By Elliott West
Introduction
John Parrott had four or five cues over his playing career but his favourite had to be the one he used for winning the Embassy World Championship in 1991, a final where he defeated Jimmy White 18-11 and bagged himself a winner’s share of £135,000. Parrott looked unstoppable in this tournament and definitely played some of his best snooker, a period of time where he was at his very peak of form.
However, tragedy struck when the cue, made by Hunt and O’Byrne and purchased for £400 was stolen from the boot of his car which was in the car park of a hotel in Heathrow at the time in June 1992. John subsequently offered a reward for its return and despite this cash tempter, the cue, the Liverpudlian never heard anything of the cue again and it remained lost forever!
The Purchase
Distraught and desperate, John went on the hunt for a new cue to try and salvage his monumental loss and went to the Hunt and O’Byrne showrooms situated in Elephant and Castle, London. By chance whilst there, he came across a cue that someone had failed to pick up and so Parrott seized his opportunity and quickly purchased after liking its look and feel when he got to handle it.
Like any cue, you want to put your own stamp on it and so John had a new butt put on the cue and an inch was taken off the three-quarters length shaft which had to be re-balanced. The cue had a 10mm tip and weighed around 18 ½ ounces. A new alignment that made this former professional a very happy man.
Subsequently, John Parris took the measurements of the cue and made three more John to have a look at and it was then that he found a perfect shaft in this selection of three. Parrot loved it, even though it was a bit fat and the work didn’t cost him a penny because Parris owed him a favour. With the new snooker season in sight, there was no time to make alterations to the cue and a risk that could have jeopardised his number 2 spot.
Thankfully this didn’t happen and his cue was sent away at the end of the season to Tony Wilshaw in Stoke-On-Trent for minor alterations. The cue went on to weigh 19 ounces and had a tip of 10.2mm. This blessing in disguise came at such a good moment, one where his old cue was frankly ready for the knacker’s yard and had been living on borrowed time since he lost to Eddie Charlton 5-1 in the third round of the Mercantile Credit Classic. A new cue that is still in his collection today and is accompanied by amongst others, an Adam two-piece cue, similar to those used by Dennis Taylor and John Spencer, given to him by the late Cliff Wilson. A happy ending to an episode that certainly didn’t start off that way.
