15.11.11

BACK AFTER THE BREAK

The merits, or otherwise, of Power Snooker are a matter for debate but the event, which returns this weekend, does mark the re-involvement of ITV.

It put me in mind of their coverage of snooker in days gone by, when the game was a constant presence on terrestrial television.

It was inevitable after the BBC’s ratings success in showing snooker that ITV would want a slice of the action.

Tournaments were therefore invented to fill this demand and so began an age in which the calendar was comprised of a series of events in regular slots, usually with regular sponsors and venues. For this reason, the tournaments came to have meaning and developed their own personalities and, over time, histories.

Mention the Mercantile Classic to those of a certain age and they will recall it provided Willie Thorne with his only ranking title, or that Jimmy White beat Cliff Thorburn 13-12 in the final after needing a snooker on the pink.

ITV’s main presenter in the 1980s was Dickie Davies. He was ITV’s version of the BBC’s Des Lynam, and every bit as suave and professional, just generally with lower quality sport to introduce.

In this vein, the snooker ITV broadcast was generally regarded as less important than that shown on the BBC, although this was only because the corporation got there first, so their events came to be seen as the really important ones.

ITV had a very strong commentary team, led by John Pulman, who had a voice like velvet and a style so laidback you wondered if he needed to be nudged in the ribs to keep him awake.

He once commentated with Dennis Taylor at the Yamaha Organs tournament, where a player equalled the highest break, the prize for which was provided by the sponsors.

When Taylor pointed this out, Pulman replied: “Yes, Dennis, but what can you do with half an organ?”

Pulman’s great friend and co-commentator was Rex Williams, the debonair former world billiards champion who played snooker at the top level well into his 50s.

They were augmented by the irreverent Mark Wildman, Ray Edmonds (before he jumped ship to the BBC) and Jim Meadowcroft (after he jumped ship from the BBC).

Taylor typically realised that he could earn money and boost his profile by commentating long before most players. He was a regular member of the team before he became world champion and continues for the BBC to this day.

ITV got some great ratings for their so-called lesser events. One of the reasons was that they often had best of 25 three-session finals which ended on Sunday afternoon: no 8pm starts and late night finishes.

They also shared coverage with Channel 4 and so were able to hand over when it was time for something else, but when Michael Grade took over at C4 he scrapped their snooker contract and, a year later, ITV won live Sunday afternoon football rights, which was the beginning of the end of the best of 25 finals.

In fact, in 1989 they reduced their coverage from four tournaments a season to three and dumped the World Doubles in favour of the World Matchplay, an invitation event designed to challenge the World Championship with its big money and best of 35 frames final.

By now Tony Francis had replaced Davies as the main presenter and budgets began to be cut so that, for instance, the Mercantile Classic was only shown on one table.

In those days the top 16 came in at the last 64 stage and to get through to the one table last 16 stage would have to win two matches. The Mercantile was played just after New Year. Most players hadn’t practised and there were often shocks.

So it was that one year ITV’s first live match was Silvino Francisco v Mark Rowing.

I recall at about this time they changed their opening titles sequence to an arty, black and white thing, a rather pompous innovation in truth, and started to struggle with scheduling decent hours.

Maximum breaks were rare. So rare that when one came along the presenters could hardly hide their excitement.

When James Wattana made his at the 192 British Open, the then presenter, Nick Owen, opened the programme by telling everyone it had been “a very special day here in Derby.” That rather gave the game away by the time Wattana reached 40.

As an aside, I saw Owen not so long ago in my local Sainsbury’s. I considered taking this matter up with him but thought that, after the best part of two decades, I should probably let it go.

ITV’s scheduling problems were complicated by the fact that they were a network of regional television companies, so coverage varied depending on where you lived.

Eventually, snooker was dumped altogether and Sky began to take over the tournaments ITV had pioneered. Sky’s coverage was excellent – and live – but to a much lower audience and snooker began to recede a little in the national consciousness.

