by elliott west
When you think of snooker qualifying venues one of the most iconic was the Norbrek Castle Hotel in Blackpool. Snooker first moved here when the game started to open up. Taking place several months before the World Championship in January, players traveled to Blackpool to find out their snooker fates in often boiling or freezing conditions to play on one of the 20 tables that Norbrek housed. Coming here was boom or bust for a player as they were confined to the constrained cubicle set up that no professional wishes to have to experience with an audience view that resembled chess pieces on a board.
This was not a place for the faint hearted and preyed on the addicted, making and destroying many a player’s career. When I first started watching snooker there were many great players nearing their time professionally and so their only way of ever seeing the Crucible stage again was to battle it out at Norbrek. Played in the hotel’s Norcalympia Room, players had to play 11 matches to get their golden ticket to the Crucible. Often having to play from early morning for a snooker player, 9am, they would trundle down from their rooms above to experience carnage city after a continental breakfast. Nobrek may have once staged the Liberal Party Conference and The Pretenders but no red carpet was laid out for these snooker diehards. All the greats came here but were not so great when they left.
O’Sullivan classically won 74 out of 76 matches here in qualifiers but his victims could be seen in the nearby Marriner’s pub, licking their wounds and drowning their sorrows before braving the bracing Blackpool winds to make their long journey’s home. This was a tough system but a fair one and relied on the survival of the fittest. Some survived but others got entangled in Blackpool’s night life.
The hotel was also a place of drama off the table with one referee having his car written off when another referee’s car was blown into his. Also rumour has it that one player who fell victim to the Norbrek cubicles, fell ill when returning to his room after his defeat and died. These gruelling conditions also put a strain on those involved, including one referee who had to ask a player for a piece of chocolate because his energy levels were running so low. No story can be concluded without an Alex Higgins story. Higgins came to the famous hotel towards the end of his career and was drinking heavily. Rather than his once jovial nature on the baize, his temperament had now soured. A mood that he often took out on the people running the show. This time it was the referee who got in his line of fire, telling him to get out of the way because “he was in his line of thought”. Higgins’ appearances here became more and more bizarre, with the Irishman falling over and cutting his arm before a match due to heavy intoxication and taking a gun to the hotel in the guise of a cue.
Norbrek Castle Hotel ceased to be a qualifying venue at the end of the 1990’s and was moved to Prestatyn but will always be remembered fondly by snooker players and fans as a place of joy and tribulations. In fact for me, Blackpool was the home of my late Great Uncle Tommy Scott, who formed the famous variety act Jo, Jac and Joni and later worked here as a theatrical agent with the likes of Les Dawson. Fond and memorable times were had by all. No footage survived of this venue but I include some You Tube footage of a pool event to show you the great venue it was.
