By Elliott West
“All I wanted to do in life, was to play snooker”.
Robert Marshall
Introduction
I love to write about the yesteryear of snooker and shine the light on some of the snooker players who were extremely talented but sadly have got lost in the mists of time. One such player who played on the main tour from 1987-1996 was Robert Marshall, not to be confused with the billiards player, Bob Marshall. The Exeter-based player was inspired to pick up a snooker cue by watching one of the greats of the game, Ray Reardon in 1978. His Dad then started taking him to a local club to practice. Now 59, Robert works as an IT engineer. I recently spoke to Robert about his playing career.
Amateur Days
“For all who remember Stockport’s finest nightclub way back in the day!! Sticky carpets fights, cheap Diamond White, what more could you ask for?”.
Anonymous quote.
Robert remembers his amateur days as a player with fond memories. Becoming serious about snooker at the age of 14, he took part in a number of Pro-Am tournaments in Devon including the Wesford Hoe and travelled to London, playing alongside the likes of Gary Filtness, Bob Harris, Jimmy White and Neal Foulds. He did very well in a competition called the Top 100 and often practised with another player of the day, Andrew Snell, a great amateur of his time.
Marshall would go on to practice at the legendary Masters Club in Stockport which is sadly no longer there. He also loved billiards and played in Middlesborough at the age of 17. The Masters Club was a snooker club which had a sticky floor, a dance floor and somewhere where you had to sign in and provide your date of birth. This was the place to be apparently on a Sunday night and you could often spot the likes of Alex Higgins, Paul Medati, Nick Dyson, Warren King and Alain Robidoux here. Robert would often practice here until 2 o’clock in the morning. A club where he became a friend of Alex Higgins, a man whom he describes as always having a great relationship, probably because Higgins was less drunk at the time. He describes one instance with Alex when he came up to him whilst chatting to a woman at the bar.
“I suppose when I was playing at the Masters club in Stockport,
Robert Marshall
Alex Higgins (two-time World Champion 1972 & 82) put a large glass of Baileys in my suit jacket pocket and I’ve still kept this jacket and the crinkles are still there!” Now there’s a memory to savour!”
Being a Professional
“I underachieved”.
Robert Marshall
Robert told me that he preferred his amateur days to that of his professional ones. However, if you take a look at this period of his career, he did achieve some significant runs. In 1987, Marshall reached the last 32 of the non-ranking English Professional Championship with wins against Bill Oliver 6-3 and 6-4 against Pat Houlihan. He eventually lost to Willie Thorne 3-6 after leading the match 3-1.
In his second season, Robert had runs to the last 64 of the 1989 Classic and the last 32 of the British Open. In the Classic, he beat Ian Black 5-0 and Ray Edmonds 5-2 before losing to Tony Drago 1-5. In the British Open, he had wins over Chambers, Kirk Stevens and Bob Chaperon 5-2 before losing to Willie Thorne 1-5. At the 1989 International Open, Robert reached the last 16, defeating Paul Watchorn, Colin Roscoe, Dean Reynolds and Eddie Charlton before losing to Cliff Wilson 3-5. Tony Meo would claim the title in Derby, his only professional trophy with a 13-6 victory over Dean Reynolds.
However, the best performance of his professional career came at the 1990 British Open where he reached the semi-final. He beat Nigel Gilbert, David Roe 5-3, Joe Johnson 5-4, Eugene Hughes 5-0 and Steve Newbury 5-4 before losing to the eventual winner Bob Chaperon 5-9 who beat Alex Higgins 10-8 to claim the title.
With his highest ranking of 46th in the 1990/91 season, Marshall qualified for the main stages of the World Championship. He beat Tony Wilson, Mark Johnston-Allen and Peter Francisco all by a 10-9 scoreline and got to the last 32. However, he then faced Dean Reynolds and after leading 4-2, went on to lose the match 8-10.
By the 1992/93 season, Robert was starting to fall down the rankings, ranked 70th. Although he did win five matches to reach the last 64 of the 1995 Thailand Open where he lost 2-5 to Jason Wallace. He ended the season ranked 162nd. He also achieved his highest professional break of 135 in his 1995 World Championship qualifying match against Kieran McMahon but lost the match 4-5 to the Northern Irish player. Marshall resigned his membership from the main tour in 1996, aged 31.
Recent Years
After 17 years away from snooker, Robert entered Event 3 of the 2013 European Tour as an amateur but lost his qualifying match to Oliver Brown 3-4. He did however win an amateur event, the 2018 National Snooker Expo and the event introduced a Rob Marshall bracelet afterwards. He reached final of English amateur semis of worlds and won IBSF world team with Anthony Harris. He also played and captained England in the Home International at Presatyn. After a bad bout of appendicitis, Marshall still plays occasionally but has upped his game since the end of Covid restrictions. He has also been doing some snooker coaching.
