Barry Hearn (born 1948) is an English sporting events promoter, and the founder and chairman of promotions company Matchroom Sport. He is currently the chairman of Leyton Orient F.C., and the Professional Darts Corporation and was also until July 2010 chairman of the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA). His involvement with the WPBSA continues in that, following a vote by the members (the world's top players) in June 2010, he has taken a directorship and controlling interest in the organisation's commercial arm, World Snooker Limited with a view to revitalising the game.

Through Matchroom, Hearn is also involved in many other sports, including pool, tenpin bowling, golf (see PGA EuroPro Tour) and fishing.

Early life

Hearn was born in Dagenham, East London, and educated at Buckhurst Hill County High School before qualifying as an accountant in 1970. His first business success came buying and selling a chain of snooker halls.

Snooker

He began promoting sporting events in 1974, working with little remembered snooker players Geoff Foulds, father of Neal Foulds, and Vic Harris before becoming manager of Steve Davis, who went on to win the world championship six times, in 1976.

Hearn prospered from the snooker boom of the 1980s when he formed Matchroom with players Davis and Tony Meo. Later Matchroom snooker players include Terry Griffiths, Dennis Taylor, Willie Thorne, Neal Foulds, Jimmy White, Cliff Thorburn and Ronnie O'Sullivan. Hearn appeared alongside many Matchroom players in the video for "Snooker Loopy", a hit for "rockney" pop rock duo Chas & Dave.

Boxing

Hearn moved into boxing in 1987, his first promotion being the Frank Bruno versus Joe Bugner bout at White Hart Lane in October 1987. He has since promoted many leading British and Irish boxers, including Chris Eubank, Nigel Benn, Lennox Lewis, Naseem Hamed, Steve Collins and Herbie Hide.

Hearn withdrew his boxers Herbie Hide and Steve Collins from the High Noon in Hong Kong event at the last minute, scheduled on 22 October 1994, when promoter John Daly could not come up with the purses. Hearn said, "But to be honest I was very pleased with myself in Hong Kong. I stood my ground. How many others would have?"

In April 2008 Hearn introduced the Prizefighter series, a knockout tournament featuring 8 different boxers in a sort of last man standing competition.

Football

Hearn has been chairman of the football league club Leyton Orient since 1995. Prior to Hearn's takeover the club was facing a financial disaster due to the collapse of the then chairman Tony Wood's coffee business in Rwanda at the time of the Rwandan Genocide. Hearn's intervention and financial input assured the club's future. Although Hearn has been successful in stabilising the club financially his tenure has overseen the club's longest run in the bottom division (the fourth tier) of the Football League since its creation (in 1958).

At the culmination of the 2005–06 season Orient earned promotion to the third tier of English league football (League One) this being their first automatic promotion since the 1969–70 season.

Darts

Hearn is the chairman of the Professional Darts Corporation, one of darts' two governing bodies, the sport having been split since the world's leading players left the British Darts Organisation in 1992. He has made several attempts to buy out the rival body, which would reunify the game, but has been unsuccessful.

References

External links

Matchroom Sport

December 2005 BBC article about Hearn and Leyton Orient

SportAndTechnology.com interview

Category:English football chairmen and investors Category:Leyton Orient F.C. Category:British sports agents Category:British sports businesspeople Category:Darts non-player personalities Category:English businesspeople Category:Snooker coaches, managers and promoters Category:1949 births Category:Living people

de:Barry Hearn ru:Хирн, Барри

Coordinates	55°45′06″N37°37′04″N
Name	Clive Everton
Birth date	December 07, 1937
sport country	Welsh
professional	1981–
high ranking	48 1983/84)
best finish	First Round(UK Championship 1981)
world champ	}}

Clive Everton (born 7 September 1937), is a Welsh veteran BBC snooker commentator, journalist and author. He began his BBC career on the radio, but has been commentating on the television from the 1978 World Championship through to the present. He also commentates for Sky Sports on the Premier League Snooker tournament.

Biography

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.

Unlike snooker, billiards has never generated sustainable professional incomes for players, and Everton has enjoyed a varied career as a result. 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. He also played county-level tennis for Worcestershire for 13 years, and has managed Jonah Barrington, the former world number 1 squash player.

However, it is as a snooker commentator that Everton is best known to millions of UK fans who watch the BBC's coverage of the sport. During the hey-day of the game in the 1980s, he emerged as one of the top three commentators, alongside Jack Karnehm and the famous 'whispering' Ted Lowe. For many, he has become the 'voice of snooker' – particularly since the retirement of Lowe in the 1990s.

Everton's style always tended towards the dry and technical, as opposed to the more informal, conversational approach of his two senior colleagues and the various 'player-commentators' of today. His analytical mind, combined with his clear love of the game and the many hours of dedicated research he has put in over the years, have given him an encyclopaedic knowledge of the game and the ability to recite relevant facts and statistics, scorelines, and breaks of ancient matches etc., which he does frequently in commentary. He also tends towards the use of very formal English, often using words that would not find a place in everyday conversation. Hence, 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"

Unlike most of the snooker commentators and 'summarisers,' Everton always refers to snooker players by their surnames. Any impression of distance implied by this is misleading, however. He is extremely well liked and respected as a father figure by most of the top professionals in the game.

A consummate professional, Everton – like all commentators – has nevertheless suffered inevitable embarrassments in the commentary box. One example is when he fell from his chair whilst covering a match with Dennis Taylor. The pair were unable to continue commentary for some moments whilst they contained their laughter.

During the BBC's coverage of the 2007 World Snooker Final, it was reported by Hazel Irvine that Everton "took a tumble" after the second session, and fractured his hip, missing the final sessions of the championship between John Higgins and Mark Selby. After Steve Davis joked that this was due to his penchant for skateboarding, Everton later reported that he slipped while getting out of the shower.

In September 2007 he published his autobiography, ''Black Farce and Cueball Wizards: The Inside Story of the Snooker World'' (Mainstream Publishing ISBN 9781845961992).

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

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

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 tournament, and wasn't heard at all during the Wembley Masters. He commentated on days 1–4 of the 2010 World Snooker Championship and was heard again on day six, but that was to be his final commentary work of the tournament, and is likely to be the last work he does for the BBC.however he did commentate a few matches in the 2011 world championships He does, however, continue to be heard frequently on Sky Sports' coverage of the Premier League, and, in October 2009, joined Eurosport as a commentator for their World Series events (which ended after 2009), as well as covering three cushion billiards tournaments. He was previously heard on Eurosport and Screensport in the 1990s on occasions. He also commentates on the Championship League, which is streamed to a number of betting websites, and is also screened in betting shops around the country. In October 2010, he joined ITV's commentary team for Power Snooker.

Tournament wins

English Billiards

Amateur

Welsh Amateur Billiards Championship; 1960, 1972, 1973, 1976,1999

National (UK) Pairs Champion; 1977 (with Roger Bales)

Bibliography

Notes and references

External links

Profile on Pro Snooker Blog

Profile on BBC Sport

BBC Berkshire: Clive Everton returns to the commentary box

Category:1937 births Category:Living people Category:Old Vigornians Category:British sports broadcasters Category:Snooker writers and broadcasters Category:Welsh players of English billiards Category:Welsh snooker players

ru:Эвертон, Клайв