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 cit ...

Thuringia Thuringia (; german: Thüringen ), officially the Free State of Thuringia ( ), is a state of central Germany, covering , the sixth smallest of the sixteen German states. It has a population of about 2.1 million. Erfurt is the capital and lar ...

) is a German

snooker Snooker (pronounced , ) is a cue sport played on a rectangular table covered with a green cloth called baize, with six pockets, one at each corner and one in the middle of each long side. First played by British Army officers stationed in Ind ...

and

pool Pool may refer to: Water pool * 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 rocky pool ...

referee.

Career

Eckardt is from Töppeln, 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 by Warner Bros. Discovery through its international 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, 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 professional snooker player who dominated the sport during the 1990s, becoming one of the most successful players in its history. After turning professional in 1985 at age 16, Hendry ...

and

Steve Davis Steve Davis (born 22 August 1957) is an English retired professional snooker player who is currently a commentator, musician, DJ, and author. He is best known for dominating professional snooker during the 1980s, when he reached eight World S ...

, 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 Grand Final, where qualification ...

, 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, and his first major ranking tournament was the 2012 German Masters. 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 ranking snooker tournament that took place between 4–8 February 2015 at the Tempodrom in Berlin, Germany. It was the sixth ranking event of the 2014/2 ...

. From 2015, he refereed at the

World Snooker Championship The World Snooker Championship is the longest-running and most prestigious tournament in professional snooker. It is also the wealthiest, with total prize money in 2022 of £2,395,000, including £500,000 for the winner. First held in 1927, it ...

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 eight tournament matches that have contained

maximum break A maximum break (also known as a maximum, a 147, or orally, a one-four-seven) is the highest possible in a single of snooker. A player compiles a maximum break by potting all 15 with 15 for 120 points, followed by all six for a further 27 ...

s, most notably

Ronnie O'Sullivan Ronald Antonio O'Sullivan (born 5 December 1975) is an English professional snooker player who is the current world champion and world number one. Widely recognised as one of the most talented and accomplished players in the sport's history, ...

's record 15th maximum at the

2018 English Open The 2018 English Open (known for sponsorship reasons as the 2018 BetVictor English Open) was a professional ranking snooker tournament, that took place from 15 to 21 October 2018 in Crawley, West Sussex, England. It was the sixth ranking event ...

List of ranking finals

As of February 2022, Eckardt has refereed 11 ranking finals: *

* 2015 Welsh Open * 2016 Indian Open * 2016 European Masters * 2017 Northern Ireland Open *

2018 UK Championship The 2018 UK Championship (also known as the 2018 Betway UK Championship for sponsorship reasons) was a professional ranking snooker tournament, that took place from 27 November to 9 December 2018. It was the ninth ranking tournament ...

* 2019 Scottish Open * 2020 World Snooker Championship * 2020 Championship League (2) * 2020 Northern Ireland Open * 2022 German Masters

References

External links

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

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

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