By Elliott West
“Barking Snooker Centre was the best club I’ve ever played in, proper people and run it like a snooker club tables we’re recovered to a high standard and Stephen and Harvey Bourne were great guys. Miss them days.”
Mark King
Introduction
Essex has had a long association with snooker and became a hotbed for the game, especially during the 1980s. With a wealth of young players emerging from its many clubs dotted around the county, the clubs in Barking, Romford and neighbouring Ilford, became the second homes of these budding hopefuls. These clubs weren’t just places to play snooker, they were a hub of the community, where friends and family could meet for a drink and a laugh. Places where many hard-fought pro-ams were contested and silverware collected. Run by people who knew the game inside out and had their finger on the pulse of the game. Far too often tainted with the accusation that it was here you would spend a misspent youth and your parents told you to never visit, something is warming about a snooker club, especially during this era where you could play snooker for hours on end, go in during daylight and return home in darkness. A place which was always accompanied by the glowing lights and sounds of a fruit machine and you could often spot a young Steve Davis playing on the Space Invaders machine in the corner at the one in Romford.
“I had free digs and free practice at Ilford Snooker Centre, thanks to an Irish professional called Eugene Hughes. The digs were the other side of the city. Thirty-six stops on the District Line and two buses but it was worth it to get to play every day and work towards the goal of being a champion.”
Ken Doherty
The Pride of Barking
One such club that is often mentioned by players of that era is the Barking Snooker Centre. Opened on Thursday 20 October 1983 at 8 pm by the former professional billiards and snooker player and Pot Black referee, Sydney Lee, this club was a hive of snooker activity with good food and banter to accompany it. It had a busy bar and a Flites restaurant upstairs and by 1990, the membership had swelled to more than 850 members. Run by Harvey and Stephen Bourne, this club had an over-18s policy but also had an amazing lineup of players in its junior team. These included ten-year-old Ronnie O’Sullivan, Mark King, Chris Scanlon, Chris Brookes and Dean Venables. It also had senior members such as Tony Putnam, Stuart Reardon and Peter McCullagh.
The beautifully decorated premises had 16 Riley Aristocrat matchplay tables in the main area with a further two tables in a private room that had to be booked. All of the tables were computerised. The club was open daily from 10 am until midnight with a membership fee in 1983 of £20 a year, £25 for husband and wife and £10 for juniors. One of the first competitions was a club handicap followed by club championships with entry into competitions with other clubs. The club also had a shop where members could buy snooker cues, cases, club badges and sweaters. Big names of the time such as Alex Higgins, Graham Miles, Ray Reardon, John Spencer, Kirk Stevens, Dennis Taylor and Willie Thorne also visited here. The club sadly closed its doors for good in 1990 due to the recession at the time as it was part of the company’s property and Stephen Bourne lost everything.
