John Stephen Parrott, (born 11 May 1964) is an English former professional
snooker
Snooker (pronounced , ) is a cue sports, cue sport played on a Billiard table#Snooker and English billiards tables, rectangular table covered with a green cloth called baize, with six Billiard table#Pockets 2, pockets, one at each corner and o ...
player and television personality. He was a familiar face on the professional snooker circuit during the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s, and remained within the top 16 of the
world rankings for fourteen consecutive seasons.
He reached the final of the
1989 World Championship, where he lost 3–18 to
Steve Davis
Steve Davis (born 22 August 1957) is an English retired professional snooker player who is currently a commentator, musician, DJ, and author. He is best known for dominating professional snooker during the 1980s, when he reached eight World S ...
, the heaviest defeat in a world championship final in modern times. He won the title two years later, defeating
Jimmy White
James Warren White (born 2 May 1962) is an English professional snooker player who has won three seniors World titles. Nicknamed "The Whirlwind" because of his fluid, attacking style of play, White is the 1980 World Amateur Champion, 2009 ...
in the final of the
1991 World Championship. He repeated his win against White later the same year, to take the
1991 UK Championship
The 1991 UK Championship was a professional Snooker world rankings, ranking snooker tournament that took place between 23 November and 1 December 1991 at the Preston Guild Hall, Guild Hall in Preston, Lancashire, Preston, England. The te ...
title, becoming only the third player to win both championships in the same calendar year (after Steve Davis and
Stephen Hendry
Stephen Gordon Hendry (born 13 January 1969) is a Scottish professional snooker player who dominated the sport during the 1990s, becoming one of the most successful players in its history. After turning professional in 1985 at age 16, Hendry ...
); he is still one of only six players to have achieved this feat. He spent three seasons at number 2 in the world rankings (
1989–90,
1992–93,
1993–94), and he is one of several players to have achieved more than 200 competitive
centuries
A century is a period of 100 years. Centuries are numbered ordinally in English and many other languages. The word ''century'' comes from the Latin ''centum'', meaning ''one hundred''. ''Century'' is sometimes abbreviated as c.
A centennial or ...
during his career, with 221.
Early career
Parrott was a keen
bowls
Bowls, also known as lawn bowls or lawn bowling, is a sport in which the objective is to roll biased balls so that they stop close to a smaller ball called a "jack" or "kitty". It is played on a bowling green, which may be flat (for "flat-gre ...
player until the age of 12,
but then discovered snooker, and has been a dedicated player ever since. He was successful from an early age; when he was 15, his talent was spotted by Phil Miller, who became his long-term manager in 1980. He lost in the final of the English Under-16s Championship in 1980, but won the 1981 Pontins Junior Championship. In 1982, he was
Pontins Open
The Pontins Open events were a series of pro–am
Pro–am (or pro/am, pro am, ProAm; a contraction of professional–amateur) refers to a sporting event where both professional career athletes and amateurs compete. It could also re ...
Champion and
Junior Pot Black Champion, after narrowly defeating Mark "Lightning" Lockwood. He turned professional the following year after winning a record 14 tournaments in his last year as an amateur player.
Professional career
Parrott turned professional in 1983 and he made his televised debut as a professional during the
1984 Classic in which he played
Alex Higgins
Alexander Gordon Higgins (18 March 1949 – 24 July 2010) was a Northern Irish professional snooker player who is remembered as one of the most iconic figures in the game. Nicknamed "Hurricane Higgins" because of his fast play, he was Worl ...
in the last 16 of the competition in front of a packed house at
Warrington
Warrington () is a town and unparished area in the borough of the same name in the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England, on the banks of the River Mersey. It is east of Liverpool, and west of Manchester. The population in 2019 was estimat ...
near his hometown of Liverpool. He caused a stir by winning the match 5–2. He then beat
Tony Knowles in the next round before losing to
Steve Davis
Steve Davis (born 22 August 1957) is an English retired professional snooker player who is currently a commentator, musician, DJ, and author. He is best known for dominating professional snooker during the 1980s, when he reached eight World S ...
in the semi-finals. By then, bookmakers had him tipped to be the World Snooker Champion within five years (it took him seven years). He took his first ranking title in the
1989 European Open
The 1989 European Open was a women's tennis tournament played on outdoor clay courts at the Drizia-Miremont Tennis Club in Geneva, Switzerland that was part of the Category 2 tier of the 1989 WTA Tour. The tournament was held from 22 May until 2 ...
, and defended his title in
1990
File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...
