By Elliott West
It seems a lifetime ago when smoking was prevalent in society especially in sport. However, it wasn’t until 2007 that legislation was passed to deem it illegal to smoke in a pub, restaurant, nightclub, or workplace. In snooker, the tobacco giants had long been sponsors of major tournaments such as the Embassy World Championship and the Rothmans Grand Prix. The brands were displayed everywhere and it was hard to escape the enticement of the addictive and potentially fatal product.
The Cast Iron Grip
It is unbelievable but during the period of tobacco sponsorship in snooker, players whether they smoked or not, were given 400 cigarettes a month. This is aside to any they purchased themselves and was a gratis that enabled the companies to stamp their brand on the sport and the players. Tournament vinyls, the waistcoats of the players and even the ashtrays they smoked out of, were emblazoned with the tobacco company name.
By the 1980s, smoking was becoming increasingly to be seen as unfashionable and the health consequences of taking up the vice had been out in the public domain since the 1950s. Tobacco companies were fighting a constant battle against health warnings yet threw vast sums of money at sport as a niche means of subliminal advertising. Whether you smoked or not, venues had cigarette smoke present and the likes of Alex Higgins were always lighting up before and in between their next shot.
Sadly we lost John Spencer to stomach cancer, Alex Higgins had throat cancer, Doug Mountjoy contracted lung cancer and Jimmy White later had a battle with testicular cancer. Whether they were as a direct result of smoking or playing in these tournaments, is debatable but it clearly showed the results of direct smoking and passive smoking. The late Roy Castle, who spent a number of years, trumpet playing in clubs and venues across the country in the 1960s and 1970, believed that the reason for him getting throat cancer was through passive smoking. He blew the smoke from the room through his trumpet and directly into his lungs. However unbeknown to many, Castle was a secret cigar smoker and it was probably due to this and asbestos in set props that caused the onset of his cancer.
As the Smoke Cleared
With the dawn of new legislation, tobacco companies were forced to withdraw their sponsorship. They were not happy and saw the enactment as a direct attack on the industry but times were moving on. Snooker was left with a massive hole in its money chest and had to find other means of creating sponsorship deals. It turned to various companies for help and thankfully received a positive response. As the game struggled at the end of the 1990s, the sport had to reach out to its long term saviour, Barry Hearn. The tournament calendar had shrunk and players were getting very little table time in the season.
Hearn, throughout his leadership in snooker, called upon various companies to inject their cash into snooker and this mainly came from betting companies. Bet 365, Coral, Dafabet, to name but a few. They were the new blood, the blood that replaced the contaminated blood of the tobacco companies. Ironically a vice being replaced by another one. Deals that put snooker in a good place and threw aside that colourful past of the game. It was now not cool to smoke and the smoker was banished to changing elements of the British weather outside.
