Cliff Wilson

Wilson was born on 10 May 1934 and grew up in Tredegar, the same town as his friend and snooker rival Ray Reardon.{{cite news |last=Everton |first=Clive |date=28 May 1994 |title=Cue for a happy life |work=The Guardian |page=30|via=ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The Guardian and The Observer. Retrieved 28 September 2019.}} He learnt to play snooker in a steelworks club-room. Even as a teenager, Wilson was nearly sightless in his left eye.{{cite news |last=Williams |first=David |title=He pots Wales to top |work=Daily Herald |date=18 November 1952 |page=8}} In 1950, aged 16, Wilson was the reigning Welsh boys snooker champion and working as a storekeeper when he reached the final of the British under-19 Championship, where he lost 2–3 to Rex Williams.{{cite news |author= |title=Snooker youths' bid for "double" |work=Leicester Daily Mercury |date=28 October 1950 |page=12}} In the same competition the following year, Wilson (now a steelworker) won the title, defeating Gary Owen 3–2 in the final. In 1952 he beat Owen on his way to reaching the semi-final of the English Amateur Championship, where, using a cue that had been repaired overnight and reduced in length by an inch, he lost to Charles Downey.{{cite news |author=Fancy Butt |title=Denis loses amateur snooker title |work=Sports Argus |date=1 March 1952 |page=6}}

Having been called up into the Royal Air Force for his national service, Wilson was granted special leave to participate in the 1952 under-19 Championship. In the final he faced Owen again, this time winning 4–2.{{cite news |last=Williams |first=David |title=No happy birthday for young Tom |work=Daily Herald |date=28 October 1952 |page=6 }} A match report of Wilson's 3–1 semi-final win against Donald Scott in the Western Mail said that he played "spectacular snooker ... he had breaks of 20, 25, 30 and 41 all at tremendous speed."{{cite news |author= |title=Champion in final again |work=Western Mail |date=1 November 1952 |page=12}} In 1954, Wilson was the youngest competitor in the English Amateur Championship and lost 9–11 to Geoff Thompson in the final.{{cite news |author= |title=Youngest player in snooker tourney |work=Lancashire Evening Post |date=19 March 1954 |page=12 }}{{cite news |author= |title=Snooker |work=Birmingham Daily Gazette |date=31 March 1954 |page=6 }} He won the Welsh Amateur Championship in 1956.{{cite web |url=https://www.welshsnooker.com/welsh-championship-records |title=Welsh Championship Records |website=welshsnooker.com |publisher=Welsh Snooker (WBSA) |access-date=24 November 2019}} Snooker historian Clive Everton wrote of Wilson's early career that he was "a phenomenal potter: quick, instinctive fearless." {{rp|369}}

He played Reardon in a succession of money matches in Tredegar. In The Story of Billiards and Snooker, Everton described Wilson as being an "even more remarkable talent"{{rp|80}} than Reardon, who would go on to win the World Snooker Championship six times between 1969 and 1978. Everton went on to describe their contests, when each would attract hundreds of supporting spectators, as "modern snooker's nearest equivalent to a bare knuckle prize fight."{{rp|80}} Everton then suggests that when Reardon moved away, "the edge went from Wilson's game." Wilson's father, who had supported his son's snooker career, died at around the time that Reardon moved away, and Wilson also started having problems with his eyesight.{{cite book |last=Everton |first=Clive |date=1979 |title=The History of Billiards and Snooker |publisher=Cassell |isbn=0304303739}}{{rp|80}} Apart from this, snooker's popularity was on the wane during the 1950s and it was extremely difficult to join the small, closed professional circuit. Wilson gave up snooker almost completely, and continued working at the steelworks at Llanwern. From 1957 to 1972 he was retired from snooker apart from participating in a few games in 1960, which included the televised "Snooker Foursomes" in which he partnered John Price.{{cite news|last=Hodgson|first=Guy|title=Obituary: Cliff Wilson|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-cliff-wilson-1438835.html|access-date=16 January 2013|newspaper=The Independent|date=27 May 1994}}{{cite news |last=Bate |first=Stan |title=Secrets of that TV clash |work=Sports Argus |date=19 November 1960 |page=3}}