There were a couple of comebacks. The Charity Challenge provided something different, where players played for prize money not just for themselves but also for designated charities.

The presenters were Eamonn Holmes and Anthea Turner of GMTV, who one year had had a bit of a spat in the press shortly before they were to host the snooker. The atmosphere backstage was colder than the latest series from David Attenborough.

When ITV Digital (anyone remember that?) launched, ITV set up their own sports channel and, not unreasonably, needed some sport to put on it.

Snooker came courtesy of the Champions Cup, a tournament for winners of the previous season’s titles, and Nations Cup, a team event, each of which ran for three years.

ITV’s coverage of Power Snooker proves that, like Sky, they want something different, not just lesser tournaments which otherwise resemble the BBC’s majors.

ITV4 would be a great platform for a proper snooker tournament, though. Darts, football and boxing have all proved popular on the channel and snooker fits this demographic.

Maybe if Power Snooker is successful then ITV will consider it. I hope so. They played their part in making snooker so popular in the first place.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

If anything illustrates just how big snooker was on British television in the 80s, it's the scheduling ITV gave it in those days.

The most striking thing is that their night-time programmes were usually on straight after News at Ten.

And in the afternoons, even after they'd done a couple of hours just after lunchtime, they'd come back on with a half-hour wrap-up at around 5.15.

As you say though, things began to change, and these sort of high-profile slots are now filled by camp chat show hosts and crashing police cars. Times change.

The weekends were extraordinary as well, with hours and hours of coverage from the finals of tournaments. Even after they'd given over most of Sunday afternoon to live coverage of the last session, they'd come back with a highlights show that night.

I always liked ITV's style of covering tournaments. It was a bit different to the BBC and I thought between the two there was a good balance.

There were some bizarre moments though, particularly in the later years of their coverage.

In one final, James Wattana was at the table trying to complete a clearance, and they just faded out of it and back to the studio when he got to the colours, with no reference at any stage to what happened next.

There was another match, which I think also involved Wattana and Gary Wilkinson, around the time Gary won the World Matchplay.

The presenter started the show by talking about what an outstanding match it had been. They only had about a 40 or 50 minute highlights slot to play with. But rather than using that to show this outstanding match properly, they spent about 10 minutes showing the two players playing table-tennis and chatting, then went straight to 3-3 in the match itself, and only showed two frames.

Still, it was great to have them on board. Hard to see ITV ever giving a snooker tournament the proper treatment again, but maybe once this Power Snooker rubbish at the weekend is over with, they might think about doing something on ITV4. The British Open, which used to be one of their events, could be revived. And if they really don't want a ranking event, what about bringing back the World Matchplay, which used to be a really good event when they showed it.

Anonymous said...

brilliant blog dave. thanks.

though power snooker is still a big stinking pile of manure

theyd be better calling it pooker (or snool)

Anonymous said...

Sorry, but this is a bit of a prisoner's dilemma for real snooker fans - I think most people who love the game are desperate to see this hideous event fail, but unless it gets decent viewing figures ITV4 are unlikely to show more snooker. But I don't think that "power plays", page 3 girls or a crowd of offensive drunk people will do anything to make people watch.

With all due respect to Eurosport's admirable coverage of the PTC Finals in Dublin earlier this year, it would be a real shot in the arm for the sport if the PTC finals were on ITV4.

wild said...

Maybe if Power Snooker is successful then ITV will consider it. I hope so. They played their part in making snooker so popular in the first place.
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if Power Snooker is succesfull they will want it year after year after year and could not really give a stuff about the game.

they will become Blinkered that that what People want and not to quote a irritant snooker troll "Traditional" Snooker.

Betty Logan said...

I saw Owen not so long ago in my local Sainsbury’s. I considered taking this matter up with him but thought that, after the best part of two decades, I should probably let it go.

If you ever see John Altman out and about give him a thump for the way he treats Dot Cotton.

