It is an emotional day for Paul Collier as he referees a professional match for the final time in his fourth and last World Snooker Championship final.
The 53-year-old is retiring from refereeing duty to concentrate on his role as tournament director for World Snooker Tour, going out in style at the Crucible.
The Welshman is taking charge of the final in Sheffield between Kyren Wilson and Jak Jones and is set to receive a brilliant ovation as he removes his white gloves for the last time.
Speaking ahead of the final, Collier told the BBC: ‘It’s going to be emotional, hopefully I can keep it all under control until the match is over. It’s going to be sad to know that I’m not going to walk out there again with a pair of gloves on.’
Collier started young, refereeing on the pro circuit for 32 years and he has worked with multiple generations of legends on the baize.
‘I’ve had a great time but it feels like forever ago that I first started,’ he said. ‘I reffed for Ray [Reardon] and Cliff [Wilson] quite a few times. I reffed Eddie Charlton’s last match as a pro, reffed [Stephen] Hendry’s last match at the Crucible, refereed for Alex [Higgins] on many occasions. We weren’t the best of friends because he wasn’t a fan of referees, but I worked with him quite often.
‘My career goes back that far I refereed Fred Davis in a ranking event, so there’s been some great names and great people I’ve been lucky enough to meet.’
With more than one pearl of wisdom to hand out to aspiring referees, Collier says the best thing for officials to remember is that they are best going unnoticed and not trying to make their mark on any match.
‘The greatest compliment is when someone doesn’t know you refereed that match,’ he said. ‘There’s people who want to referee snooker matches and there’s people who want to be in charge of snooker matches. The people that want to referee will always do better.’
Collier is going out with the final in Sheffield, but also reffed the most memorable match of the tournament as John Higgins produced an immense clearance to beat Mark Allen 13-12 on the black.
‘The John Higgins game in this Championship, when he beat Mark Allen, my legs were jelly on the colours,’ he said. ‘I don’t know how the players can stand there and keep on potting balls under that kind of pressure.’
It is just one of many highlights of an epic career, including the 2004, ’16 and ’21 Crucible finals, and he is thrilled with the CV he has put together.
‘To be out there with some of these great matches and great players, I don’t take it for granted, I’ve loved it, absolutely loved it,’ he said. ‘There’s a lot of boxes that you want to tick over a long career and I’ve ticked everyone, which is brilliant, so I leave without any regrets.
‘I’ve always said if someone writes a history book on snooker, as long as I got one line somewhere. “Paul Collier put 32 years in and didn’t do a bad job.” That would be nice.’
MORE : Jak Jones baffled by ‘pathetic excuses’ of World Snooker Championship opponents
MORE : Ronnie O’Sullivan lists changes he wants to see made to the Crucible
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