Marcel Eckardt (born 27 October 1989 in

Gera Gera () is a city in the German state of Thuringia. With around 93,000 inhabitants, it is the third-largest city in Thuringia after Erfurt and Jena as well as the easternmost city of the ''Thüringer Städtekette'', an almost straight string of ...

Thuringia Thuringia (; officially the Free State of Thuringia, ) is one of Germany, Germany's 16 States of Germany, states. With 2.1 million people, it is 12th-largest by population, and with 16,171 square kilometers, it is 11th-largest in area. Er ...

) is a German

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 ...

and

pool Pool may refer to: Bodies of water * Swimming pool, usually an artificial structure containing a large body of water intended for swimming * Reflecting pool, a shallow pool designed to reflect a structure and its surroundings * Tide pool, a roc ...

referee.

Career

Eckardt is from

Töppeln Kraftsdorf is a municipality in the district of Greiz, in Thuringia, Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to ...

, close to

in Germany. At the age of 13 he became interested in snooker while watching

Eurosport Eurosport is a group of pay television networks in Europe and parts of Asia, owned and operated by Warner Bros. Discovery through its WBD Sports unit, it operates two main channels—Eurosport 1 and Eurosport 2—across most of its territorie ...

. With nowhere to play it close to his childhood home, he took up snooker later in his life, and continues to mostly play pool. In 2008 he completed his first course in snooker refereeing, earning the National Association of Thuringia C-licence in

Hohenstein-Ernstthal Hohenstein-Ernstthal () is a town in the Zwickau rural district, Saxony, Germany. The towns of Hohenstein and Ernstthal were united in 1898, and the town is either known by its hyphenated form, or simply called Hohenstein. The town grew in the 15 ...

, and later obtained the national B-licence. He first refereed professional players in 2010, during an exhibition tournament in Bruges, featuring

Stephen Hendry Stephen Gordon Hendry (born 13 January 1969) is a Scottish retired professional snooker player and a current Sports commentator, commentator and pundit. One of the most successful players in snooker history, he turned professional in 1985, ag ...

and

Steve Davis Steve Davis (born 22 August 1957) is an English retired professional snooker player who is currently a Sports commentator, commentator, DJ, electronic musician and author. He dominated professional snooker in the 1980s, when he reached eight ...

, amongst others. The same year he applied to referee the new

Players Tour Championship The Players Tour Championship was a series of snooker tournaments comprising some minor-ranking events played in Europe, and an Asian leg comprising some minor-ranking events in Asia. The series concluded with a Players Championship Grand Final, ...

, and he gained experience in European tournaments and in qualification matches for the Main Tour. He refereed his first Players Tour Championship final at the

2012 Paul Hunter Classic 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, Numeral (linguistics), numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest Positive number, positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in o ...

, and his first major ranking tournament was the

2012 German Masters The 2012 German Masters (officially the 2012 PartyPoker.net German Masters) was a professional Snooker world rankings, ranking snooker tournament that took place between 1–5 February 2012 at the Tempodrom in Berlin, Germany. This was the first t ...

. In the 2013/2014 season Eckardt, aged 23, became the youngest ever member of the referee A-squad, the group of twelve referees licensed to work in the final rounds of all ranked tournaments. Next season he became the youngest person to oversee a ranking tournament final, when he refereed his first ranking final at the

2015 German Masters The 2015 German Masters (officially the 2015 Kreativ Dental German Masters) was a professional Snooker world rankings, ranking snooker tournament that took place between 4–8 February 2015 at the Tempodrom in Berlin, Germany. It was the sixth rank ...

. From 2015, he refereed at the

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 ...

s in Sheffield, taking charge of his first semi-final of the event in 2019, and his first final in 2020, at the age of 30, becoming the youngest referee ever to do so, while also being the first German. At the start of 2023, he oversaw the final of the Masters. Eckardt has been in charge of nine tournament matches that have contained

maximum break A maximum break (also known as a maximum, a 147, or orally, a onefourseven) is the highest possible in snooker in normal circumstances and is a special type of . A player compiles a maximum break by potting all 15 with 15 for 120 points, fo ...

s, most notably

Ronnie O'Sullivan Ronald Antonio O'Sullivan (born 5 December 1975) is an English professional snooker player. Widely recognised as one of the most talented and accomplished players in snooker history, he has won the World Snooker Championship seven times, a m ...

's record 15th maximum at the 2018 English Open.

List of ranking finals

As of July 2024, Eckardt has refereed 13 ranking finals: *

* 2015 Welsh Open *

2016 Indian Open The 2016 Indian Open (snooker), Indian Open was a professional Snooker world rankings, ranking snooker tournament that took place between 5–9 July 2016 at the Hyderabad International Convention Center (HICC), HICC Novotel Hotel in Hyderabad, ...

* 2016 European Masters * 2017 Northern Ireland Open *

2018 UK Championship The 2018 UK Championship (officially the 2018 Betway UK Championship) was a professional ranking snooker tournament, that took place from 27 November to 9 December 2018. It was the ninth ranking tournament and the first Triple Crown ...

* 2019 Scottish Open *

2020 World Snooker Championship The 2020 World Snooker Championship (officially the 2020 Betfred World Snooker Championship) was a professional snooker tournament that took place from 31 July to 16 August 2020 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. It was th ...

2020 Championship League (ranking) The 2020 Championship League (also known as the BetVictor Championship League Snooker 2020) was a professional ranking snooker tournament that took place from 13 September to 30 October 2020 in the Ballroom, Stadium MK in Milton Keynes, England. ...

* 2020 Northern Ireland Open *

2022 German Masters The 2022 German Masters (officially the 2022 BildBet German Masters) was a professional ranking snooker tournament that took place from 26 to 30 January 2022 at the Tempodrom in Berlin, Germany. The tournament was the ninth ranking event of the ...

* 2023 Scottish Open *

2024 Championship League (ranking) The 2024 Championship League (officially the 2024 BetVictor Championship League Snooker) was a professional ranking snooker tournament that took place from 10 June to 3 July 2024 at the Leicester Arena in Leicester, England. The event featured ...

References

External links

*
Profile of Marcel Eckardt
at Pro Snooker Blog
Profile of Marcel Eckardt
at

World Snooker Tour The World Snooker Tour (WST) is the main professional snooker tour, consisting of about 128 players competing on a circuit of up to 28 tournaments each season. It is administered by World Snooker Ltd, the commercial arm of professional snooker, ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Eckardt, Marcel 1989 births Living people Sportspeople from Gera Snooker referees and officials German referees and umpires