Anonymous said...

Ah yes but the BBC had the infamous David Icke. How about contacting him for an interview Dave? I'm sure it would be entertaining!

Anonymous said...

I doubt Power Snooker had any chance at all last year once the presenter (Matt Smith?) uttered the immortal words "feel free to disrespect the players" tot ehalready baying crowd.
And they did, to the detriment of the sport.
I hope this years event sees more dignified audiences but I doubt it.

kildare cueman said...

In the mould of Owen, I remember Dickie Davies just before an ad break telling us not to go away as something special was about to happen.

I could hardly contain my excitement on the resumption as Rex Williams began with 6 or 7 blacks.

I had never seen a live maximum and after taping over the first ten minutes of a film I wanted to see, Rex came up for the blue and proceeded to make a 143.

Impressive as it was, I was gutted.

You're right about the tournament's characteristics. The mercantile (or was it the Dulux?) makes me think of Higgins' kick from Dreadnaut, or Paul Medati, as it transpired. Also, under Lada's patronage, the Davis maximum and his black ball finish against Griffiths, which of course he lost 3 years before the Taylor mugging at the worlds.

Back to the present. Im looking forward to power snooker. I think once a year is fine. Its an exhibition and its great to see people like O'Sullivan and Trump playing shots that only they can play. Also, the sense of loss I used to have when a regular event ended is no longer there. Theres usually just 3 or 4 days before the next event starts.

I hope in 25 years time we can look back on this decade with tales of Eurosport interrupting a match to show tractor pulling or other dubious sports. Steve Davis will probably be trying to qualify for a place on the tour and Luca Brecel will still be still a few years from world seniors entry.

Anonymous said...

Nice post. I went through the post I found it very informative and useful. Thanks for sharing.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, great blog Dave.

Which top 16 will be playing next year, the ones who signed up a while ago?

But seriousely: why does worldsnooker use current rankings and say "In the world rankings, Trump stays seventh
while O'Sullivan is up two places to 11th"?

If they would publish actual provisional rankings, Ronnie would not even be in the 16.

Again .. Which top 16 will be playing (in any event)?

NewsBrain said...

TOTALLY right. Absolute mystery why ITV4 won't take on snooker. The rating remain snooker's greatest problem. The real issue is sports channel controllers who are utter idiots, snobs and get away with wasting fortunes on showing stoke games. Even stoke fans do not want to watch stoke! Surprised Barry has not achieved more success with Sky/ITV4, would like to know exactly why.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, great blog Dave.

Which top 16 will be playing next year, the ones who signed up a while ago?

But seriousely: why does worldsnooker use current rankings and say "In the world rankings, Trump stays seventh
while O'Sullivan is up two places to 11th"?

If they would publish actual provisional rankings, Ronnie would not even be in the 16.

Again .. Which top 16 will be playing (in any event)?

Anonymous said...

Did snooker start going wrong when itv was sort of split into regional programmes?
remember Davis vs White in the wickes in '93 and hardly seeing any of the match down here in London,think it came on about 11.30pm after other regions had been on earlier.It obviously was a great shame because there was some quality breaks in the match.
I agree with DH though, itv4 is ripe for a great weeks snooker entertainment.
regards
Dean.

Anonymous said...

NewsBrain said...
TOTALLY right. Absolute mystery why ITV4 won't take on snooker. The rating remain snooker's greatest problem. The real issue is sports channel controllers who are utter idiots, snobs and get away with wasting fortunes on showing stoke games. Even stoke fans do not want to watch stoke! Surprised Barry has not achieved more success with Sky/ITV4, would like to know exactly why.
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if it was that lucrative or ideal for a channel or broadcaster theyd be knocking on barrys door.

for goodness sake use your (news)brain.

what you believe to be the case is obviously wrong.

its not wanted as mostly its not worth it to them!

kildare cueman said...

What difference does it make what channel its on?
I dont care if its all on Eurosport as long as its on.