By Elliott West
Introduction
The bane of outdoor sports is the elements with often stopping sports such as tennis and cricket from continuing. However, you wouldn’t think it would happen in a sport such as snooker where all matches are played indoors. You would be surprised though as it has it has happened several times in the history of the game.
Precipitation
The earliest occurrence was in the 1973 World Championship when Alex Higgins was playing Fred Davis in the quarter-finals. In a match where Alex Higgins defeated his opponent 16-14, the play was temporarily suspended at one stage due to a crack in the roof at City Exhibition Hall in Manchester. A tournament that was eventually won by Ray Reardon who beat Eddie Charlton 38-32 in the final.
Due to an administrative error, John Williams ended up refereeing that match and as he stepped out for the match, no one could prepare him for what he was about to walk into and would make him one of the biggest headlines of the day. On a wet morning in Deansgate, Manchester, the players arrived at the venue that had a glass-domed roof. In preparation for the match, some of the crew were sent up to the roof to cover it with a tarpaulin to block out the sunlight but as they did this, the glass cracked under the weight. Williams had to take the difficult decision to suspend the match.
Williams hit the newspaper headlines the next day with most papers carrying the headline “Rain Stops Play” and for John, it was the match that propelled him into the limelight from being an unknown referee to one of the best in the business. Not bad for a man who normally worked as a metallurgist in a steelworks in his native Wales.
The other memorable occasions where rain got in the way of play was in the 1999 World Championship semi-final between John Higgins and Mark Williams. This is an odd occurrence because outside Sheffield was basking in the sunshine. However, during the morning session, the rain started dripping onto the match table. In a sport where it is impossible to hold an umbrella whilst you cue, the added headache was how the moisture would affect the balls.
It turned out after this spectacle that it wasn’t rain falling on the table but actually moisture caused by condensation from the lighting. A scurry by the lighting team up ladders managed to resolve the problem after 25 minutes and play was able to resume. A semi-final that Mark Williams won 17-10.
Summary
Rain is something that you wouldn’t think would stop a snooker match but it has in certain guises. What must have been entertaining for the audience, must have been annoying for the players involved. Anyone who plays snooker on an amateur or professional level knows that they just want to get the match over and done with, win or lose.