.
Parrott spent 14 consecutive seasons in the top 16 of the snooker world rankings, 11 of them in the top 6.
[
From 1984 to 2004 Parrott was ever-present at the World Championship, reaching at least the last 16 every year from 1984 to 1995,][ but he failed to qualify in 2005.
Following his 1991 victory he never again reached the semi-finals, but lost in the quarter-finals seven times between 1992 and 1999.
Overall, Parrott won a total of nine world ranking events, which as of November 2019 was 12th on the all-time list behind ]Stephen Hendry
Stephen Gordon Hendry (born 13 January 1969) is a Scottish professional snooker player who dominated the sport during the 1990s, becoming one of the most successful players in its history. After turning professional in 1985 at age 16, Hendry ...
, Steve Davis
Steve Davis (born 22 August 1957) is an English retired professional snooker player who is currently a commentator, musician, DJ, and author. He is best known for dominating professional snooker during the 1980s, when he reached eight World S ...
, Ronnie O'Sullivan
Ronald Antonio O'Sullivan (born 5 December 1975) is an English professional snooker player who is the current world champion and world number one. Widely recognised as one of the most talented and accomplished players in the sport's history, ...
, John Higgins
John Higgins, (born 18 May 1975) is a Scottish professional snooker player. He has won 31 career ranking titles, placing him in third position on the all-time list of ranking event winners, behind Ronnie O'Sullivan (39) and Stephen Hendry ( ...
, Mark Williams, Jimmy White
James Warren White (born 2 May 1962) is an English professional snooker player who has won three seniors World titles. Nicknamed "The Whirlwind" because of his fluid, attacking style of play, White is the 1980 World Amateur Champion, 2009 ...
, Mark Selby
Mark Anthony Selby (born 19 June 1983) is an English professional snooker player, who is a four-time World Snooker Champion. Ranked world number one on multiple occasions, he has won a total of 21 ranking titles, placing him eighth on the ...
, Ding Junhui
Ding Junhui (; born 1 April 1987) is a Chinese professional snooker player. He is the most successful Asian player in the history of the sport. Throughout his career, he has won 14 major ranking titles, including three UK Championships (200 ...
, Neil Robertson
Neil Robertson (born 11 February 1982) is an Australian professional snooker player who is a former world champion and former world number one. The only Australian to have won a ranking event, he is also the only player from outside the United ...
, Peter Ebdon
Peter David Ebdon (born 27 August 1970) is an English former snooker player. The winner of the 2002 World Snooker Championship, Ebdon won nine world ranking events, placing twelfth on the all-time list of ranking tournament winners. In addit ...
and Judd Trump
Judd Trump (born 20 August 1989) is an English professional snooker player, a former world champion and former world number one. Widely regarded as one of the sport's most talented players, he is currently sixth on the list of all-time ranki ...
. Winning both the World Championship and UK Championship in 1991 made him one of only six players to have won snooker's two most prominent ranking titles in the same year.
Parrott also reached the final of the Masters three times in four years, but lost to Stephen Hendry
Stephen Gordon Hendry (born 13 January 1969) is a Scottish professional snooker player who dominated the sport during the 1990s, becoming one of the most successful players in its history. After turning professional in 1985 at age 16, Hendry ...
on each occasion.
Parrott came through the qualifying event for the World Championship a record ten times. In 2007 he reached the last 16 of the World Championship for the first time in seven years, after victories over James Leadbetter
James Leadbetter (born 23 December 1980) is an English former professional snooker player.
Career
Leadbetter was born in 1980, and turned professional in 2003. His début season was without any success, and he dropped off the main tour at the ...
, David Gray and Steve Davis
Steve Davis (born 22 August 1957) is an English retired professional snooker player who is currently a commentator, musician, DJ, and author. He is best known for dominating professional snooker during the 1980s, when he reached eight World S ...
(10–9, having led 6–1 and 9–6).
A record ten of Parrott's World Championship matches went to a final-frame decider, seven of which he won. He was also the first player to conduct a "whitewash" in the Crucible World Championship final stages, when he defeated Eddie Charlton
Edward Francis Charlton, (31 October 1929 – 8 November 2004) was an Australian professional snooker and English billiards player. He remains the only player to have been world championship runner-up in both snooker and billiards without winn ...
10–0 in the first round of the 1992 tournament. For 27 years, he held the record for being the only player ever to achieve this, until Shaun Murphy
Shaun Peter Murphy (born 10 August 1982) is an English professional snooker player who won the 2005 World Championship. Nicknamed "The Magician", Murphy is noted for his straight cue action and his long potting.
