“Where tables are temporary, like in a conference centre or a hotel, every pocket needs to be checked to make sure it’s secure and balls don’t just fall on the floor and so on.” Starkie and Lewis have over half a century’s experience between them and, though the pair might be being modest, they insist keeping their concentration is rather straightforward. “It’s different for all people but concentration is relatively easy because your focus is on a rather restricted environment,” said Lewis. “It is easy to be distracted by crowd noises or things on other tables but this is fleeting and temporary.“ 66-year old Starkie added: “If you’ve got something on your mind when you’re refereeing you forget it, you’re just totally focused on the game. “There are very fine lines between a foul and not a foul, you’ve got to concentrate on the points and where a foul may be committed if somebody’s leaning over a ball. “If their cuff touches the ball or even if a logo falls off the waistcoat and touches a ball it’s a foul.” So have a quick check to make sure there’s no chance of anything falling your clothes before you start playing in future. That would be an embarrassing foul to give away… When everything is done and dusted you might expect the business of refereeing dictates that the officials have a very serious chat, and go for a very serious drink where they talk about other very serious things. Not so. Dan Lewis explains that the closed environment makes refs a bit stir-crazy, so they become very excitable once the play is over. He said: “You’ll find that most snooker and billiards referees have a weird and juvenile sense of humour. “When we’ve finished we all gather outside the room at the end of a session and the banter is very juvenile and silly at times. “It’s a way of releasing the stress and tension that accrues during a long period of concentration - you become very childish and our humour is very basic!” One thing that doesn’t spring to mind when you think about snooker referees is their fitness. But take a moment – can you think of any portly men or women who ref at the top level? Exactly. Starkie recalls one tournament he refereed in Malta, which perfectly demonstrates that point. He said: “There was the team event and the under-21s running together and the matches were roll-on roll-off as soon as a match was over you’d have another. “I actually took over from a referee at half-past two in the afternoon and got off the table at quarter to two in the morning. “Your feet are screaming at you, your legs are somebody else’s, but your concentration doesn’t really wane
at all - you’re trained to do it and it becomes automatic.” Yes you did read correctly – that’s over 11 hours at a snooker table. Wow. But it’s all very well standing up for that long: how far do you actually walk as a referee? Luckily Steve has the answer to that as well. He said: “I think somebody once measured it and if you do a best of five match and it goes all five you’ve probably walked two miles and half of that is backwards because you don’t take your eyes off the table.” Like any sport the players and officials make mistakes, and neither of these refs try to hide from that. Starkie, who has overseen a world amateur final and several European finals, said: “I’ve been refereeing about 15 years now and all referees make mistakes, we’re human at the end of the day. “It’s respect to the players that you know the game inside out but the rules are very complex.” And players are what make their job so much easier according to Dan, who is pretty handy with a cue himself having played for England. He said: “There are very few disputes between players and referees even though the players are always really hyped up. “Especially in decisive moments of the game when a decision goes against them, there are very few players I’ve ever come across in 40-odd years that lose it.” Starkie added: ”I’ve worked for World Snooker and most of the pros and they are very sportsmanlike. “I can’t think of another game where a player will foul and stand up and say ‘ref I fouled’. We should be very proud of that. “Can you imagine a footballer saying ‘no he didn’t trip me up ref it wasn’t a penalty – that would never happen. “There’s an inherent honesty in snooker and the players will tell the referee if he’s made a mistake.” White feathers and brushing balls are incredibly hard to spot even for eagle-eyed officials, so players’ being truthful about the contact is imperative. Lewis gives a fantastic example of this integrity, and why you should never judge a book by its cover, from a tournament in the 1980s. “I used to run a tournament in Cambridgeshire. It was a tournament with a lot of money and we used to have four weeks of qualifiers with no dress code. “One year this bloke walked and he had jeans with rips across the knees, one earring, a thin little vest and he had tattoos all up his arms. Full lorry-driver type if you know what I mean, so I thought ‘I’ll take this one myself’. “He came to the table and two or three shots into the match this guy turned to me and said ‘I feathered the white’. I just made out this guy was going to be trouble, he was going to be awkward and that taught me a great
actually took over from “a Ireferee at half-past two in
the afternoon and got off the table at quarter to two in the morning
“
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lesson which I have borne in mind ever since.” As you would expect there are strenuous tests that you have to go through to become a fully-fledged referee, including years of seminars and practice to attain the highest Class 1 grade. The youngest known recipient of Class 1 is 20-yearold Chris Coumbe who made the grade late last year. The Plymouth ref isn’t exactly old, but for there not to be a single teenage official at that grade shows the amount of studying and experience needed before taking the exam. Lewis said: “As a referee you’ve only got two physical jobs when you’re out there refereeing. One is to assist the flow of the game and the other is to represent the non-striker. “You’re a good referee when you’re legs carry you around without thinking about it, and that’s purely experience. It’s the anticipation of the shot.” Lots of referees are told to work in their local league for plenty of practice before the gruelling Class 1 exam,
where even your handshake and coin toss is critiqued. It’s quite hard to compare such a unique sport with any other, but the Dan and Steve both believe they could teach the likes of football a thing or two. Starkie said: “I don’t think we get the offensive comments from players like football referees do. “It’s a totally different sport than anything else. I can’t think of another where if one player is at the table the other player can’t do anything about it.” Lewis added: “Because it’s in an environment which is inherently quiet you don’t get the players influenced by idiot comments. “It’s a viewing sport rather than a vociferous sport; therefore any player who is easily rankled or roused is not influenced by the crowd.” As for improvements to snooker? Steve Starkie has an idea that all refs would love. “Well I’d love to be a tennis umpire where we’re sat in a chair!” he jokes. Well if we had been up for 11 hours I’m sure we would all agree with that!
Chris Coumbe hasn’t just become the youngest class 1 in the world, the 20year-old is an expert player too. He shot an excellent billiards break of 102 in the Bradford Open in December, and is unsurprisingly being tipped for a big future.
Steve Starkie respotting the blue (Photo: Clive A Brown, Flickr Creative Commons)
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