Martin Clark (born 27 October 1968) is an English organiser 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 ...

tournaments and retired professional snooker player.

Career

Born in

Wolverhampton Wolverhampton ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands of England. Located around 12 miles (20 km) north of Birmingham, it forms the northwestern part of the West Midlands conurbation, with the towns of ...

, in the West Midlands, he started playing snooker at 13 years-old. In 1984, he became the youngest winner of the British under-19 championship at the age of 15 years-old. In 1986, at the Home International series in Heysham, he compiled a break of 141 which was later ratified as the highest break made by a non-professional, superseding Joe Johnson's break of 140 in 1978. He turned professional in 1987, and within his first seven matches he recorded wins over

Dennis Taylor Dennis Taylor (born 19 January 1949) is a Northern Irish retired professional snooker player and current commentator. He turned professional in 1972 and won the 1985 World Snooker Championship, in which he lost the first eight frames of 1985 W ...

and

Neal Foulds Neal Foulds (born 13 July 1963) is an English former professional snooker player and six-time tournament winner, including the 1986 International Open, the 1988 Dubai Masters and the 1992 Scottish Masters, as well as the invitational Pot Bla ...

, beating Taylor 5-0 which the former world champion described as "the best television debut any player has ever had". Clark reached ten ranking tournament quarter-finals in his career, but never progressed any further. He reached the last 16 of the World Championship three times – 1991, 1992 and 1993, and also in 1992 reached the first major semi-final of his career at the World Matchplay by knocking out defending champion Gary Wilkinson. He won two non-ranking events, defeating

Ray Reardon Raymond Reardon (8 October 1932 – 19 July 2024) was a Welsh professional snooker player who dominated the sport in the 1970s, winning the World Snooker Championship six times and claiming more than a dozen other professional titles. Due to h ...

in the final of the European Grand Masters in 1990 and Andy Hicks in the Pontins Professional in

1997 Events January * January 1 – The Emergency Alert System is introduced in the United States. * January 11 – Turkey threatens Cyprus on account of a deal to buy Russian S-300 missiles, prompting the Cypriot Missile Crisis. * January 1 ...

. He retired as a pro player at a relatively young age, due to neck problems, and is now a tournament director. He has also helped with equipment maintenance (e.g. checking the replacement cloths) 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 ...

. In November 2017, Belgian player Luca Brecel was forced to borrow clothes from Clark and fellow player Michael White after lifting the wrong suitcase at an airport in

Shanghai Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...

Performance and rankings timeline

Career finals

Non-ranking finals: 4 (2 titles)

Pro-am finals: 1 (1 title)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Clark, Martin 1968 births Living people English snooker players Snooker referees and officials People from Sedgley Sportspeople from the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley English referees and umpires