Mike Watterson

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Mike Watterson
birthday August 26, 1942
place of birth Chesterfield
date of death March 8, 2019 (age 76)
nationality EnglandEngland England
professional 1981 - 1995
Prize money £ 13,189
Highest break 107 ( WM 1982, Q )
Century Breaks 1
World rankings
Highest WRL place 34 ( 1984/85 )
Best results
Ranked tournaments 1 × round of 16
Other professional tournaments 1 × round of the last 32
Amateur tournaments 1 × round of 16

George Michael Edwin "Mike" Watterson (born August 26, 1942 in Chesterfield , † March 8, 2019 ) was an English snooker player and commentator as well as sports promoter and manager. Watterson played on the professional snooker tour for 14 seasons between 1981 and 1995.

Career

Watterson was born and raised in Chesterfield . His father George worked in a steel mill; his mother was Olive Watterson, née Pilkington. He was the third of the couple's four children.

Entrepreneur

After finishing school, Watterson worked in Sheffield as a car salesman. He succeeded in becoming one of the first salespeople for the Vauxhall Viva . In addition, he earned extra income as an entrepreneur in the recycling business . Watterson had great success with his profession and was able to afford certain luxury items, primarily luxury cars. In 1972 he made his first attempt as a snooker promoter when he held an exhibition with Alex Higgins and Ray Reardon at a snooker club in Derbyshire .

Interior view of the Crucible Theater after the 2005 World Cup final

In the mid-1970s it was uncertain whether the 1977 World Snooker Championship would take place, as the sponsor Embassy could have jumped off at any time and the tournament would have been de facto over. In August 1976 Watterson married Carole Walker (also spelled Carol), with whom Watterson lived in Sheffield . At that time, his wife was attending a play at the Crucible Theater and then told her husband that she thought the theater would be perfect for hosting a snooker tournament. Watterson agreed to this after a visit and a short time later he was already negotiating with the theater and the World Snooker Federation . At the same time he had negotiated a TV contract with the BBC and signed sponsors. This was followed by the first staging of the World Snooker Championship in the Crucible, which is still home to this most important tournament of the Snooker Main Tour today. The Crucible even became synonymous with the World Cup itself. The 1977 edition had been paid for in part by Watterson out of his own money; the prize money of £ 17,000 came from his hand. In total, he said he had invested £ 30,000 but made £ 12,000 in profit, although he later lost £ 5,000 as promoter of the UK Championship in 1977 .

In addition to the World Snooker Championship, Watterson was also involved in hosting other professional tournaments and founded the UK Championship , the British Open , the International Open and the World Cup , among others . So he was involved in a large part of the important tournaments at the beginning of the 1980s. At the same time, he had tied various relationships with sponsors and television companies. He was also active in other sports; He initiated the first edition of the BDO Darts World Championship and promoted cricket and bowling tournaments . In 1981 he also organized the first UK Indoor Bowls Championship in Preston . Watterson also had TV contracts for both the Darts World Cup and the bowling tournament. For his tournaments in these two sports he had developed a system of sets and legs which, thanks to his ability to create exciting moments frequently, was very popular with television broadcasters. He was also a manager and worked in this role for the Canadian snooker players Cliff Thorburn and Kirk Stevens . At the same time, he was also committed to promoting young talent, including for Jimmy White . Watterson laid with his work more or less a foundation that could later be used by Barry Hearn in building his company Matchroom Sport .

All in all, Watterson played a role in the process that turned snooker and darts into television sports. He also played a role in the development of cricket when he was instrumental in establishing evening cricket matches under floodlights . Kerry Packer had already used this idea successfully in his World Series cricket in Australia and Watterson brought it to Great Britain in 1980 when he held a cricket tournament in Sheffield between Derbyshire, Yorkshire , Nottinghamshire and Kent . Apart from that, he was chairman of Derby County football club for a short time in the early 1980s . He failed in this activity while trying to bring Brian Clough back as a coach to Derby, but finally hired Clough's former assistant Peter Taylor . In 1983 he had to quit his job, among other things after internal disputes, but later helped a local club in Chesterfield with its debts and a resulting legal process and a little later became chairman of the club for a year.

In 1983 Watterson was ousted from the snooker and darts business by the respective world association due to a mixture of envy, jealousy, deviousness and striving for power - so the words of Rolf Kalb and Marcus Stead. A period of mismanagement then began in both sports. Watterson, on the other hand, suffered a nervous breakdown.

Snooker player

In addition, Watterson was also somewhat successful as an amateur snooker player with a highest tournament break of 140 points. Between 1975 and 1980 Watterson reached the last rounds in various amateur tournaments, primarily the English Amateur Championship , but was eliminated in the round of 16 at the latest. He also won several smaller amateur tournaments.

For the 1981/82 season Watterson was a professional player. Up to and including the 1983/84 season Watterson was able to show some successes: Despite several early defeats, he moved several times into the main rounds of ranked tournaments. His best result during this time and at the same time in his career was when he took part in the round of 16 at the International Open in 1983 . As a result, Watterson was always in the top 50 of the world rankings at this time; his best placement was rank 34th But in the following seasons Watterson could not connect to it and lost a large part of his games, sometimes even all games of a season. At the beginning of this period, Watterson still regularly reached the main rounds of ranked tournaments, but that number has diminished over time. Finally, he retired during the 1987/88 season without a single win in the qualification. Although he reached a main round at the Grand Prix the following season , it was the last participation in the same round.

