« Previous | Main | Next »

Snooker clubs must adapt - or they will become extinct

It was announced last week that Willie Thorne’s Snooker Club in Leicester will close after more than 30 years in business.

I read that the decision was primarily because the council want the building back, but it does highlight an alarming trend in the UK. More and more snooker clubs are closing down, because they simply don’t make anywhere near the money they used to.

Hundreds, probably thousands, of snooker clubs opened during the boom years of the 1980s, but it seems to me that the only ones surviving are the ones who are prepared to adapt and evolve.

A number of factors have hit UK snooker clubs hard. The smoking ban, by all accounts, has been disastrous for business, and the government legislation on the size of the jackpot from fruit machines has left clubs unable to compete with bookies and casinos.

Coupled with the recession in general, people just don’t have much left over money to spend these days.

The time when snooker clubs could rely solely on their table takings are long gone. Many have replaced some or all of their snooker tables with pool, which is growing in popularity and is more of a social game.

Others have installed darts lanes, bowling alleys and other pursuits where snooker tables once stood. The Manhattan club, in Harrogate, which used to host the Challenge Tour and many other events, has turned one of its snooker rooms into a poker club. Clubs that failed to adapt have paid the ultimate price.

My practice base, the Northern Snooker Centre in Leeds is one of the best clubs in the country, I’m very lucky to live so close.

It’s not just the facilities, which are first-class, but also the tournaments week in, week out, which help you develop as a player. I still remember playing in all kinds of events there, from very early junior stuff right up to the pro-ams, which I still play in now, if I can.

Willie Thorne’s in Leicester was similar, and because it was fairly central in the country, it always attracted the highest standard of players.

There was a really special atmosphere about the junior events at Leicester, and the man behind that was Willie’s late brother, Malcolm. He was a first-class tournament director and, more importantly, a first-class bloke. He is sadly missed by anyone who knew him.

When Willie Thorne’s was taken over by Rileys, Malcolm moved to a smaller club in Coalville, but he still attracted quality fields to his events. Pretty much every UK professional on the Tour will have played in one of Malcolm’s events down the years.

With so many smaller clubs struggling for survival, it seems to me as though each area of the country will develop a ‘hub’, one big main club where everyone plays, rather than lots of smaller ones.

Neil Foulds wrote in his blog that he believes the next snooker superstar will come from outside the UK. With the decline of clubs in the UK, I would have to agree with him.

Where will the next generation learn their trade day in, day out if they have nowhere to play? In contrast, clubs in Europe and Asia are opening by the day, it’s only a matter of time before they start producing talented players.

The fact that clubs such as Willie Thorne’s are facing closure is a stark reminder to UK clubs of any stature: Evolve . . . or become extinct.