I played snooker with George Best… but I’m not retiring, says John Virgo at 77

JOHN VIRGO is not short of memories after almost 70 years of watching sport, playing top-level snooker and mixing with showbiz pals

His recollections can go back as far as October 1955 when he first stood in the stands of Old Trafford, watching the formation of the Busby Babes.

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A Manchester United starting XI this proud son of a Salford docks crane driver can still recount with 100% accuracy to this day.

His is a journey that encompasses the smoky snooker halls of Greater Manchester and Lancashire in the 60s and 70s.

Days when he would knock in some balls while being watched quietly by George Best, fresh from United training at The Cliff.

It is a career that has seen him play over a 12×6-foot table against icons Steve Davis, Jimmy White and Alex Higgins.

The latter of whom ruined his game for 18 months with a truly hurricane performance.

While he may jokily paint himself as a “dour northern socialist”, Virgo loves to entertain the masses with his words and trick-shot skills.

Something he did with aplomb alongside wise-cracking comedian Jim Davidson during the popular Big Break quiz show in the 1990s that regularly attracted 14 million Saturday-night viewers.

And on Monday Virgo will have the best seat in the house at the Crucible as he commentates on the climax to the World Snooker Championship final between Mark Selby and Luca Brecel.

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Virgo, who turned 77 last month, told SunSport: “Listen, I’m never going to complain about the way it has turned out. Because I always feel I’m very lucky.

“I do these exhibition evenings with Steve (Davis) and Dennis (Taylor).

“We all say this as the bottom line – we feel lucky we walked into a snooker club with our ripped trousers and we managed to be good at a game that took us all around the world.

“Particularly as someone coming from Salford – I consider that to be a right result.”

In 14 visits as a player to the Crucible, Virgo made the semi-finals in 1979 but he was defeated 19-12 by Northern Ireland cueist Taylor.

His greatest triumph came eight months later when he lifted the UK Championship at Preston’s Guild Hall with victory over world champion Terry Griffiths.

Yet he arrived late for the final session – it had been brought forward by an hour without his knowledge to be shown on BBC Grandstand.

However the final frames of the 14-13 result, the pinnacle of his playing days, were never broadcast anywhere due to industrial strike by the TV crew.

Still sharp as a tack, Spain-based Virgo was reassured before this tournament that the BBC commentary gig – which he missed only once in 2020 due to the Covid crisis – will “continue as it is for the foreseeable future”.

On Saturday night, he received a hero’s reception when it was announced he was going to be inducted into the World Snooker Tour’s Hall of Fame.

The art of speaking to millions of people on TV, choosing the right words to paint the correct pictures, is something he has perfected down the years.

The earpiece-wearing fans in the arena love it when the white ball races off a player’s cue and Virgo shouts: “Where’s the cue-ball going?!”

Virgo said: “A good friend of mine, the late golf commentator Peter Alliss, said to me: ‘I love the commentary John but don’t you think you’re getting a bit too excited?’

“I said it adds to the theatre. I want to get the viewers involved and enjoying it. If I do that, I feel I’ve done my job.

“When I commentate I do so for the people at home. But because of the earpieces, it’s upon us that when players actually go down for a shot, we don’t say a word.

“Then there’s no chance the players are going to hear it via the earpieces. A few of the new guys, they’re talking while they’re playing the shot.

“They’ll learn. I had to learn with these earpieces. And I try to be disciplined.

“I’d love to carry on as long as I can but I’m not a fool.

“A lot of my friends, Kenny Lynch, Dennis Waterman, all people who I’ve socialised with – who all had the same drinking habits if you like – have gone recently.

“I don’t want to wish my life away. As Dennis Taylor says: ‘We’ll keep talking until someone tells us to stop!’”