 1989–1990 - Professional Results. CueTracker.net, accessed July 3, 2019 .  
25. ↑ Ron Florax: Clive Everton - Season 1990–1991 - Professional Results. CueTracker.net, accessed July 3, 2019 .  
26. ↑ ^{a b c} Clive Everton. Performing Artists, accessed on July 5, 2019 .  
27. ↑ ^{a b} Owen Gibson: Everton unhappy his BBC voice is being silenced. The Guardian , January 10, 2009, accessed July 7, 2019 .  
28. ↑ Selby Named Player of the Year. World Professional Billiards & Snooker Association , May 7, 2017, accessed July 5, 2019 .  
29. ^ Order of the British Empire - Civil Division. The Gazette , 2019, accessed July 5, 2019 .