In 1972 he started playing again when a friend asked him to take a vacant place in a works team in the Newport League. Within two years of starting to play again, he was selected for the Wales team for the 1973–74 Home International series, losing 1–2 against D. Lenehan of Ireland and beating W. McKerron of Scotland 2–1. He was selected again in 1976–77 for the match against Ireland, beating J. Clusker 2–1. In 1977–78 Wales won the series, although Wilson lost two of his three matches, including a 1–2 defeat by 1972 and 1974 World Amateur Champion Ray Edmonds. In the 1978 series Wilson won three of his four matches, including a 3–0 win over the captain of the England team Mike Hallett.{{cite book |editor=Clive Everton |date=1984 |title=Benson and Hedges Snooker Year |location=London|publisher=Virgin Books |isbn=0863690513 |pages=111122|edition=First }}{{rp|298–299}}{{rp|43}} In 1977, he won his second Welsh amateur championship, following his earlier win in 1956, beating Dai Thomas 8–1 in the final.{{cite book |last=Morrison |first=Ian |date=1988 |title=Hamlyn Who's Who in Snooker |location=London |publisher=Hamlyn|isbn=0600557138 }}{{rp|125}}{{cite book |last=Morrison |first=Ian |date=1987 |title=The Hamlyn Encyclopedia of Snooker |location=Twickenham |publisher=Hamlyn Publishing Group |isbn=978-0-60055604-6|page=155}}{{rp|370–371}}

As Welsh Champion, Wilson qualified for the 1978 World Amateur Championship in Malta. He was the only player in the three groups of the round-robin stage to win all of their matches, and then beat Maltese player Joe Grech 5–4 in the quarter-finals. Wilson built a 4–0 lead in front of a 4,000 strong audience that, according to Everton, started to deliberately distract him, as Grech levelled at 4–4 and led 37–0 in the deciding frame. Wilson eventually won the frame, and remained in the pressroom with Everton, guarded by police, until the audience left. He beat Kirk Stevens 8–2 in the semi-final and then Joe Johnson 11–5 in the final to take the title.{{cite book |last=Everton |first=Clive |date=2012 |title=Black farce and cue ball wizards |publisher=Mainstream |location=Edinburgh |isbn=9781780575681}}{{rp|368–372}}{{cite book |last=Hale |first=Janice |date=1987 |title=Rothmans Snooker Yearbook 1987–88 |location=Aylesbury |publisher=Queen Anne Press |isbn=0356146901 }}{{rp|300}}

Following his world amateur championship win, Wilson was invited to participate in the 1979 Masters. He would have been the first amateur to play in the Masters, but withdrew due to a threatened boycott by professional players.{{cite news |author= |title=Boycott of Wembley world snooker is averted |work=Harrow Observer |date=22 December 1978 |page=28}} He lost 5–8 in the southern area final of the English Amateur Championship to Jimmy White after leading 4–2.{{cite news |last=Smith |first=Terry |title=Jimmy's fluke is right on cue |work=Daily Mirror |date=22 March 1979 |page=27 }} 1979 also saw him win the Welsh Amateur Championship for the third time, defeating Geoff Thomas 8–5 in the final; and take the National Pairs championship title with Steve Newbury.

Wilson turned professional in 1979 at the age of 45, and won his first match, 9–7 against John Pulman in the 1979 UK Championship, before losing 4–9 to Terry Griffiths in the following round.{{rp|195–197}} In his debut World Snooker Championship in 1980, he beat Frank Jonik 9–7 in qualifying and lost 6–10 to Doug Mountjoy in the first round. In the 1980–81 season, he reached the final of the 1981 Welsh Professional Championship, losing 6–9 to Reardon. He beat Roy Andrewartha and Eddie Sinclair, both 9–4, in qualifying for the 1981 World Snooker Championship and then was beaten 6–10 by David Taylor in the first round. In 1981–82 he again lost in the first round of the world championship, 5–10 to Eddie Charlton.{{cite book |last1=Hayton |first1=Eric |last2=Dee |first2=John |date=2004 |title=The CueSport Book of Professional Snooker: The Complete Record & History |publisher=Rose Villa Publications|isbn=978-0954854904 |pages=1028–1030}} Wilson was the runner-up at the Pontins Spring Open in consecutive years, losing 3–7 to Willie Thorne in 1980 and 2–7 to John Hargreaves in 1981.{{cite book |last=Morrison|first=Ian |date=1989 |title=Snooker: records, facts and champions |publisher=Guinness Superlatives Ltd |isbn=0851123643 |page=90}}

With wins over Johnson, Mountjoy and White, Wilson reached his first ranking tournament quarter-final at the 1982 International Open, losing 4–5 to the eventual champion Tony Knowles. He next reached a ranking quarter final at the 1985 Grand Prix, with further losing quarter-final appearances at the 1986 International Open, 1987 classic, and 1989 International Open.{{rp|205–206}}

