Snooker referees
The men in the middle. The ball cleaners. Score-keepers. General passage of play men. The crowd bouncers.
The Snooker referee has an important job in all aspects of enforcing the rules and the etiquette of the game.
However, their grandstanding welcome is hardly ever televised. In fact, on most occasions, the referee is given just a brief mention from the commentators at the beginning of who they are and that is that.
They may well receive much attention when the match is in full flow, or if something is not quite right, but a forum on social media has been asking whether referees deserve a walk on like the players?
As the Betway UK Championships get underway today with Neil Robertson defending the title, after Mark King only winning the Northern Ireland Open barely less than 72 hours ago spare a thought for the referees who are in the middle.
Paul Collier, who refereed his second World final this year contested between Mark Selby and Ding Junhui, he wrote on a Facebook forum regarding Snooker Rules that he believed it would be nice for a ref to have a bit of a walk on and introduction like the players, and televised.
He said, reacting to a post where someone asked the question: "On all four sessions of the World final this year I walked on to the Manic Street Preachers "I Design for Life" and had a wonderful reception from the Crucible audience.
Not one second from them was televised. BBC did a great feature on me during the final (see video), but covering just one walk on would have been nice."
Who is the ref?
Day one at the UK Champs here in York. Reffing @ryan23day V @jimmywhite147 at 230pm in what is a mouth watering first round tie.
— Brendan Moore (@brendanmoore147) November 22, 2016
On another point regarding this, it would be nice to know which referee is covering which match on the World Snooker website when there is Live Scores as people who follow snooker often have a favourite referee as well.
Sometimes, only matches which are streamed or televised actually alert you to who is refereeing.
Or, you have to go to social media to find out who it is refereeing a tie.
There are apparently 24 referees on the tour currently, of which more than six are female.
If you're a referee. what's your walk on if you have one, or what's your dream walk on music?
