Brentwood’s connection with snooker

Dear all

You may or may not have been aware that a major sporting event has been taking place right here in Brentwood over the past week. The English Open started 7th September, since when most of the world’s top snooker players have been battling it out for the title, just down the road at the Brentwood Centre. The competition ended yesterday, with Essex-born Ali Carter claiming the title.

Whether you have any interest in snooker or not, I wonder how many people know that the game is widely accepted as having been invented by a former pupil of Brentwood School. His name was Sir Neville Francis Fitzgerald Chamberlain, and he invented the game millions watch today in 1875, when he was a lieutenant in the British Army, stationed in Jabalpur, India. He is credited with creating the game by combining two existing billiards games: black pool and pyramids. After observing rookie cadets struggling at the table, he called them ‘snookers’ – a military slang term for inexperienced personnel – and the name permanently stuck to the new game.

From a pastime played mostly by military officers and the gentry, snooker developed into a global television phenomenon in the second half of the 20th Century. A major turning point occurred in 1969 with the launch of the BBC series Pot Black, which used the green table and multi-coloured balls to showcase the dawn and rapid expansion of colour television.

Today, snooker is a highly lucrative professional sport – the World Championship has a first prize of half a million pounds, while The English Open, which finished yesterday, has a total prize fund of £550,000.

There is also another connection between snooker and Brentwood. Matchroom Sport, the main promoter of the game, was founded in Brentwood in 1982 by promoter Barry Hearn, whose children also attended our school. Hearn was instrumental in making it a multi-million-pound industry in the 1980s. During that period, snooker was one of the most popular events to watch on TV, regularly drawing audiences of up to 15 million people. Matchroom is now valued at over £1bn and retains its close connections with Brentwood.

I remember how big snooker was when I was at Senior School in the 1980s. At a time when there was no internet, no streaming or satellite services, there were four channels on TV. The promotion by Matchroom created characters who were as famous as footballers are today, which combined to make events such as the world championships so popular. The 1985 final between Dennis Taylor and Steve Davis famously went to the last ball of the last frame, finishing after midnight and commanding an audience of 18.5 million people, which is still the record for the largest post-midnight broadcast for any British TV channel.

Have a great weekend

Best wishes

Michael Bond