By Elliott West
Introduction
Staged between 1979 and 1984, the Toby Cobbold Classic was a snooker tournament, held at the Ipswich Corn Exchange. The brainchild of John Peachey who ran Peachey Sports, an operating retail sports company, John formed Cannon Sports to organise and promote the tournament. Peachey was assisted by his son, Mike, who was a director of both companies and Dennis Taylor who was brought on board as a director of Cannon Sports, a company that was formed, just before the Tolly Cobbold Classic was first staged. John Peachey had plenty of experience at organising snooker tournaments with his first, being an invitational event in 1975 along with Suffolk amateur champion, Ted Brown.
The Tournament
Broadcasted on Anglia Television, all the top players of the era appeared on the Tolly Cobbold Invitational Classic including players such as Alex Higgins, Steve Davis, Dennis Taylor, Willie Thorne, Doug Mountjoy, Bill Werbeniuk, Terry Griffiths, Cliff Thorburn, Kirk Stevens, Graham Miles, David Taylor, John Virgo, Jimmy White, Tony Meo, Tony Knowles, Ray Reardon, Eddie Charlton, London’s John Smyth as head referee and Clive Everton came to report on several occasions.
Many of the above, also used to spend time with the Peachey household during this tournament. During the interval, you would often find John Peachey playing chess with Steve Davis or Graham Miles and Dennis Taylor having a joke together. Their family snooker table would often be occupied with either Alex Higgins or Willie Thorne practicing on it.
The Tolly Cobbold Classic was devised to showcase John Peachey’s vision of bringing a sport he loved to the general public and to television for everyone to see. A vision that is still carried on by his son, Mike with his commitment until the present day as a WSF member. The event itself used three different methods during its time. In 1979 and 1981, there were two groups of four, with the winner of the groups advancing to the final. In 1980, only four players participated in a round-robin group, with the top two players advancing to the final. Between 1982 and 1984, the tournament was converted to a knock-out format with eight players. After the 1984 event, Tolly Cobbold decided to sponsor the English Professional Championship instead and the event ceased to be.
Roll of Honour
1979 Alex Higgins v Ray Reardon 5-4
1980 Alex Higgins v Dennis Taylor 5-4
1981 Graham Miles v Cliff Thorburn 5-1
1982 Steve Davis v Dennis Taylor 8-3
1983 Steve Davis v Terry Griffiths 7-5
1984 Steve Davis v Tony Knowles 8-2
I will leave you with a recollection from Mike Peachey about the tournament:
“Alex and Kirk Stevens were supposed to both be on in the evening session on the first day of the Classic and by 3 pm they had both not arrived. My father eventually tracked Alex down at 3.30 pm in Manchester. Alex said that Kirk and himself had a late night before and had missed the train down to Ipswich but Alex said he will still get down to Ipswich for the evening session. Ten minutes later Alex phoned back to say that he had arranged for a four seater plane to bring himself and Kirk down to Ipswich, and could I go and pick them up from the RAF base at Wattisham at around 5 pm near Ipswich?. I thought this is strange, but travelled to Wattisham and arrived to meet a guard on duty at the barrier gate, to say I have just come to pick up a couple of snooker players. The guard quizzically looked at me and said “this is a RAF base, not a public airport, I don’t think you will be picking any snooker players up from here!” As we were talking a very small plane buzzed over our heads and landed, and to the front barrier gates, out walked Alex and Kirk, with Alex nodding his head to the guard on duty saying with his usual wicked grin on his face “you did not expect that sergeant, did you?” The sergeant’s jaw nearly dropped to the ground in amazement! Only Alex could have arranged that flight to a RAF Base!”.
Mike Peachey
Summary
The Tolly Cobbold Classic was a tournament that was made for television and followed the format of many televised tournaments at the time. Thanks to the Peachey family, many of the great players of that era, were seen by many on their television screens, displaying the characters of the day and their exceptional skill and expertise on a snooker table. A great visual tool that educated the viewer and brought so many players together for a close knit and enjoyable event.
