By Elliott West
“I had started this as a simple journal of record of what was happening on the table, but it became a crusade vehicle”.
Clive Everton
Introduction
It was with great sadness that I learned that the iconic monthly snooker publication, Snooker Scene has ceased to be. This follows the difficult decision by its editor, Clive Everton to step down due to ill health. The magazine has been around as long as I, 50 years to be precise, 1972, the year that Alex Higgins won his first world title and Edward Heath was Prime Minister. This was a magazine born out of the fusion of Billiards and Snooker and World Snooker, both edited by Clive Everton. Clive had been the editor of Billiards and Snooker since 1966 but was suddenly replaced in 1971 by Jack Organ at the request of Jack Karnehm due to giving professionals publicity when four professional players were put on the cover of an edition.
Everton would go on to set up a rival publication, World Snooker which sold 3,000 copies of the first magazine in 1971. Perhaps this success sent shockwaves down Billiards and Snooker’s spine because, in 1972, he was approached to take it over and paid £1,000 to do so.
The Rest is History
In 1972, amalgamated both magazines and created Snooker Scene whose first cover showed Alex Higgins and John Spencer pictured at the 1972 World Championship, a publication that cost just 12 pence at the time but is now considered to be worth a lot and is rarer than a hen’s tooth. Over the years the magazine has clashed several times with snooker’s governing body, the WPBSA, wrangling that has led to legal disputes.
Under the helm of Clive Everton and supported in later years by Phil Yates, David Hendon and Marcus Stead, this publication has been invaluable to every snooker fan and I know a few that have every edition in their groaning loft. This is the equivalent of Wisden or Private Eye, a publication that has its finger on snooker’s pulse, first based at Halesowen for fourteen years and later at Stourbridge. A magazine that was notorious for hard reporting, sometimes through satire. A media giant that will be greatly missed but hopefully not out of our lives for too long.
