By Elliott West
“When I came into snooker the players were just known by their names and I just thought that the players had more about them than that,”
Alan Hughes
Introduction
Alan Hughes was a constant presence in snooker for over twenty years. The Master of Ceremonies introduced so many great players of the sport to the stage, a man with an inimitable style and someone who was responsible for giving them their nicknames that now just seem natural to associate the sportsmen with. An integral part of the Crucible experience, Hughes took a circuitous route to the top, an announcer who was loved by fans and players.
The Voice
Alan Hughes could be described as a modern renaissance man, a talent who could turn his hand to most things and left his unique mark on each. Alan, in his early career, was a part-time footballer with clubs such as Tottenham Hotspur, Brentford and Norwich. Hughes played alongside some of the greats of the game, including the likes of Jimmy Greaves, Bobby Smith and Terry Medwin. Hughes commented on this period of his life, saying:
“In those days you could sign part-time forms and that’s what I did,” he said.
“I could combine the football with a summer season at Great Yarmouth and it would fit together nicely because the football year wasn’t too long,” he said.
“You could never do it now.”
However, Alan’s real passion in life was show business. This love all began when he was sixteen and led to him telling jokes, singing and compering infamous venues across the world. Hughes was a familiar face in places such as the old Hackney Empire, the Royal Albert Hall, the London Palladium and events in Las Vegas.
His coming to snooker was largely down to his friendship with Willie Thorne. Thorne introduced Hughes to Barry Hearn and the snooker maestro liked what he saw, believing that Alan could use his years of working in show business and weave them into the snooker experience. An idea and strategy that clearly worked. World Snooker was so impressed with him that he started doing some snooker tournaments for them.
Over the years, Hughes created many of the nicknames that the players have today, such as ‘The Rocket’ for Ronnie O’Sullivan, ‘The Grinder’ for Cliff Thorburn and ‘The Whirlwind’ for Jimmy White. Although some of these names were tweaked before finalising.
Aside from snooker, Alan also had a very successful career in boxing, being their voice for 42 title fights, the likes of Chris Eubank, Michael Watson, Nigel Benn and Steve Collins. When asked for a quote, to sum up his career, Hughes replied:
“I’ve chosen to be a jack of all trades but I wouldn’t change a thing. I look back and I think, ‘I haven’t done too bad!’.”
