Product Description

Throughout its chequered history, snooker has had more than its fair share of heroes and villains, champions and chumps, rascals and rip-off artists. In the last 20 years, every sleazy scandal imaginable has attached itself to this raffish sport: corruption, match fixing, bribery, sex, recreational drugs, performance-enhancing drugs, ballot rigging, fraud, theft, domestic violence, common or garden violence, paranoid politicking, dirty tricks - all against a background of inept petty tsars fixated on the pursuit, retention and abuse of power. In "Black Farce and Cue Ball Wizards", Clive Everton recounts the glory and despair, the dreams and disillusion, and the treachery and greed that have characterised the game since it was invented as an innocent diversion by British Army officers in India in the nineteenth century. He tells the true and unexpurgated tale of snooker's transformation into a television success story second only to football and exposes how its potential has been shamefully squandered.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #38516 in Books
• Published on: 2007-09-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 400 pages

About the Author
Clive Everton is the BBC's senior snooker commentator. As the sport's leading journalist, he publishes and edits Snooker Scene magazine and writes on the game for The Guardian. He lives in Birmingham.

Customer Reviews

Warts and all analysis from a genuine enthusiast
Like many people I remember the TV golden age of snooker in the 1980s, when the game was more memorable for its cast of characters (such as Higgins, Werbeniuk, White, even 'interesting' Steve Davis)than its overall quality. Nowadays the game is peopled by pale automatons riding on the back of this heyday, who may make more centuries, but simply aren't as fascinating (Ronnie O'Sullivan excepted.) In this book, Clive Everton dissects the history and politics of snooker with relentless tenacity. The central section of the book goes into great detail about the political intrigues that presided over snooker's rise and fall, pulling no punches along the way. It really is 'warts and all', unsparing in its treatment of key administrators such as Geoff Foulds and Rex Williams. It is very eloquently written and the best sections are those concerned with getting to the haert of problematic figures like Alex Higgins and Ronnie O'Sullivan. Everton's look at the latter in particular is a brilliant mixture of sympathy and criticism. Underpinning it all is the author's love of the game, and his concern for its well-being. I've always thought of him as a first-rate commentator and through this book he deserves his reputation as the foremost authority on this popular sport.

A comprehensive guide on the history of British Snooker
For me this is a book of two halfs. Even though the book goes in chronological order, the things that Clive Everton focus change halfway through the book. The first part looks at more of how the snooker tournaments were set up and more importantly on the snooker players which is very interesting. But after that when he reaches the late 80's and early 90's he sort of forgets the players and tournaments and concentrates on how the game of snooker was run behind the scenes. You can understand why Clive Everton focuses on the snooker bosses as he was treated badly by them as was the game itself. However, the parts where he does this are quite heavy and unless you truly love snooker you won't get much out of them. Overall though this is a good book but if you want a book that focuses on the players and is easier to read I recomend Masters of the Baize by Luke williams and Paul Gadsby.