by elliott west
For anyone who is involved in snooker, you would have seen Gary Wilkinson in the tournament foyer issuing passes and tickets to people attending. However, before joining the World Snooker Tour team, Gary was part of the man tour as a player from 1987-to 2006. I remember Gary from when I first started watching snooker and was impressed by his calibre as a player. He competed in an era when Alex Higgins and Steve Davis were fading lights in the sport and Stephen Hendry had made a meteoric rise to the top of the game.
Wilkinson first came to the forefront of snooker when he beat Alex Higgins in the non-ranking WBSA Invitational event in 1988, 5-4. However, Gary played at a time when single person dominance was still apparent and this was a major stumbling block for many of those who competed at the time for the winning glory. Wilkinson sadly came up against that barrage of competition and never reached his full potential.
Gary managed to get through to two major finals, losing in the British Open and Scottish Open in 1992 and making ten appearances at the World Championship. However, silverware still eluded him, a bitter pill to swallow when he managed to remain in the top 32 for a decade and the added fact that he qualified for the World Championship on eight occasions, a record that was only surpassed by one other player, John Parrott. It wasn’t until 1991 that he won his only title, the World Matchplay when he beat Steve Davis, 18-11 which was sadly a non-ranking event.
Gary was more successful outside the main tour, winning the Watney’s Open in 1986 and the WPBSA Pro a year earlier in 1985. Wilkinson certainly wasn’t a shabby player and cruelly came into the sport at the wrong time. However, his statistics are there to see. He had a high ranking of number five in the 1991/92 season and had a highest break of 143, making 69 career centuries. With career earnings of £883,247, Wilkinson certainly made his mark in snooker, no mean feat at the time.
Gary will sadly not be remembered or recognised by the newer snooker audience but for me, he was one of the reasons I first started watching snooker. In an age when there were only four television channels and if you were lucky enough to have a remote control, finding snooker could turn into a mission impossible or having to endure an episode of Bergerac. I wrote these piece in order to enthuse my writing audience about Gary’s career. Gary and others kept the sport going when the game looked like it was going to disappear from our screens and competed when the sport was in full pomp and circumstance. Gary Wilkinson, we salute you and will always remember the part you played in our great snooker history.
