Joe Johnson (snooker player)

Joe Johnson (snooker player)
Joe Johnson (born 29 July 1952) is an English former professional snooker player and regular snooker commentator for Eurosport. As an amateur player, he became the British Under-19 champion in 1971, defeating Tony Knowles in the final. After reaching the finals of the 1978 English Amateur Championship (losing to Terry Griffiths) and the 1978 World Amateur Championship (losing to Cliff Wilson), he turned professional in 1979. He reached his first ranking final at the 1983 Professional Players Tournament, losing to Knowles, and reached the semi-finals of the 1985 Classic, losing to Cliff Thorburn.
Johnson began the 1986 World Snooker Championship as a 150–1 outsider, having lost in the first round on both his previous Crucible appearances. He defeated Griffiths 13–12 in the quarter-finals, Knowles 16–8 in the semi-finals, and Steve Davis 18–12 in the final to win his only world title and the only ranking title of his career. The following year, he defeated Stephen Hendry 13–12 in the quarterfinals and Neal Foulds 16–9 in the semi-finals to reach the final of the 1987 World Championship, but lost 14–18 to Davis. Johnson won only one match at the final stages of the World Championship thereafter, defeating Wilson in the first round of the 1988 event.
Johnson's best performances in the other Triple Crown events were reaching the semi-finals of the 1987 UK Championship, losing 4–9 to Jimmy White, and the semi-finals of the 1988 Masters, losing 3–6 to Davis. He dropped out of the top 16 after the 1989–90 snooker season and made his last Crucible appearance in 1991, losing in the first round to Dennis Taylor. He continued on the professional tour until 2005, when he retired at age 53 after suffering a broken ankle. He later competed on the World Seniors Tour, where he won the 2019 Seniors Masters.
Early life and amateur career
Joe Johnson was born on 29 July 1952, in Bradford, England. His mother was named Margaret, and his biological father was engineer Malik Farooq. The pair separated when Johnson was two years old. When Johnson was four, his mother married Ken Johnson, who later taught him snooker. Johnson was the National Under-19 Champion in 1971 and a three-time Yorkshire Champion. In 1978, he set the record for the highest by an amateur player, recording a 140 break at the Middlesbrough TUC Club.
He was runner-up to Terry Griffiths in the English Amateur Championship of 1978 and was England's representative at the 1978 World Amateur Snooker Championship in Malta. Johnson reached the final, where he was defeated 11–5 by Cliff Wilson. They finished their first session level at five each, then Wilson won the next six frames to secure victory. Johnson made the highest break of the tournament, 101. He was accepted as a professional by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association in 1979, as were Wilson, Tony Meo and Mike Hallett. Before taking up snooker professionally, Johnson worked as an apprentice motor mechanic and later as a gas fitter.
Professional career
Early years
Johnson achieved little success in his early years as a professional player, and developed a reputation for not performing well in televised matches. At the 1979 Canadian Open, Johnson defeated Steve Baruda 5–4 after making a 100-break in the first frame. In the next round, Johnson eliminated John Bear 9–7; he then lost 2–9 in the last 16 to Kirk Stevens. He won the billiards title that ran alongside the snooker competition by defeating Ian Williamson 500–284 in the final.
Johnson lost his opening match at the 1979 UK Championship to Bill Werbeniuk by 9 frames to 3. At the 1980 World Snooker Championship Johnson eliminated Roy Andrewartha 9–5 in the first qualifying round, but lost his next match 6–9 to Pat Houlihan. At the 1980 UK Championship he defeated John Dunning 9–6 before losing 9–4 in the next round to Patsy Fagan. The 1981 English Professional Championship saw Johnson eliminate Knowles with a 9–2 win in the first round, then receive a walkover against John Pulman to progress to the quarterfinals, where he lost 5–9 to Ray Edmonds. At the 1981 World Championship Johnson took a 4–3 lead against Meo after the first session, but lost in the .
In the 1981–82 snooker season, Johnson progressed through several rounds at the 1981 Jameson international. He defeated Jim Donnelly 5–4 and Murdo MacLeod 5–1 and then received a walkover against Pulman. He next eliminated Jim Wych 5–2, which was the most significant win of his professional career up to that point, but lost in the last-24 round, 3–5 to Graham Miles.
