Clive Everton

Everton was born in Worcester on 7 September 1937[2][3] and was educated at King's School, Worcester, City of Birmingham College of Commerce, and later at Cardiff University, where he obtained a B.A. in English. After graduating, he taught English and Liberal Studies at Halesown College of Further Education, before a career change into freelance journalism.[4][5]^:39

Everton was a talented amateur player of English billiards, reaching both the 1975 and 1977 world semi-finals. In the latter he exacerbated a back injury, forcing a temporary retirement from the highest level of the game; he became a professional snooker and billiards player in 1981. Everton's biggest win as a professional snooker player was a 5–2 defeat of Patsy Fagan in the last 64 of the Professional Players Tournament 1982, before losing to Cliff Thorburn by the same score in the last 32. He played in the Welsh Professional Championship on seven occasions, being seeded to the quarter-finals on four of these and the first round three times, but never won a match in the competition; in billiards, he contested three major quarter-finals.

Everton was the editor of the magazine Billiards and Snooker, owned by the Billiards Association and Control Council, from the December 1966 issue[4] until the February 1971 issue.[6][7] According to Everton, he was sacked at the instigation of Jack Karnehm, the Chairman of the Billiards and Snooker Control Council (as the Billiards Association and Control Council had renamed itself) for "giving professionals publicity" by including picture of four professional players on the cover of Billiards and Snooker at a time when the Billiards and Snooker Control Council and the professional players were in dispute over the World Billiards Championship. This dispute led to the Professional Billiards Players Association renaming itself as the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA) and splitting from the Billiards and Snooker Control Council (B&SCC). Following his sacking, Everton established his own magazine, World Snooker.[8]^{:16–17:44–45} In 1972, the B&SCC approached Everton to take over Billiards and Snooker and paid him £1,000 to do so. Everton merged Billiards and Snooker and World Snooker into Snooker Scene, which published its first issue in April 1972.[5]

As a result of the poor income generated by billiards and lacklustre results in professional snooker, Everton began a career as a sports commentator. He has covered football, rugby and tennis for various British newspapers, and is one of the most prolific authors of historical and instructions books on snooker, as well as being the founding editor of the long-running Snooker Scene magazine.

Everton also played county-level tennis for Worcestershire for 13 years, and has managed Jonah Barrington, the former world number one squash player.

Everton is perhaps best known as a snooker commentator; during the hey-day of the game in the 1980s, he emerged as one of the top three commentators, alongside Jack Karnehm and Ted Lowe.

Everton's style of commentary has always tended towards the technical, as opposed to the more informal, conversational approach of his colleagues and the various 'player-commentators' of the modern era. His analytical mind, combined with his clear love and knowledge of the game, have given him an encyclopaedic ability to recite obscure facts and statistics, which he does frequently in commentary. He also tends to use formal English, often using words that would not find a place in everyday conversation. For example, his commentary has included the following statements:

• "Ebdon's unforthcoming acceptance of the referee's replacement of the white has been called into question by his opponent despite the veracity of the location of the adjacent reds."
• "O'Sullivan's fluency was undiminished during his completion of a challenging century break using a newly affixed tip."
• "Davis's inability to execute the quarter-ball cut to bottom left has presented his opponent with an unexpected opportunity to capitalise."
• "When King and Perry resumed their contest with King enjoying a 6–2 advantage, the least feasible outcome was a 9–6 victory in Perry's favour. However, that is what materialised this evening."
• "That was a particularly inopportune juncture at which to receive a kick."

In keeping with his traditional style, Everton always refers to snooker players by their surnames; he is seen as a consummate professional, well-liked and respected by most of the top players in the game and held in high esteem by colleagues in broadcasting and journalism.

In September 2007 he published his autobiography, Black Farce and Cueball Wizards: The Inside Story of the Snooker World (Mainstream Publishing ISBN 978-1-84596-199-2), in which he talks about some of the off-table antics of the most prominent players of the last thirty years.