Born in Harlow, Essex and r ...
defeated China's Luo Honghao
Luo Honghao (; born 31 January 2000) is a Chinese former professional snooker player.
Career Amateur
In July 2017, he reached the final of 2017 IBSF World Under-21 Snooker Championship where he lost the final 7–6 to Fan Zhengyi.
Later i ...
10–0 in the first round of the 2019 World Championship.
On 4 August 2009 at the qualifiers for the 2009 Shanghai Masters he lost 0–5 against Michael White.
Following his 6–10 defeat to young Chinese
Chinese can refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation
** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...
Zhang Anda
Zhang Anda (born 25 December 1991) is a Chinese professional snooker player, who made his debut on the Main Tour for the 2009–10 season. He qualified by winning the ACBS Asian Under-21 Championship.
Standing at 5 ft. 3 in. tall, h ...
in the 2010 World Championship Qualifiers, Parrott finished outside the top 64 in the end of season rankings and was not assured a place on the main tour for the 2010–11 season. Later Parrott announced he was to retire from the professional game.
Parrott did however participate in the preliminary qualifying rounds of the 2012 World Snooker Championship, losing 0–5 to Patrick Wallace
Patrick Wallace (born 20 September 1969) is a former professional snooker player from Dungannon in Northern Ireland. During his career, which lasted seventeen years from 1994 to 2011, he won two non-snooker world rankings, ranking titles, and ...
in Round 1.
Television work
Parrott is a studio expert on snooker for BBC Sport
BBC Sport is the sports division of the BBC, providing national sports coverage for BBC television, radio and online. The BBC holds the television and radio UK broadcasting rights to several sports, broadcasting the sport live or alongside flag ...
, often in partnership with Steve Davis
Steve Davis (born 22 August 1957) is an English retired professional snooker player who is currently a commentator, musician, DJ, and author. He is best known for dominating professional snooker during the 1980s, when he reached eight World S ...
; he also delivers many of their playing tutorials and provides guidance for the viewers. From 1996 to 2002, he was one of the team captains on ''A Question of Sport
''Question of Sport'' (previously ''A Question of Sport'') is a British television sports quiz show produced and broadcast by the BBC. It is the "world's longest running TV sports quiz". Following a pilot episode in December 1968, broadcast on ...
'', alongside footballer
A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...
and pundit Ally McCoist
Alistair Murdoch McCoist, (; born 24 September 1962) is a Scottish former footballer who has since worked as a manager and TV pundit.
McCoist began his playing career with Scottish club St Johnstone before moving to English side Sunderland in ...
.
He is also a follower of horse racing
Horse racing is an equestrian performance sport, typically involving two or more horses ridden by jockeys (or sometimes driven without riders) over a set distance for competition. It is one of the most ancient of all sports, as its basic p ...
and has been involved in the BBC's horse racing coverage as part of the presenting team.
Personal life
Parrott is an Everton supporter. He is the brother-in-law of former Everton player Duncan Ferguson.
In 1996, Parrott was honoured with an MBE Mbe may refer to:
* Mbé, a town in the Republic of the Congo
* Mbe Mountains Community Forest, in Nigeria
* Mbe language, a language of Nigeria
* Mbe' language, language of Cameroon
* ''mbe'', ISO 639 code for the extinct Molala language
Molal ...
in the Queen's Birthday Honours
The Birthday Honours, in some Commonwealth realms, mark the reigning British monarch's official birthday by granting various individuals appointment into national or dynastic orders or the award of decorations and medals. The honours are prese ...
list, for charitable services in Merseyside.
In 2008, he launched John Parrott Cue Sports, an online retailer selling snooker and pool cues and some snooker collectables. This was re-branded John Parrott Sports in 2019.
In 2010, it was announced that Parrott was to be the Honorary Patron of the British Crown Green Bowling Association (BCGBA).
Performance and rankings timeline
Career finals
Ranking finals: 18 (9 titles)
Non-ranking finals: 22 (7 titles)
Team finals: 1 (1 title)
Pro-am finals: 3 (2 titles)
Amateur finals: 5 (3 titles)
Notes
References
Further reading
*
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Parrott, John
Members of the Order of the British Empire
1964 births
Living people
British sports broadcasters
Snooker players from Liverpool
Snooker writers and broadcasters
BBC sports presenters and reporters
UK champions (snooker)
Winners of the professional snooker world championship
English snooker players