by elliott west
The world of snooker always remembers its best and one of these is Jack Karnehm. A former professional player and BBC commentator, Karnehm knew the game inside out and was a regular in the commentary box for Triple Crown tournaments during the 1970’s and 80’s. Jack was a prolific billiards player and won the English Amateur in 1969 and the UK Billiards Championship in 1980. Simultaneous to this he turned professional as a snooker player in 1971 but his career as a player was less fruitful, his only memorable result being a 4-5 loss to Chris Ross in the 1977 UK Championship.
In the later years of his baize career and afterwards, Jack started to turn his attention towards the analytical side of snooker. Picking up a microphone he joined Ted Lowe, John Virgo and others to pontificate on match analysis. His reign in the box saw him witness some of the true classic matches; Reardon, Higgins, Thorburn and Taylor to name just a few. These were matched and tournament wins that any fan would surrender their mobile phone to have watched and must have been sublime to have been a part of.
Karnehm’s most memorable commentary was during the first 147 at the World Championship. This occurred in 1983 when a young Canadian player; Cliff Thorburn was making his mark at the Crucible. Thorburn had already struck gold in Sheffield in 1980 when he convincingly defeated Alex Higgins for the first time and so in 1983 against Terry Griffiths he was hungry for more silverware of the Sheffield variety. Karnehm drew the lucky straw by being in the commentary box for this match and the crucial frame began with a red that missed the intended pocket and rebounded into the opposite left corner pocket. From then on the frame grew in momentum and culminated on the crucial black when Karnehm uttered the famous words “Good luck mate”.
Jack wasn’t without his own controversy in his commentary career. Teaming with a young rookie at the time John Virgo in a match. John was explaining that the frame was basically over and the player was just getting some potting practice in to get his eye in for the next frame. Jack took offence to the commentary as he had felt that Virgo had butted in and it was traditionally he who had the last word and threw his microphone down in disgust. It was a scene that soured their relationship and let’s say there were never any further Christmas cards shared between with two of them again.
Jack Karnehm was also known for making spectacles and he was a developer of the swivel-lens glasses. First developed by Theodore Hamblin and pioneered by Fred Davis in 1938, these spectacles had the the effect of allowing the player to look along the shot through the optical centre of the lens and were set at a compensatory angle. His upside-down design would become the trademark for Dennis Taylor who due to failing eyesight needed a saviour to halt his demising form. The result was legendary and we all know what happened next! Taylor never forgot Jack and always mentions him when recalling his legendary 1985 Crucible, black ball final win against Steve Davis in 1985.
Karnehm was also a coach and wrote several books on snooker. He was also the President of the Radstock Billiards association until 2000. He died suddenly in 2002 aged 85 after an an afternoon working on his garden in extreme heat. Jack will be fondly remembered and his warm and charming voice that oozed the love of the game will always be remembered and forever preserved on celluloid footage.
