John Parrott

John Stephen Parrott (born 11 May 1964) is an English former professional snooker player who won the 1991 World Snooker Championship. He came to prominence in the mid to late 1980s, and remained within the top 16 of the world rankings for 14 consecutive seasons. Following his playing career, he became a snooker commentator and pundit.

He twice reached the final of the World Snooker Championship. At the 1989 World Snooker Championship, he lost 3–18 to Steve Davis, the heaviest defeat in a world championship final in modern times. Two years later, however, he defeated Jimmy White in the final of the 1991 event. He also won against White later the same year, to win the 1991 UK Championship title. This made him only the third player to win both championships in the same calendar year (after Steve Davis and Stephen Hendry); he is one of only six players to have achieved this feat. The following year, Parrott lost in the final of the 1992 UK Championship, again to White. Parrott reached the final of the Masters on three occasions, losing to Hendry each time.

Parrott reached his highest place in the world rankings in 1989–90, 1992–93, 1993–94 where he was second. He is one of several players to have achieved more than 200 competitive century breaks during his career, with 221. Following his playing career, Parrott became a commentator and pundit for the BBC. In addition, he also presented horse racing and was a regular on BBC quiz show ''A Question of Sport''.

Early life and career

John Parrott was born on 11 May 1964 at the Oxford Street Maternity Hospital, Liverpool. Parrott grew up with his aunt and uncle following a split between his parents when he was 4. He was a keen bowls player until the age of 11, as he was first introduced to snooker by his father. He lost in the final of the British Under-16s Championship in 1979 and then again in 1980. The next year, he won the 1981 Pontins Junior Championship. In 1982, he won the Pontins Open, a tournament with over 1,000 entrants. The same year, he also won the televised Junior Pot Black championship. He turned professional in 1983 after winning 14 tournaments in his last year as an amateur player, including a second Junior Pot Black title, and finishing as runner-up in the English Amateur Championship.

Professional career

Parrott turned professional in 1983, aged 19, making his televised debut as a professional during the last 16 of the 1984 Classic. In the match, he defeated Alex Higgins 5–2. He then beat Tony Knowles in the next round before losing to Steve Davis in the semi-finals on a . Parrott qualified for the World Snooker Championship on the first attempt, losing only three frames in qualification. He defeated Knowles, but lost in the quarter-finals to Dennis Taylor. He finished his first professional season ranked 20th in the world. In 1987, Parrott was placed within the top 16 in the world for the first time.

At the 1988 Classic, Parrott reached his first ranking event final. Despite leading 1110, he lost 1113 to Steve Davis. The following season, Parrott was runner-up in four events. He lost again to Davis in the final of the 1988 World Matchplay, to Stephen Hendry in the final of the invitational 1989 Masters, to Mike Hallett at the 1989 English Professional Championship.

He also reached the final to play Davis at the 1989 World Snooker Championship. In the first to 18 match, Parrott trailed 25, but won only one more frame in the match, losing 318. The loss was the largest in any World Championship final. With the match finishing early, Parrott had to play an exhibition match in place of the final session. Parrott finished the season at his highest world ranking, second to Davis.

Parrott won his first ranking title at the 1989 European Open, defeating Terry Griffiths in the final 98. He successfully defended his title at the 1990 event, defeating Stephen Hendry 106 in the final. Parrott reached the final of the 1990 Masters for a second time, losing again to Hendry. He finished the season at the 1990 World Snooker Championship losing in the semi-final 1116 to Hendry.

Parrott reached the final of the World Championship again in 1991. Defeating Nigel Gilbert, Tony Knowles, Griffiths and Davis, he played Jimmy White in the final. He took a 70 lead, winning the match 1811. Following the World Championship win, Parrott won both the 1991 Dubai Classic over Knowles and his second Triple Crown event - the 1991 UK Championship. He once again played White in the final, defeating him 1613. He was just the third person to win hold both the UK and World Championships sequentially. Parrott finished the 1991–92 season once again to World Number two.

