The UK Championship is one of the biggest events in the snooker calendar, but one former winner has mixed feelings when he looks back on his sole title win in the competition
Former UK Championship winner John Virgo famously described his only major triumph as simultaneously “the best and worst day” of his life. The former world No. 10 was at the peak of his powers when he narrowly defeated Terry Griffiths to claim the UK crown in 1979, although he very nearly forfeited the match entirely.
Griffiths, a snooker legend and the reigning world champion at the time, demonstrated his sportsmanship by offering to share the prize money despite holding an advantage following Virgo’s two-frame penalty. The predicament Virgo found himself in had nothing to do with his ability on the table, but rather his timekeeping after his final session had been brought forward.
What followed was a frantic rush to Preston Guild Hall – the tournament’s former home – after receiving an urgent phone call. And all after Virgo was quite literally caught with his pants down.
“It was the only major I won and it was the best and worst day of my life,” he said when recalling the most important moment of his playing career years later. Virgo explained he had no idea the final session’s start time had been moved earlier to facilitate live broadcasting on Grandstand.
“So I’m in my hotel room and all of a sudden I get a phone call [saying], ‘Where are you?’ because it was now ten to one,” he added. “I said I wasn’t due but because it was live on Grandstand they’d moved the start time to one o’clock. You can imagine my panic, I wasn’t even dressed!
“I had to get dressed quickly, jump in the car, drive down to the Guild Hall. As I’m relaying the story now, 45 years later, I’m still getting cold sweats thinking about driving down the M6. I remember parking, running through the car park. I’d forgotten about the match, I just wanted to get there. I did well to only be 20 minutes late!
“But for the first time, they’d brought in a rule which said if you were 15 minutes late, you’d forfeit a frame. Then you’d lose another frame for every five minutes afterwards, so I was deducted two frames. You can imagine I wasn’t happy about it. Having got to the venue 11-7 in front, it was now 11-9.”
Looking back, his late arrival could have been even more catastrophic had he been just 10 minutes later to the venue. Virgo, who has been open regarding his former gambling addiction, ultimately secured a 14-13 victory over Griffiths, claiming one of the final UK Championship titles before it gained ranked status.
That proved to be the start of a particularly successful spell for Virgo, who subsequently claimed victories at the Bombay Classic and Pontins Professional. Yet his crowning achievement in Preston went unrecorded after camera operators walked out.
“I looked at the cameras but they were unmanned,” Virgo continued. “I thought, ‘What’s going on here?’ It turned out there was an industrial dispute and the BBC cameramen went on strike!
“So although I beat Terry Griffiths, who was then world champion, there is no film of it because the BBC were on strike. As I say, it was the worst and best day of my life, I put it in that order. It was a rollercoaster.”
The landscape has shifted considerably since then, and today’s top snooker players are unlikely to find themselves in Virgo’s predicament. While no UK Championship triumph has ever been easy, the future BBC commentator endured a particularly dramatic route before celebrating the biggest win of his career.
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