Johnson began the 1981 UK Championship with a 9–1 win over Tommy Murphy. This was followed by a 9–3 defeat of Mike Watterson and a 9–4 win over Wilson. In the next round, Johnson eliminated the former three-time world champion John Spencer 9–5 and this earned Johnson a last-16 tie against another former world champion, Ray Reardon, to whom Johnson lost 7–9. In the qualifying rounds of the 1982 World Championship Johnson defeated Vic Harris 9–4 and reached the last 48, where he lost 8–9 to Hallett.
1982–85 – Ranking event finalist
After receiving a walkover against John Phillips, Johnson faced Wilson in the qualifying competition for the 1982 Jameson International. Despite taking a 4–2 lead, Johnson lost 4–5. Johnson won his first ranking points at the 1982 Professional Players Tournament. He began with a 5–1 win against Miles, followed by a 5–1 win against sixth-ranked Stevens and a 5–4 last-16 win over Mark Wildman. In the quarterfinal, Johnson won the first frame against John Virgo, but was defeated 1–5. As one of the six players, outside of the top eight in the rankings, that progressed furthest in the tournament, Johnson was awarded a place at the 1983 Masters. Johnson lost his opening match at the Masters, to Cliff Thorburn. In the qualifying event for the 1983 World Championship, Johnson recorded a 10–0 whitewash over Paul Watchorn in the first round, but then lost 8–9 to Wilson and thus failed to reach the main event.
Johnson's points from the previous season saw him ranked 23rd in the world. In the last 48 of the 1983 International Open Johnson beat Dennis Hughes 5–1 and then lost 2–5 to Eddie Charlton in the last 32. Johnson began the untelevised 1983 Professional Players Tournament with a 5–3 win over Pascal Burke. In the last-32, Johnson defeated Jimmy White 5–3 to set up another match against Charlton, which this time Johnson won 5–0. In the quarter-final Johnson eliminated Thorburn 5–1 and in the semi-finals, he defeated Meo 9–6 to reach his first major final, against Knowles. Having been 1–6 down to Knowles, Johnson compiled the highest break of the tournament, 135, as he eventually levelled the match at 8–8, before Knowles secured the deciding frame.
At the 1983 UK Championship Johnson reached the quarter-finals, by eliminating Matt Gibson and Virgo both by 9–6 and then David Taylor 9–3. The quarter-final against Griffiths was Johnson's first televised match as a professional. He lost the first seven frames, and the match 2–9. In the qualifying for the 1984 World Championship, Johnson won his encounter with Matt Gibson 10–3 to earn his debut at the Crucible stage, where he was defeated 1–10 by Dennis Taylor.
Johnson started the 1984–85 snooker season ranked 19th. At the 1984 Costa Del Sol Classic Johnson started with a quarterfinal win over Mick Fisher and then lost 3–2 in the semi-final to Dennis Taylor. He lost to Dennis Taylor again at the 1984 International Open. Johnson eliminated Mario Morra 5–0 and Eddie Charlton 5–1 in the last 32 before losing again to Dennis Taylor, this time 2–5 in the last 16. In the following ranking event, the 1984 Grand Prix Johnson defeated Paul Medati 5–1 but then lost 4–5 to Williamson in the last 32. At the 1984 UK Championship Johnson defeated John Rea 9–6 and Spencer by the same scoreline in the last 32, before a 2–0 defeat by Stevens in the last 16. At the 1985 Mercantile Credit Classic, Johnson defeated Edmonds and Knowles to reach the last 16. He then whitewashed Wilson and achieved his first win in a televised match, although each frame was won by a narrow margin. A 5–3 victory against Warren King took him into the semi-finals. According to Janice Hale of The Daily Telegraph, Johnson "failed to reproduce any of the fighting form which he displayed in the final of last season's Professional Players Tournament" as he lost 2–9 to Thorburn.
Johnson qualified for the main stage of the 1985 World Snooker Championship again, by defeating Geoff Foulds 10–6. In the first round, he played Werbeniuk, who had not won a match all season, but who made a 143 break in the tenth frame – the third-highest break ever recorded at the championship at that time – and won 10–8.
1985–86 season – World Champion
Johnson began the season inside the top 16 for the first time in his career, at 16th. Going into the 1986 World Championship, Johnson was relatively unheralded, especially as he had never won a televised match until the previous year. He had also never won a match at the Crucible Theatre, and was rated a 150–1 outsider. His best results during the season had been quarter-final finishes at the 1985 Matchroom Trophy, where he lost 3–5 to Neal Foulds, and at the 1986 Mercantile Credit Classic where he lost 4–5 to Thorburn.