He broke into the top sixteen of the world rankings for one season, 1988/89, ranked 16th.{{rp|372}}{{cite book |last=Kobylecky |first=John |date=2019 |title=The Complete International Directory of Snooker Players – 1927 to 2018 |publisher=Kobyhadrian Books |pages=264–265 |isbn=978-0993143311 }} This ranking entitled him to a place at the 1989 Masters, where he came back from 0-2 down to level at 2–2 against reigning World Champion and defending Masters Champion Steve Davis before Davis went on to win 5–2.{{cite news |last=Acteson |first=Steve |title=Hendry is a winner once more – Snooker |work=The Times |location=London |date=23 January 1989}}

He later went on to win the first World Seniors Championship in 1991, beating Charlton 5–4 in the final after earlier victories over Mountjoy and Griffiths. Charlton had led 4–2 and needed only to pot the {{cuegloss|blue ball|blue}} and {{cuegloss|pink ball|pink}} for the match, but Wilson took three frames in a row to win his first professional title at the age of 57 and collect £16,000, his highest prize winnings.{{cite magazine |author= |title=How Cliff Wilson became king of the golden oldies |magazine=Snooker Scene |pages=17–19 |publisher=Everton's News Agency |issue=November 1991}}{{cite news |author= |title=First for Wilson |work=The Times |location=London |page=37 |date=23 September 1991 |via=The Times Digital Archive. Retrieved 20 May 2020.}}

He recorded wins over a number of prominent players as a professional. In January 1992 he beat Ken Doherty 5–2 in the 1992 Welsh Open before losing 1–5 to Darren Morgan. Later that year he played a young Ronnie O'Sullivan in the 1992 UK Championship, winning 9–8. Both Doherty and O'Sullivan won the respective tournaments the following year.{{cite news |author= |title=Obituary: Cliff Wilson |work=The Times |location=London |page=10 |date=24 May 1994 |via=The Times Digital Archive. Retrieved 24 November 2019.}} The highest break of his career was 136 at the 1989 Grand Prix.

His popular exhibition matches were advertised with the phrase "You've never seen anything like it!"{{rp|372}} He was known as a fast, attacking, player and has been described as an "outstanding potter" both by Everton and by snooker writer Ian Morrison.{{rp|123}}{{rp|40}} In 1953, a Sports Argus match report described Wilson as having "lived up to his reputation as the finest potter in the country, one ball being hardly in the pocket before the next one was following it in."{{cite news |author=Fancy Butt |title=Adams out to turn tables on Jack Fitzmaurice |work=Sports Argus |date=31 January 1953 |page=2 }} Wilson's obituary in The Times noted that in the 1950s he was seen as a "phenomenal talent" and played an attacking game that was unlike the defensive approach generally prevalent at the time, and Eurosport's Desmond Kane included him in a 2020 list of the ten "greatest long potters".{{cite web |url=https://www.eurosport.co.uk/snooker/world-championship/2019-2020/snooker-news-all-time-top-10-who-are-snooker-s-greatest-long-potters-featuring-trump-o-sullivan_sto7717624/story.shtml |title=All-time top 10: Who are snooker's greatest long potters? |last=Kane |first=Desmond |date=2 April 2020 |website=eurosport.co.uk |publisher=Eurosport |access-date=20 May 2020}} Jack Karnehm in 1981 wrote that Wilson was "probably the hardest hitter of a ball on earth. His high-speed accurate potting has to be seen to be believed" and added "it is said that the last time he played a safety shot was in 1959 and that was by mistake."

He was married to Valerie Wilson, and had four sons, including twins.{{cite book |last=Karnehm |first=Jack |date=1981 |title=World snooker |publisher=Pelham |isbn=0720713285|pages=117–118}} Towards the end of his life, Wilson suffered from a number of health problems with his back, knee and heart, eventually developing an inoperable disease of the liver and pancreas that led to his death. He continued to play professionally, recording a century break in the 1994 International Open in January 1994.

Wilson died on 21 May 1994, aged 60.{{cite web |last=Turner |first=Chris |title=Player Profile: Cliff Wilson |url=http://www.cajt.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/Players/WilsonC.html |access-date=31 March 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160331002654/http://www.cajt.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/Players/WilsonC.html |archive-date=31 March 2016 }}

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Category:1934 births

Category:1994 deaths

Category:Sportspeople from Tredegar

Category:Welsh snooker players

Category:World Seniors Championship champions