Eirian Williams (born 3 September 1955) is a former professional

snooker Snooker (pronounced , ) is a cue sport played on a rectangular Billiard table#Snooker and English billiards tables, billiards table covered with a green cloth called baize, with six Billiard table#Pockets 2, pockets: one at each corner and ...

referee. He was formerly a

police officer A police officer (also called policeman or policewoman, cop, officer or constable) is a Warrant (law), warranted law employee of a police, police force. In most countries, ''police officer'' is a generic term not specifying a particular rank. ...

with the Dyfed-Powys Police in the

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towns of

Llanelli ; ) is a market town and community (Wales), community in Carmarthenshire and the Preserved counties of Wales, preserved county of Dyfed, Wales. It is on the estuary of the River Loughor and is the largest town in the Principal areas of Wales, ...

, Llandeilo and Ammanford.

Early life

Williams lived in Cynheidre and was a police officer for 18 years, working from

. He retired from

Dyfed-Powys Police Dyfed-Powys Police (; DPP) is the territorial police force in Wales policing Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion and Pembrokeshire (which make up the former administrative area of Dyfed) and the unitary authority of Powys (covering Brecknockshire, Ra ...

to become a professional

referee.

Refereeing career

Williams attained the Class C Snooker Referees accreditation in 1981 and within five years, was the Senior Welsh Referee in the Home International Series. By 1991, his Refereeing Classification had twice been upgraded and he now held the Class 1 (formerly A) certificate. In 1991, the Professional tour, run by the

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(WPBSA) opened the Professional game to an unlimited number of players thus requiring more Referees to officiate at the subsequent extra matches. He was invited to join the Professional Referees Association and became one of a significant number of new Referees from around the globe to give their services to the Professional game. Following his retirement from the Police Service, he undertook several jobs to subsidise his income while he climbed his way up the Professional Refereeing ladder. By 1993, he had been appointed as a Referee Examiner with the Welsh Referees Association. He became a Tutor with the European Billiards and Snooker Association. He refereed his first World Ranking final in January 1998 at the Regal Welsh tournament in

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, Monmouthshire where the late Paul Hunter won his first Ranking event title, defeating John Higgins by 9 frames to 5. He has since refereed many more Ranking finals including the Seniors Championship, Welsh Open Championship, Australian Goldfields Open, German Masters, UK Championship, Irish Masters, Wembley Masters, Malta Cup, China Masters, China Open, Thailand Open, British Open, Grand Prix, Bahrain Snooker Championship, World Open and four World Championship Finals at the

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in 2001, 2005, 2007 and 2010. In November 2014, his retirement from the professional circuit was announced.

Personal life

Williams was raised in a small mining village called Cynheidre in the Gwendraeth Valley in South Wales, but now lives five miles away in Llanelli. He has three children, Geraint, Rhian and Bethan together with seven granddaughters, Evie, Amelia, Aylah, Alis, Gracie, Elsie and Mila. Since 2007, he has been utilising his spare time by Volunteer driving with the Welsh Ambulance Service, transporting patients to medical appointments and procedures around the UK.

References

External links

* 1955 births Living people Welsh police officers Dyfed-Powys Police officers Sportspeople from Llanelli Snooker referees and officials Place of birth missing (living people) Welsh referees and umpires {{UK-snooker-bio-stub