In 1992, Parrott reached four major finals. He retained the Dubai Classic, defeating Hendry on a , but lost both the UK Championship and Masters to White and Hendry, respectively. This was the last time Parrott reached the final of the Masters. Having won both the UK Championship, he was unable to complete the Triple Crown. Parrott also reached the final of the 1992 Strachan Open losing to James Wattana.He finished the season again in second in the world rankings for the third and final time.

The following season, Parrott won the 1994 International Open, defeating Wattana in the final. Later in 1994, he reached the final of the European Open for the third time, this time losing to Hendry. Parrott would, however, win the European Open the following season with a victory in the final over Peter Ebdon. The same season, Parrott won the 1995 Thailand Classic for the third time, defeating Nigel Bond in the final.

Over the next two seasons, Parrott reached the final of three more rankings events. He lost the 1997 European Open, 1997 German Open finals both to John Higgins and 1998 Thailand Masters to Hendry. This was the last ranking event final of Parrotts career. He spent 14 consecutive seasons in the top 16 of the snooker world rankings, from 1987 until 2001, 11 of which were in the top 6. He captained the England team that won the 2000 Nations Cup.

At the 2007 World Snooker Championship he reached the last 16 of the World Championship for the first time since 2000, after victories over James Leadbetter, David Gray and Steve Davis (10–9, having led 6–1 and 9–6). He was also the first player to conduct a "whitewash" in the Crucible World Championship final stages, when he defeated Eddie Charlton 10–0 in the first round of the 1992 tournament. For 27 years, he held the record for being the only player ever to achieve this, until Shaun Murphy defeated China's Luo Honghao 10–0 in the first round of the 2019 World Championship.

Following his 6–10 defeat to young Chinese player Zhang Anda in the 2010 World Championship Qualifiers, Parrott finished outside the top 64 in the end of season rankings and was not assured a place on the main tour for the 2010–11 season. Later Parrott announced he was to retire from the professional game.

Parrott played in the 2011 World Seniors Championship, where he lost in the semi-finals to Davis.
He also participated in the preliminary qualifying rounds of the 2012 World Snooker Championship losing 0–5 to Patrick Wallace in Round 1.

Ronnie O'Sullivan wrote that he considered Parrott to be a "great match player ithplenty of bottle" that, before the emergence of the " Class of '92 (snooker)", was the only player that would go "toe to toe" with Hendry. In their 2005 book ''Masters of the Baize'', Luke Williams and Paul Gadsby described Parrott as a "solid and belligerent player, with a delightfully smooth cue action". Robert Philip of ''The Daily Telegraph'' wrote approvingly in 2007 of how Parrott had prioritised his family above playing, and speculated that had he not done so, Parrott could have won further world championships.

Television

Following his playing career, Parrott became a pundit and commentator on snooker for BBC Sport. From 1996 to 2002, he was one of the team captains on the BBC quiz show ''A Question of Sport'', alongside association football player Ally McCoist. As a supporter of horse racing, he was involved in the BBC's horse racing coverage as part of the presenting team.

Personal life

In 1996, Parrott was honoured with an MBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours list, for charitable services in Merseyside. In 2008, he launched John Parrott Cue Sports, an online retailer selling snooker and pool cues and some snooker collectables. This was re-branded John Parrott Sports in 2019. Parrott is a supporter of Everton F.C. and brother-in-law of former Everton player Duncan Ferguson. Parrott was made the Honorary Patron of the British Crown Green Bowling Association in 2010.

Parrott is married with two grown-up children.

Performance and rankings timeline

Career finals

Ranking finals: 18 (9 titles)

Non-ranking finals: 24 (9 titles)

Team finals: 1 (1 title)

Pro-am finals: 3 (2 titles)

Amateur finals: 8 (3 titles)

Notes

References

Citations

Books
*
*
*
*
*

Further reading

*

External links

*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Parrott, John
Members of the Order of the British Empire
1964 births
Living people
English sports broadcasters
Snooker players from Liverpool
Snooker commentators
BBC sports presenters and reporters
UK champions (snooker)
Winners of the professional snooker world championship
English snooker players