He defeated Dave Martin 10–3 in the first round, recording his first win in three main World Championship appearances. In the second round, he took a 5–3 lead against Hallett after the first session and went on to win 13–6. He met former champion Griffiths in the quarter-finals. Johnson led 9–7 going into the final session, but Griffiths then won five straight frames to lead 12–9 before Johnson won four straight frames himself, including two century breaks to win 13–12. Despite having taken painkillers for a cyst on his back before the start of play, he eliminated Knowles, taking the last two frames of the final session to complete a 16–8 victory.
In the final he met world number one Steve Davis; the two players had never previously played a professional match against each other. Davis was considered much more likely to win the final, reflected in the bookmakers' odds of 2/9 for Davis and 5/1 for Johnson. Davis took a 3–1 lead, during which he made breaks of 108 and 107. Johnson then took the next three frames to finish the first session 4–3 ahead. Davis started the second session by winning four frames in succession to put himself 7–4 ahead. After the next mid-session interval, Johnson won four consecutive frames, before Davis clinched the last frame to leave the match level at 8–8 overnight.
On the second day, Johnson wore an unusual pair of red, pink, and white leather shoes. On resuming the match, he won another run of four frames to take him into a 12–8 lead. Gordon Burn later wrote that "From the beginning of the third session he played an open game full of flair and daring and the length-of-the-table, long-potting which had been so characteristic of Steve Davis in the days when he was still making his name." The session ended with Johnson 13–11 ahead. In the final session, the crowd appeared to favour Johnson, who had played with an attacking style throughout the tournament. He won three of the next four frames to lead 16–12 before the mid-session interval. He than added frame 29, and compiled a break of 64 in frame 30 to win the match 18–12. The win helped lift him from 16th place in the 1985–86 professional rankings to eighth for 1986–87.
He wore a T-shirt with the slogan "Bradford's Bouncing Back" (a reference to the Bradford City stadium fire a year earlier) when he was not playing during the tournament. Johnson's win led to an appearance on television show Wogan, as well as him accompanying pop star Cliff Richard to watch Wimbledon.
Post World Championship win
Johnson had a poor season in terms of results as world champion, and lost before the televised stage in every major tournament except one before the 1987 World Snooker Championship. By his own admission, he arrived at the Crucible for the tournament hoping merely to progress past the first round. However, he defied expectations and reached the final again. In the first round, he narrowly defeated Eugene Hughes in a match that went to the deciding frame. He followed this with a 13–7 win against MacLeod, then defeated the teenaged Stephen Hendry 13–12 in the quarter-finals. In the semi-final he won 16–9 against Neal Foulds. Once again his opponent in the final was Davis, but this time Johnson was defeated.
Johnson took a 4–3 lead in the first session, but was 7–9 behind after session two. Davis increased his advantage to 14–9, but Johnson took the last frame of the third session, and then the first three frames of the concluding session, to be a single frame behind at 13–14. After Johnson had a bad miss attempting a long pot early in frame 28, Davis took that frame and the next two, and went on to achieve victory at 18–14. Davis commented, "For Joe to come to the Crucible and play as if he hadn't had the season he has was tremendous, really." Johnson praised Davis, as he had after the 1986 final, and said of his own year as champion, "It only seemed five minutes when I walked out to play Steve again in the final, but with all the personal appearances it just seemed to go on and on."
He reached fifth place in the world rankings in the 1987–88 rankings, based on results from the two preceding seasons, largely as a result of his performances at the Crucible. Johnson was runner-up to Dennis Taylor in the four-player 1987 Carling Challenge, and won the 1987 Scottish Masters, overcoming Griffiths 9–7 in the final to take his only other major professional snooker title. He reached the semi-finals of the 1987 UK Championship, where he came close to making a 147 maximum break against White, but missed the pink on 134, and went on to lose the match 4–9. Later that season, he also reached the semi-finals of the 1988 Masters, where he lost 3–6 to Davis after eliminating Willie Thorne and White. He defeated Wilson 10–7 in the first round of the 1988 World Championship, and recovered from 3–11 to 9–11 against Steve James, but lost after James won the next two frames.
