Introduction

Ben Williams is a professional snooker referee from Bolton, England. Before he decided to become a professional snooker referee, Williams was a postman, driving instructor and bus driver. Williams became involved with security and refereeing full time with World Snooker Time in 2013 after raising up the local ranks.

Ben oversaw his first maximum break in his career in 2011, which was Ding Junhui’s 4th 147 of his career. His first televised final came at the 2016 World Seniors Championship when Mark Davis beat Darren Morgan 2-1 to lift the title. His maiden ranking final came at the 2017 Riga Masters when Ryan Day defeated Stephen Maguire 5-2 to lift his first ranking title. Williams later made his Crucible debut in the 2018 World Championship, officiating two opening matches between Marco Fu vs. Lyu Haotian and Neil Robertson vs. Robert Milkins. He took charge of his second ranking event final at the 2018 English Open in Crawley, when Stuart Bingham beat Mark Davis 9-7.

Williams has been lucky enough to be in the centre of some light-hearted moments over the past few years. This includes being stung while removing a wasp during a match in the 2020 Masters and clarifying the rules with Ronnie O’Sullivan in the 2021 World Grand Prix. O’Sullivan jokingly accused a red-faced Williams of farting during his match in the 2020 Northern Ireland Open.

Aside from the funnies, Williams took charge of his third ranking final, witnessing Jordan Brown’s shock 9-8 victory over Ronnie O’Sullivan in the 2021 Welsh Open. Williams refereed four matches during the 2021 World Snooker Championship at the Crucible, including the epic semi-final battle between Mark Selby and Stuart Bingham.

Away from snooker, Ben’s main hobbies are spending time with his family and supporting Juventus FC, after watching a match between Roma and Juventus back in 2012, and Leeds United. He also hates spiders, so that’s lovely.

Anyways, here is an interview we compiled together. Enjoy!

Interview – Ben Williams

Raising Through The Ranks

CoR: What players were you a fan of before becoming a referee?

Ben Williams: As a kid growing up, I was always a massive fan of Jimmy White. I always loved his attacking style of play. As I got older, I got the bigger picture and enjoyed the safety side too. But now obviously, I can’t have favourites as I would never be biased!

CoR: Why did you decide to become a snooker referee in the first place?

Ben Williams: I decided to become a referee to build my knowledge up of the game. I initially wanted to do some reffing locally and I had no plans to become a professional referee.

I was a postman in Castleford before being a driving instructor then bus driver, I did all this as I was improving as a referee, but then after a stroke in 2013, I went full time with WST doing security as well as refereeing.

CoR: Can you talk me through the process from the start to being a fully qualified referee for the professional tour?

Ben Williams: I had 2 seated sessions with an examiner each being about 3 hours long where we went from start to finish of the rule book explaining everything in there. Then we had a third session where we took part in an exam at the table going through different scenarios to make sure we understood the rules. Finally, we become a Class 3 referee!

The process for me was completely different to what it is now. It’s been completely revamped to bring out higher quality referees in the future. But I know that there are a lot of top-class referees out there on the brink of breaking through to the elite.

Career Reflections

CoR: What was the experience of refereeing your first ranking final like?

Ben Williams: My first ranking final was incredible. It was the Riga Masters between Ryan Day and Stephen Maguire. I loved the city, the venue and the people. I got an amazing buzz from refereeing there.

That had one of the many things I love while being a referee. I love the buzz of a full crowd and heading out there never knowing what’s going to happen. It’s always amazing.

CoR: Possibly the fans’ most memorable moment of you was getting stung by a wasp in the 2020 Masters. Were you surprised that had more coverage than it did?

Ben Williams: Yes, the wasp incident did surprise me a lot – I couldn’t believe it actually went worldwide! But it’s still a funny thing to look back on.

I promise you this: I’ll never attempt to pick one up again!

CoR: What are the best moments in your refereeing career?

Ben Williams: I’ve got a lot of amazing moments for me, but I think refereeing this year’s World semi-final between Mark Selby and Stuart Bingham was the highlight of my career. To walk out at the Crucible in the one table set up in front of a crowd was amazing beyond belief.

I loved every second and being so focused on the game, but it’s hard to remember much about it. Towards the end of the match, you can feel the pressure building but you have to accept that these guys are playing for the biggest thing in their sport.

Secrets Within The Gang

CoR: What is camaraderie like among referees?

Ben Williams: The camaraderie between the referees is amazing. As you know we spend a lot of time away from home and those are the worst moments for me as a referee. We do everything together – we eat and drink together. It is like being in a second family.

CoR: What sort of skills do you think are paramount to becoming the perfect snooker referee?

Ben Williams: Well, let’s get one thing straight. Nobody’s perfect. We all have our own traits we bring to the game. But I think concentration is always key to being a good referee.

CoR: What is your biggest goal in this refereeing career?

Ben Williams: My biggest goal now is to referee the World Final. I never thought I’d get even close to refereeing there but having done the semi-final this year that now had to be my target.

Acknowledgments

Many thanks go to Ben Williams for taking his time out to be interviewed by me.

I take no credit for the photos used in this interview. WST are the owners of the following photographic material: Image 1, Image 2 and Image 3 respectively. I obtained the last image from the Twitter account of Bozena Kucharska.

All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of content is expressly prohibited without the written consent of the author (Cluster of Reds Snooker Blog).