By Elliott West
Introduction
Paul Collier is a World Snooker referee from Newport, South Wales. Born in 1970, Paul first started playing snooker when he was thirteen and became a qualified referee when he was fifteen. A proud Welshman, Paul recently recounted how he was actually born at the Celtic Manor site when it used to a General Hospital. A referee who began his early days as a marker at the Newport Centre for the last years of the Welsh Professional Championship, Paul has become a familiar figure in the sport and one that is highly respected.
Career
Paul Collier became the youngest of the Professional Snooker Referees Association in 1991 and would often appear at various cue-ball tournaments including 9 Ball Pool, the English Billiards World Championship and a long stint in the now defunct Premier League where the best of snooker slogged it out week out on live Sky Sports. This kept Paul’s hand in when he took a break from the professional referee circuit. A role that saw him take charge of almost three hundred matches over a thirteen year period.
A referee who has overseen several World Championship finals including those in 2004, 2016 and who just been announced to referee this year’s World Championship final. In 2005, Paul quit his role at a time when there was only five professional tournaments in the season. Collier explained his decision, saying that he was no longer enjoying the work. However it wasn’t long before Paul rejoined the snooker fold, largely persuaded by Barry Hearn to come back.
Back on the main tour, Paul became the Tournament Director and one of only three assessors of professional referees. He also refereed the final of the 2015 Snooker World Cup in Wuxi, China, where China B won the title.
Away from snooker, Collier enjoys Rugby Union, supporting Newport Gwent Dragons and socialising with his friends. A keen golf fan, Paul confessed that if he wasn’t a snooker referee, he would like to return to his old job, providing on screen television graphics for scoring and statistics at worldwide major sporting events. Paul is also not too shabby at playing snooker with a highest break of 123.
