By Elliott West
“This is my second home.”
Nigel Bond
Introduction
Situated on Eastbourne seafront in the basement of the Glastonbury Hotel is a snooker gem of a snooker club with four full-size snooker tables, proudly run by the owner Joe Martins. A club that has a fully functioning bar and a swathe of snooker memories adorning its walls. It is a hub for snooker in Eastbourne and the surrounding area and operates a thriving local snooker league from behind its doors. The Glastonbury Snooker has played host to a number of exhibitions for past and present professional snooker players over the years, dating all the way back to Ray Reardon.
I travelled here to spend a Saturday night in the company of Nigel Bond, a winner of the 1996 British Open, the first Snooker Shootout in 2011 and a champion at the 2012 World Seniors Championship. Now retired from the professional tour, Nigel is still very active in snooker, currently, a member of the snooker executive committee and a coach to a number of players across the UK, and Europe and will be travelling to Kuwait in the near future for a month.
Home from Home
This was Nigel’s third visit to the Glastonbury Snooker Club, an association that has spanned the last ten years. A club that he now regards as his second home. After a healthy repast of fish and chips, washed down with a bottle of alcohol-free beer, we made the short walk to the club on Eastbourne’s seafront. Waiting for us at the club was Joe, the owner suitably dressed in snooker attire, along with his son who made a similar effort as he manned the bijou bar. The club was full of a number of amateur players, snooker fans and my dear friends Colin Gross who was doing the MC role for the evening, the snooker referee Richard Barnicoat and watched on by Steve Smith, who is currently managing an up-and-coming player on the women’s tour, the currently ranked number six on the tour and someone who has won a string of titles including the 2020 English Championship.
A Challenge
This was an evening that spanned ten frames of snooker including two auctioned frames for charity where two lucky players got to play Nigel Bond for their fifty pounds’ bids. Separated by a short interval and the drama lightened by a smattering of well-remembered, funny jokes from Colin Gross, the son of the dearly missed, legendary Ron Gross, owner of the Ron Gross Snooker Centre in Neasden and brother-in-law of Patsy Fagan.
Nigel played very well despite not practicing much these days but was probably recharged after his exhibition the previous night in Faversham, Kent. He managed to win all his frames bar one including an impressive 91 break along the way. A break that won a younger member of the audience a framed and signed photograph of Nigel Bond and a boxed bottle of Moet champagne that I am sure his parents will enjoy drinking in the near future.
This was a fun night and I know that I and all those who attended thoroughly enjoyed it, especially the speed challenge on the colours near the end of the evening. After a series of heartfelt speeches from those involved, Nigel made a promise to return to the club in the new year. Next time he could be accompanied by the former Welsh professional player, Darren Morgan. A player who still wins a string of trophies on the amateur circuit and the owner of the Red Triangle Snooker Club in South Wales recently hosted an exhibition with Judd Trump.
Apparently, when Darren and Nigel get together, they work well together as a very funny and entertaining double act. You just can’t beat watching some of these greats of snooker. Snooker fans love to reminisce and so these exhibitions are a perfect way of celebrating the past and present of the game, a perfect fusion. It takes a lot of hard work and planning to make these exhibitions get off the ground and happen. So I take my hat off to Colin, Richard and Joe for making this evening with Nigel Bond happen and all those up and down the country that source players and venues to continue putting the fizz in this constantly evolving project, based in the local communities.
