By Elliott West
“The buck stops with me and if there are problems with the players or the table or around the venue, then it comes back to me”.
Mike Ganley
Introduction
Snooker runs in the Ganley family veins. His father was, of course, the great and lamented Northern Irish professional referee, Len Ganley, a no-nonsense man who ruled the snooker table of many a tournament in the 1980s and early 1990s with a Rod of iron and once crushed a snooker ball, which was, in reality, a condom filled with white powder, in front of Terry Griffiths and John Spencer in a Carling Black Label advert. The man in question is, of course, Mike Ganley, currently the Tournament Director at World Snooker.
Background
Mike was the man behind the opening of a popular snooker club situated in Swadlincote in the 1980s. Opened in 1982, and managed by Mike and his father-in-law Jim McAdam, the 147 Snooker Club was originally a pottery works and the two men partnership built this club from nothing. It became so successful that by 1989, it had 300 members and they extended the club, ploughing in £60,000 with the provision of four additional snooker tables, two pool tables, three bowling rinks, a solarium, two sunbeds and a new bar. An extension that was officially opened by Terry Griffiths.
Then only 26, Mike commented on the new extension, saying:
“We have used the extension to provide better facilities for the members and hopefully to attract interest from those people in the area who are intending to join the club”.
Mike Ganley
Life as a Tournament Director
Being a Tournament Director is probably one of the most stressful jobs you could imagine but Mike Ganley takes it in his stride. Any problems with a tournament land on his head, along with requests from players and the schedules for forthcoming events. This even goes as far as referees coming to him with matters of discipline with the rules and regulations that weren’t resolved during a match.
Often running from pillar to post, Ganley has to get the players to the table on time and this even includes dealing with their wardrobe malfunctions. Mike has had to step in several times to provide his own clothing and footwear when certain players have lacked the necessary dress code. On one occasion, Ganley had to lend Jimmy White a pair of his trousers that went missing two minutes before the match.
“They were a little short on him but they fitted in with the dress code”.
Mike Ganley
He even had to provide a pair of shoes for Ronnie O’Sullivan when he brought the wrong pair of shoes to the 2015 World Championship. In his match against Craig Steadman, Ronnie complained that his shoes were hurting him and took them off to play in his socks. His original shoes had been lost after being left in a hotel room but what he wasn’t banking for was the playing out of this mini soap opera. O’Sullivan was warned for his inappropriate dress code and there was a quick scramble to find him another pair of shoes and the onus fell on Mike Ganley. Mike ended up providing a pair of his own and Ronnie later commented, saying:
“I got a pair of Mike Ganley’s stinky old shoes, and you know what – they felt great.”
Ronnie O’Sullivan
They can’t have been that bad a fit because Ronnie went on to beat Steadman 10-3 but still faced a potential fine of £250 for breaching the WPBSA dress code.
With his headset firmly attached to his head, Mike glides around every venue he goes to and is never far away from a radio when assistance is required. He is one of the many people who make a tournament run like clockwork and works tirelessly to make that happen. Ganley is an unsung hero of snooker and should be applauded for his many years of work for World Snooker, especially during the Covid restrictions. A time where snooker managed to continue despite controlled measures and an audience absence.
