Gods of snooker

The second programme in the series was shown on BBC2 on Sunday night. Though it dealt with Barry Hearn's Matchroom taking over the game, it continued to be obsessed with Alex Higgins, as Ray Reardon complained in the first episode.

My main complaint is that the series implies that snooker emerged from nowhere, that it was not part of the national consciousness until David Attenborough put it on colour TV. On the contrary, I remember the awe in which the all-conquering Joe Davis was held, the scores of snooker matches being read out on the old BBC Radio Sports Report on a Saturday evening and the regular column on snooker on the sports pages of the News of the World - the paper taken by my granddad, I hasten to add. Admittedly, the game was in the doldrums with the passing of Joe Davis and the waning powers of his half-brother Fred, but it did have a past.

The past in South Wales was epic. There were mighty battles between Cliff Wilson and Ray Reardon before the latter went on to become a full-time professional, as a HTV documentary of the 1980s recalled. That programme also featured the then current stars, Terry Griffiths and the late Doug Mountjoy. 

Admittedly, before Pot Black, the game was very blokey. Perhaps a better title for the BBC series would be Making Snooker Sexy.