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Sorry for the MASSIVE delay in completing it but I assure you it was purely my fault and nothing to do with the website designer or the hosting company.
As most of you will know I was a full-time Professional Snooker Referee from October 2001 until October 2005. Although I now have a ‘proper job’ I still referee all the matches in the Betfred Premier Snooker League televised by SkySports and I work for World Snooker along with the two remaining full-time referee’s as an assessor of all other referee’s.
My decision to leave refereeing on a full-time basis was a difficult one as I love the Sport and worked very hard to get to where I was. I refereed my first Ranking Event Final in January 2002 and was delighted to have been given the Welsh Open as my first Final as I am a very proud Welshman. The highlight of my career came in 2004 when I was given the honour of refereeing the Final of the Embassy World Championship at the Mecca of Snooker, Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre.
The main reason for my leaving was the fact that Snooker was going through a very hard time financially and I found it difficult to justify the amount of time spent on the road and away from my family and friends when the salary was about the same as a supermarket shelf stacker! Not that there is anything wrong with shelf stacking for a living, but at least they go home to their family every day and don’t spend hour after hour, day after day, week after week on Motorways, in Airports or looking for car parks and hotels. They also don’t have to spend 3 months a year self catering in a chalet at Prestatyn whilst refereeing 2 qualifying matches a day when the rest of the camp is closed and many of the players are watching their careers disintegrate around them.
I look back on my four years with nothing but pride, sometimes even disbelief, at what I achieved. All in all I had a fabulous time. I worked with and met some fantastic people and fulfilled just about every snooker related ambition I ever had. Eleven Ranking Finals including three in a row, Eight consecutive Premier League Finals (and still going), Youngest referee ever to do Embassy World Final, 2 Welsh Open Finals, Masters Final at Wembley, China Open Final when Ding beat Hendry with over 100 million viewers just to name a few. The only things I would have liked to have done were the United Kingdom Championship Final and to have refereed a maximum break. But hey, I’m only 36 and I haven’t retired yet so who knows!
When I left refereeing I started work for my great friend Alun Squire as General Manager of his car showroom, Squire Cars, in Newport. I had never worked in ‘Retail Sales’ before and it was a great experience that I thoroughly enjoyed. I left the garage on 2nd March 2007 and on 4th March I took over as Manager / Steward of Tredegar Cons Club in Newport. I have used this club socially for twelve years and was Secretary and Treasurer for eighteen months up until I took over properly. When the current Steward and Stewardess retired I was asked if I would consider taking the job on along with my ‘better half’, Karen, and after a lot of thought and discussion we agreed to the career change.
I am basically going back to my roots because when I left school in 1987 I worked as a barman at Newport Rugby Club and following on from there I was assistant Manager at Kingsway Snooker Centre in Newport, Manager of The Emporium Snooker Club in Bargoed (where Mark Williams still plays) and Manager of Chepstow Snooker Centre.
Those of you who know me will probably be surprised at my connection with the licensed trade as you all know I never touch a drop of alcohol – as if!
Seriously though, I love the licensed trade because you get to socialise with people and make lots of friends and get paid for the privilege.
Tredegar Cons Club has two fabulous Snooker Tables, a lounge and bar and a function room. It has around 250 members and really is a well maintained, beautifully presented social club with a great crowd of regulars and great support in general.
We hold a Pro-Am Snooker Event every year with over £3500 in prize money and entrants last year included Mark Williams, Matthew Stevens, Ryan Day, Darren Morgan, Dominic Dale, Lee Walker, Ian Preece, Jamie Jones and was won by a great ‘Veteran’ cueman, Paul Davies. He’ll hate the veteran comment but he is a year older than me!
There is a gallery of pictures from my refereeing years available for you to look at and please feel free to email me with any comments you have about the site. I have had difficulty accessing emails over the last twelve months or so but now the site is up and running properly I will attempt to answer all emails.
Thanks for showing an interest!
Paul
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