By Elliott West
“We can’t do it without them”
Rob Walker
Back in the day when I was growing up in the late 1980s, snooker referees were just as familiar as the players themselves. One of my favourites has to be John Street, a man with a distinctive West Country accent who is always impeccably dressed and who never had a hair out of place with his pomade-laden thatch. Street was a referee who took no prisoners and ruled a tournament table with an iron fist, adhering to the letter of the snooker rule book. John had an impressive snooker presence, overseeing five World Championship finals and bore witness to the solo victories of Cliff Thorburn in the 1980 World Championship, Joe Johnson in his 1986 feat, Steve Davis taking the title in 1989 and two of Stephen Hendry’s wins in 1992 and 1995.
A Safe Pair of Gloves
John Street was probably the last example of a referee who worked through the so-called golden age of snooker. Part of the snooker furniture at the Wembley Conference Centre, Hexagon, Reading, Preston Guild Hall and others, Street, he saw Jimmy White achieve a maximum break at the Crucible in 1992 a female streaker ran around the stage in front of Steve Davis and Ronnie O’Sullivan at the 1997 Masters final at Wembley where Davis 8-4 down, went on to beat O’Sullivan 10-8.
Not afraid to point out a troublesome spectator, telling an overexcited person to ‘shut up’ when Jimmy White moved towards a 147 break. Street, a traditionalist at heart, wasn’t afraid to stray away from the line of reason and take part in some of the boozy nights after the qualifiers in Blackpool. One funny memory involved him amidst a rendition of Blur’s hit ‘Country House’ where his puzzled head turned more times than a tennis umpire as those involved replaced the lyrics with their own. After a few choice words from Streety as he became more and more frustrated, the participants including Mike Ganley and Gordon Regan fell on the floor laughing. An act that John wasn’t too amused about, especially as the joke was at his expense.
John loved to be on hand to give advice and would often take the younger referees under his wing, offering his many pearls of wisdom from his long and successful time as a professional referee. He could often be spotted at one of the many pro-ams across the South West of England. A coach who loved to combine life skills with helping others. A man who I remember Ted Lowe was the referee at one tournament, ‘courtesy of his chiropractor’ when he was suffering from a bad back.
John last appeared as a professional referee at the 1997 Masters final, a referee who once told a husband in the front row of the audience to tell his wife, ‘please shut that bag up’. A misconstrued quote that was actually about a noisy sweet bag and not about the wife in question. Street wrote a book with Peter Rook on the authoritative rules of snooker and a column in Pot Black and later Cuesport magazine. Street sadly passed away from lung disease in 2009, aged 77 after a long bout of illness. A snooker giant and someone who I will always fondly remember.
