Earlier this month, following a number of tweets received during the European Tour 3 event as to the identity of the referees involved, I posted seeking information from those out there in order that I could shed some light and learn more about the increasingly familiar faces appearing on our television screens.
Since then I have been contacted by a number of referees who have been happy to tell me a bit more about themselves and you can now read more about them here at my new European Tour referees section here at PSB…
Amongst those who have come back to me so far are German duo Ingo Schmidt and 25-year-old Theo Selbertinger, both of whom took charge of quarter-finals at this year’s German Masters, while you may also have seen Bulgarian duo Desislava Bozhilova and Proletina Velichkova referee matches at the televised stages of ET3 in Sofia recently.
Belgium’s Jan Scheers has been refereeing for officiating for longer than many of Europe’s refs and away from the game has a wide variety of talents and interests, having previously earned the title of Flemish Sudoku champion, as well as having won medals as a sprinter in the past.
As well as being a ref, Poland’s Małgorzata Kanieska has studied space engineering and one days hopes to be able to work in that industry, while Nico De Vos can be found following the fortunes of FC Brugges.
In collating the information for this new section, it has served as a clear reminder to me of just how important a role Eurosport has played in the growth of snooker across Europe, given that many of those above first saw snooker around 2004 and in particular following the creation of the PTC events in 2010, were inspired to begin refereeing careers.
For example the story of Theo Selbertinger, who recounts having explaining the rules of snooker to his friends on the school bus as a youngster, having seen incidents occur on TV in particular made me smile, as it reminds me of the conversations that I used to have ten or 15 years ago (the ‘McManus black’ against Nigel Bond at the Crucible springs to mind).
Snooker is becoming more global by the year and as we see more and more tournaments take place in new countries, the game will always need new referees in order for those event to be possible. Thankfully, there appears to be no shortage of interest and hopefully we will see more and more of these officials in the future.
If anyone else would like to have a profile page here at PSB, please do not hesitate to get in touch.