Time and punishment: Why a chaotic mix-up nearly cost John Virgo on his greatest snooker day

The snooker and wider sporting worlds have been united in their grief for Virgo, who unexpectedly passed away on Wednesday, aged 79.

Tributes from across society have been pouring in on social media, and during coverage of the Snooker 900 on Pluto TV, former world number three Neal Foulds was keen to remind people how accomplished Virgo was on the green baize.

“Great sense of humour, great commentator, but people forget he was a brilliant player and that's the thing that's overlooked” said Foulds.

“I saw John a lot, grew up watching John practise a lot, and he was a fantastic break-builder and scorer, but I think the young generation wouldn't realise how good a player he was aside from all the other things he did in the game”.

Having won British and English junior snooker titles, Salford-born Virgo turned professional in 1976 and later that season qualified for the main draw of the 1977 World Championship - the first time that snooker’s blue riband event was held at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield.

The finest year of his professional snooker career came in 1979. He won two qualifying matches - including a 9-8 victory over Willie Thorne in the final round - to reach the Crucible again. At the fabled arena, he defeated Canadians Cliff Thorburn and Bill Werbeniuk before losing 19-12 to Dennis Taylor in the semi-finals. Wales’ Terry Griffiths - on his debut, and as a qualifier - defeated Taylor in the subsequent final.

Later in the year came Virgo’s greatest baize moment. At the Guild Hall in Preston, he eliminated Tony Meo and Steve Davis before extracting some table revenge on Taylor, getting the better of him this time with a 9-4 win to reach his first final as a professional, and in the sport’s second-biggest event.

Virgo’s opponent in the title match was Crucible king Griffiths who was trying to complete the world and UK double. And it was the Englishman who got off to a brilliant start in the three-session encounter, establishing a 5-0 lead.

Griffiths recovered somewhat, but Virgo managed to keep his opponent at arm’s length across Friday’s two sessions, building a strong 11-7 overnight advantage, meaning he required three more frames for the title the next afternoon.

And so came what Virgo described as both the best and worst day of his snooker life.

‘JV’ elected not to stay too close to the Guild Hall, opting for a Premier Inn on the M6 some five, six miles away.

Unlike nowadays, there were no practise tables at the venue, therefore Virgo didn’t want, or need to get to the Guild Hall too early.

Afternoon sessions throughout the tournament had begun at 2pm local time, so at 12:50pm, Virgo was still relaxing and preparing in his hotel room for the biggest few hours of his career coming up. But then, huge panic.

He received a phone call asking where he was and got given the stomach-churning news that today’s session actually started at 1pm due to BBC Sport’s Saturday afternoon show Grandstand wanting to show the coverage live.

Not even dressed for the match, desperation for Virgo, who hurried to get ready, got in his car and made his way to the venue. He was 20 minutes late, and as per tournament rules for tardiness, he was docked two frames, with his lead instantly cut from four to two at 11-9 up.

Due to ‘keeping them waiting’, Virgo even received some boos from the audience when making his entrance to add to his despair. With his head surely spinning over the mix-up, he watched the world champion take the opening two frames to level the scores at 11-11 as they went into their final mid-session interval. It was the first time they had been all-square since 0-0.

During the break, whilst trying to get his head around what had just happened, Virgo received a visit from Griffiths who said to him: “Look, I don’t want to win like this, shall we split the prize money?”

Griffiths’ suggestion was a sporting one, but it seemed to fire up Virgo who was there for the title replying with: “You haven’t won yet, I’m not splitting anything”.

On resumption, Virgo won frame 23 to nudge back in front at 12-11, but runs of 56 and 68 helped put Griffiths ahead for the first time in the contest, and just one away from the crown.

With his back against the wall, though, and feelings that he had blown it under bizarre circumstances, Virgo mustered a 50 break as he forced the tie all the way before claiming the decider to win 14-13 and become the third United Kingdom Snooker Champion, after Patsy Fagan in 1977 and Doug Mountjoy in 1978.

However, the triumph was also tinged with a sprinkle of sadness as the BBC cameramen went on strike during the final session due to an industrial dispute, and there is no video footage of Virgo’s momentous moment.

Only a few weeks later, Virgo won his second professional title in India at the Bombay International, defeating Cliff Thorburn 13-7 in the final.

Virgo went on to claim two more accolades on the circuit: at the 1980 Pontins Professional, and the 1984 Professional Snooker League.