After Watterson, meanwhile on the world rankings crashed to 110th place, in the 1989/90 season again with only one game won, he recorded very few wins, he reduced his tournament participation significantly in the following years. Initially he was successful and won half of six played games in a total of three tournaments during the 1990/91 season . But in the following two seasons he did not win a single game, also because he often gave up his games without a fight. He played his last professional game as part of qualifying for the 1993 World Snooker Championship . Then Watterson, who had already dropped to places above 500 on the ranking list, did not play a single professional game. At the end of the 1994/95 season , he ended his professional career after 14 seasons.

Further life

After Watterson was ousted from the business in 1983, he had primarily focused on his work as a manager and his family in addition to his career as a snooker player. In the early 1990s he briefly worked as a TV commentator for snooker games at Eurosport and Sky , but ended this activity when he decided to spend the winter months in Spain . There he owned a property in Sheffield and a second home on Tenerife . Watterson died on March 8, 2019 at the age of 76. He left behind his third wife - his first marriage ended in divorce, his second wife, Carole, died in 1991 - and three children. Jason Ferguson , chairman of the world association at the time of his death, paid tribute to Watterson for his "great contributions to the history of our sport" and condoled his family on behalf of the world association. Barry Hearn called him a "visionary". Watterson was buried in Chesterfield in late March.

literature

  • Hector Nunns: The Crucible's Greatest Matches . 1st edition. Pitch Publishing, Worthing 2017, ISBN 978-1-78531-284-7 , chapter "The World Championship finds a spiritual home", p. 21-29 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Ron Florax: Career Total Statistics For Mike Watterson - Professional Results. CueTracker.net, accessed July 1, 2020 .
  2. ^ A b c d Ron Florax: Ranking History For Mike Watterson. CueTracker.net, accessed July 1, 2020 .
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Marcus Stead: Mike Watterson obituary. The Guardian , March 20, 2019, accessed July 1, 2020 .
  4. ↑ a b c d e f Mike Watterson Dies Age 76th WPBSA , March 10, 2019, accessed July 1, 2020 .
  5. ^ Hector Nunns: The Crucible's Greatest Matches . 1st edition. Pitch Publishing, Worthing 2017, ISBN 978-1-78531-284-7 , pp. 23 .
  6. ↑ a b c d e f g h Rolf Kalb : inventor of the crucible myth Mike Watterson dies. Eurosport , March 10, 2019, accessed July 1, 2020 .
  7. ↑ PA Sport: World Snooker pays tribute to Mike Watterson who brought World Championship to Crucible Theater. Sky Sports , March 10, 2019, accessed July 1, 2020 .
  8. ↑ a b c d The Newsroom: Mike Watterson, snooker impresario. The Yorkshire Post , March 19, 2019, accessed July 1, 2020 .
  9. ^ Hector Nunns: The Crucible's Greatest Matches . 1st edition. Pitch Publishing, Worthing 2017, ISBN 978-1-78531-284-7 , pp. 24 .
  10. ^ Hector Nunns: The Crucible's Greatest Matches . 1st edition. Pitch Publishing, Worthing 2017, ISBN 978-1-78531-284-7 , pp. 27 .
  11. ↑ Ron Florax: Mike Watterson - Season 1974-1975 - Non-professional Results. CueTracker.net, accessed July 1, 2020 . Ron Floraxs: Mike Watterson - Season 1976–1977 - Non-professional Results. CueTracker.net, accessed July 1, 2020 . Ron Florax: Mike Watterson - Season 1978–1979 - Non-professional Results. CueTracker.net, accessed July 1, 2020 . Ron Florax: Mike Watterson - Season 1979–1980 - Non-professional Results. CueTracker.net, accessed July 1, 2020 .


  12. ↑ Ron Florax: Mike Watterson - Season 1981–1982 - Professional Results. CueTracker.net, accessed July 1, 2020 . Ron Florax: Mike Watterson - Season 1982–1983 - Professional Results. CueTracker.net, accessed July 1, 2020 . Ron Florax: Mike Watterson - Season 1983–1984 - Professional Results. CueTracker.net, accessed July 1, 2020 .

  13. ↑ Ron Florax: Mike Watterson - Season 1984–1985 - Professional Results. CueTracker.net, accessed July 1, 2020 . Ron Florax: Mike Watterson - Season 1985–1986 - Professional Results. CueTracker.net, accessed July 1, 2020 . Ron Florax: Mike Watterson - Season 1986–1987 - Professional Results. CueTracker.net, accessed July 1, 2020 .

  14. ↑ Ron Florax: Mike Watterson - Season 1987–1988 - Professional Results. CueTracker.net, accessed July 1, 2020 .
  15. ↑ Ron Florax: Mike Watterson - Season 1988–1989 - Professional Results. CueTracker.net, accessed July 1, 2020 .
  16. ↑ Ron Florax: Mike Watterson - Season 1989–1990 - Professional Results. CueTracker.net, accessed July 1, 2020 .
  17. ↑ Ron Florax: Mike Watterson - Season 1990–1991 - Professional Results. CueTracker.net, accessed July 1, 2020 .
  18. ↑ Ron Florax: Mike Watterson - Season 1991–1992 - Professional Results. CueTracker.net, accessed July 1, 2020 . Ron Florax: Mike Watterson - Season 1992–1993 - Professional Results. CueTracker.net, accessed July 1, 2020 .
  19. ^ Mike Watterson Funeral Details. WPBSA , accessed July 1, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Watterson, Mike
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Watterson, George Michael Edwin (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English snooker player and commentator and sports promoter and manager
DATE OF BIRTH August 26, 1942
PLACE OF BIRTH Chesterfield
DATE OF DEATH March 8, 2019