| Despite severe eyesight
problems, Cliff Wilson was on of the game’s outstanding
potters and one of its truly great characters. He was one of
the fastest players round the table anyone had seen until a
certain Alex Higgins appeared on the scene. He is unique in
that his career was split into two with a fifteen year gap in
between.
Cliff grew up in the same town, Tredegar, as six times world
champion, Ray Reardon and they were great friends and rivals
in their amateur days. Their matches always drew big crowds
but it was Ray who usually came off best especially in the
Welsh amateur championship bur Cliff usually got the better
of him in the English event. At 17 he was runner-up to Rex
Williams in the national under-19 championship and won that
title the next two years, 1952 and 1953.
His fast potting style and ready wit made him a crowd favourite
and his visits to London were eagerly anticipated. After Reardon
had mover away to Stoke, Cliff managed to win the Welsh Amateur
in 1956 but by then snooker was at an all time low. The world
championship had been suspended and there was no future for
him as a pro. Cliff became disillusioned with the game having
lost his father and without his old mate and rival Reardon.
After playing a few more matches he packed up the game completely
and concentrated on his job in the steel works. He would not
pick up a cue in anger for fifteen years.
In 1972 a friend asked him to help out by turning out for
the works team in the local league. Snooker was beginning
to regain some popularity. The enthusiasm he had for the game
came back. The skill had never gone but his eyesight had deteriorated.
His left eye was now virtually useless and he ever tried playing
with a patch over it. He took to spectacles but long sight
in one eye and short in the other gave the opticians a few
head aches. Nevertheless he soon gained international caps
and, in 1977, regained the Welsh Amateur title he had previously
held 21 years. This qualified him for the 1978 World Amateur
event in Malta where he won all eight of this group games.
After a difficult quarter final against Joe Grech, the local
favourite, which he won despite the crowds efforts to put
him off, he went on to lift the title beating Joe Johnson
in the final. He took the Welsh title again in 1979 and then,
at the age of 45, turned professional.
In his first four seasons in the paid ranks he managed to
qualify for the Crucible each time but never progressed beyond
the first round. He did reach the Welsh Professional final
in 1981, losing out to who else but Ray Reardon. However a
quarter final in the 1982 Jameson International helped him
to reach a ranking of 20th by the end of the 82/83 season.
Consistent if unspectacular results kept him just outside
the top 16 for the next four seasons. He never got beyond
the quarter-final of a ranking event in his entire career.
He did finally make the breakthrough into the elite in 1988/89
but it only lasted for one season. In the meantime he reached
the Welsh Professional final again in 1984 where this time
it was Doug Mountjoy who proved just too good. He began a
slow slide down the rankings but in 1991 had his biggest pay
cheque of £16,000 when he took his only title as a professional
beating Eddie Charlton to win The World Seniors Championship.
This event has not been held since so he is the only winner
so far.
Everyone loved him and everyone has there favourite Cliff
Wilson stories. He was never particularly ambitious and his
lack of real success on the tour never worried him as he could
always earn a good living on the exhibition circuit. His slogan
"You’ve never see anything like it" certainly
drew in the crowds and anyone who ever saw one of his shows
would confirm that this was no idle boast.
He was never a fit man but he enjoyed life to the full. Apart
from his eyes he had problems with his back, his knee and
his heart. Finally he developed an inoperable disease of the
liver and pancreas from which he died in June 1994. Right
up until his final season he could give the young players
a run for their money and in the 1992 UK championship he put
out Ronnie O’Sullivan before giving Stephen Hendry a
good game.
Cliff was a one-off. Had he not dropped out of the game for
so long there is no telling what he might have done but he
would still have been at his peak, like many others, when
professional snooker was at its lowest ebb. If he had been
born 20 years later it might have been a different story.
If he could pot like that with one eye how good would he have
been with two. Sadly we shall never know
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