In 2009, it was announced that Everton would effectively lose his position as the BBC's primary snooker commentator; he did not commentate on the Masters, and only commentated on the World Championship until the quarter-final stages. This has variously been attributed to his criticism of the game's governing body, World Snooker, his age and old-fashioned style,[9] and his lack of fame relative to the former players on the BBC's commentary roster. Everton himself commented, "I'm hurt and angry, because I find the reasons presented to me incomprehensible."[9]

At the start of the 2009–10 season, Everton's role at the BBC was reduced still further. He only commentated on two matches during the Grand Prix, and was not heard at all during the Masters. He commentated on days one to four of the 2010 World Snooker Championship and was heard again on day six, but that was his final commentary work of the tournament, and he left the corporation at some point after this, prior to the 2010–11 season.

Since his departure from the BBC, Everton has continued commentating through his seventies and into his eighties, notably for Sky Sports, Eurosport, and ITV, by whom he is currently employed, covering the Champion of Champions, World Grand Prix, Players Championship, and Tour Championship events.[10]

During the 2008 World Championship, while commenting on the psychological problems of Ronnie O'Sullivan, Everton revealed that he had himself suffered from depression during his life.

In 2017, Everton was inducted into the Snooker Hall of Fame at the annual Snooker Awards.[11]

Everton was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2019 Birthday Honours for services to snooker.[12]

• Silverton, John; Everton, Clive (1972). Park Drive Official Snooker And Billiards Year book. Gallagher Ltd.
• Barrington, Jonah; Everton, Clive (1972). The Book of Jonah. Stanley Paul. ISBN 0-09-113610-5.
• Everton, Clive (1974). The Ladbroke Snooker International Handbook. Ladbrokes Leisure. ISBN 0-905606-00-0.
• Griffiths, Terry; Everton, Clive (1981). Championship Snooker. Queen Anne P. ISBN 0-362-00543-5.
• Everton, Clive (1982). Guinness Book of Snooker. Guinness World Records Limited. ISBN 0-85112-256-6.
• Everton, Clive (1985). Better Billiards and Snooker. Kaye & Ward. ISBN 0-7182-1480-3.
• Everton, Clive (1985). Snooker: the Records. Guinness World Records Limited. ISBN 0-85112-448-8.
• Everton, Clive, ed. (1985). Snooker Year: Second Edition. Virgin Books. ISBN 0-86369-104-8.
• Everton, Clive (1986). History of Snooker and Billiards. TBS The Book Service Ltd. ISBN 1-85225-013-5.
• Thorburn, Cliff; Everton, Clive (1987). Playing for Keeps. West Sussex, UK: Partridge Press. ISBN 1-85225-011-9.
• Everton, Clive (1987). Improve Your Snooker. London: Harper Collins Willow. ISBN 0-00-218255-6.
• Taylor, Dennis; Everton, Clive (1990). Play Snooker. BBC Books. ISBN 0-563-36037-2.
• Everton, Clive (1991). Snooker & Billiards: Technique · Tactics · Training. The Crowood Press Ltd. ISBN 1-85223-480-6.
• Spencer, John (1993). Clive, Everton (ed.). Snooker (Teach Yourself). NTC Publication Group. ISBN 0-8442-3940-2.
• Weber, Eugene; Everton, Clive (1993). The Book of Snooker and Billiard Quotations. Hutchinson. ISBN 0-09-177620-1.
• Everton, Clive (1993). The Embassy Book of World Snooker. London: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC. ISBN 0-7475-1610-3.
• Everton, Clive (2007). Black Farce and Cue Ball Wizards: The Inside Story of the Snooker World. Mainstream Publishing. ISBN 1-84596-199-4.
• Everton, Clive (2012). A History of Billiards: The English Three-ball Game. englishBilliards.org. ISBN 978-0-9564054-5-6.

• Profile on Pro Snooker Blog
• Profile on BBC Sport
• BBC Berkshire: Clive Everton returns to the commentary box