John Smyth (28 May 1928 – 4 January 2007) was one of

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 ...

's leading referees in the 1970s and 1980s. He officiated in two

World Snooker Championship The World Snooker Championship, or simply known as the World Championship, is the longest-running and most prestigious tournament in professional snooker. It is also the richest event to date with a total prize money of £2,395,000, including ...

finals, including the first to be held at the

Crucible Theatre The Crucible Theatre, or simply The Crucible, is a theatre in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, which opened in 1971. Its name refers to crucible steel, which was developed in Sheffield in 1740 and drove the industrialisation of the city. ...

in 1977. The second came in 1982 when

Alex Higgins Alexander Gordon Higgins (18 March 1949 – 24 July 2010) was a Northern Irish professional snooker player and a two-time world champion who is remembered as one of the most iconic figures in the sport's history. Nicknamed "Hurricane Higgi ...

won his second world title. He also oversaw the match in which

Kirk Stevens Kirk Stevens (born August 17, 1958) is a Canadian former professional snooker player. Career Stevens started playing young, achieving his first aged just 12. He turned professional aged 20, and reached the semi-finals of the World Championship ...

compiled a maximum 147 break at the 1984 Wembley Masters.

Biography

Born in Dublin on 28 May 1928, Smyth moved to England when he was 21 and worked as a

London Underground The London Underground (also known simply as the Underground or as the Tube) is a rapid transit system serving Greater London and some parts of the adjacent home counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire in England. The Undergro ...

driver, becoming

Piccadilly line The Piccadilly line is a Deep level underground, deep-level London Underground line running between the west and the north of London. It has two western branches which split at Acton Town tube station, Acton Town and serves 53 stations. The li ...

snooker champion six times. He started refereeing in 1967, and first officiated a match involving a professional snooker player at the

1973 Norwich Union Open The 1973 Norwich Union Open was an invitational snooker tournament which took place between 24 and 29 November 1973 at the Piccadilly Hotel in London. It was open to both professionals and amateurs and featured 24 players. John Spencer won 8–7 ...

, which was Sid Hood's 4–0 defeat of

Jackie Rea John Joseph Rea (6 April 1921 – 20 October 2013), better known as Jackie Rea was a Northern Irish snooker player. He turned professional in 1947 and was the leading Irish snooker player until the emergence of Alex Higgins and held the Iris ...

. He became a full-time referee in 1978. He retired from the circuit in 1996. Shortly afterwards, he looked back on his career and said "I spent 28 years on the Underground, but gave it all up when snooker began to get big on

television Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

. John Street,

John Williams John Towner Williams (born February 8, 1932)Nylund, Rob (November 15, 2022)Classic Connection review, ''WBOI'' ("For the second time this year, the Fort Wayne Philharmonic honored American composer, conductor, and arranger John Williams, who w ...

, and myself, got more and more work as the circuit grew. In the end, my employers saw more of me on TV than they did at work. People told me it was daft to give up the Tube, and that I'd never earn a living from snooker. They said it would never last on TV, but they were wrong." In 1977, Smyth was instrumental in the formation of the Professional Referees' Association, and was PRA president at the time of his death in 2007. He died of cancer at the age of 78 on 4 January 2007 at his home in Chesterfield.

References

1928 births 2007 deaths Snooker referees and officials Irish referees and umpires Deaths from cancer in England {{Snooker-bio-stub