Having dropped six places, to 11th, in the 1988–89 snooker season, Johnson's best showing in a ranking tournament was reaching the quarter-finals of the 1988 Fidelity International Open. He lost 5–10 to Meo in the first round of the 1989 World Championship. In 1989–90, Johnson was runner-up to Thorne in the invitational 1989 New Zealand Masters. His best ranking tournament performance was at the 1989 Rothmans Grand Prix, when he whitewashed White in a run to the quarter-finals. He won the invitational 1989 Norwich Union Grand Prix by defeating Hendry 5–3 in the final. He lost 8–10 to Darren Morgan in the opening round of the 1990 World Championship.
Later career
Johnson started the 1990–91 season outside of the top 16 after five years in that group, ranked 18th. He failed to progress as far as the quarter-finals in any ranking event that season. He won a four-player round-robin event, the 1991 Nescafe Extra Challenge, winning all three of his matches, against Tony Drago, James Wattana and Alain Robidoux. Johnson qualified for his last appearance at the Crucible, the 1991 World Championship, where he lost 6–10 to Dennis Taylor in the first round. Johnson suffered heart and eye problems during the 1990s, although he continued to play in qualifying events.
He reached the quarter-finals of the 1991 Grand Prix, when he defeated King in the last 64, Tony Jones in the last 32 and Hallett in the last 16 to set up the quarter final against Nigel Bond where he lost 3–5. He was runner-up to Hendry in the invitational 1992 European Challenge. Johnson narrowly missed out on qualifying for the 1992 World Championship after he lost 9–10 to Mick Price on the in the deciding frame.
Needing to win one match to qualify for the 1993 World Championship, Johnson lost 10–6 to Karl Payne in the last 48. He won only one qualifying match at the World Championship in his next five attempts, 10–5 against Matthew Crouch in 1995 World Championship. He did not reach as far as the last 48 of the World Championship again after 1993, although he did win three matches in 2003. Johnson broke his ankle after falling at home before the start of the 2003–04 season, and did not compete in any events until the 2004 World Championship in February 2004. He conceded at 0–9 behind to Ian Preece in their best-of-19 frame match. Later that month, he played his last match as a professional, in the qualifying rounds of the 2004 Players Championship where he lost to 3–5 to Stuart Mann. He retired in 2005, when, aged 53, he was the oldest player on the professional snooker circuit.
Seniors events
Johnson won the Seniors Pot Black Trophy in 1997. He played in the 2000 World Seniors Masters, a one-frame format event, and lost in the first round to eventual champion Thorne. He promoted the revival of the World Seniors Championship in 2010, and lost 0–2 to Davis in his opening match. In April 2019 he won the World Seniors Masters, with all three of his matches determined on a (which was used to determine the winner if each player won one of two frames). As of 2023, he continues to play in senior events.
Legacy
Clive Everton, in his 2012 book, described how in 1986, Johnson "produced an unstoppable urge of inspiration", but "never sustained such form before and never sustained it again", and then found the pressures of fame from being World Champion hard to cope with, at the same time as he was being poorly served by his manager. Snooker journalist Hector Nunns wrote in 2017 that "it will be for his shot-making, his shoes, his extra-curricular singing, and his sheer joie de vivre in the match that defined his career that Johnson will always be remembered". In their book about world champions, Luke Williams and Paul Gadsby suggested that "His attacking style and ability to crash in long pots...prefigured the tactical approach that would dominate snooker from the 1990s into the new millennium."
Outside snooker
Johnson was the subject of This is Your Life, and a guest on the celebrity sports quiz A Question of Sport, in 1986. In April 1987, BBC1 broadcast a 30-minute profile of Johnson, called An Ordinary Joe, focusing on his year since his world championship victory. He made several appearances on the snooker-themed game show Big Break between 1991 and 2001. Johnson was interviewed for an episode of the Radio 5 show Time of My Life in 1998, and a featured as guest on the TV quiz show Celebrity Eggheads in 2012.
Johnson sang in the Preston-based band Made in Japan. In October 1986, the group released a cover of "Everlasting Love". Johnson coached Shaun Murphy, and was an early influence on the late snooker player Paul Hunter. Johnson has established himself as a regular commentator for Eurosport. In December 2013 John Higgins was quoted as saying in reference to Johnson: "I heard before the 2013 UK Championship Joe Johnson was slating me. If that guy isn't the worst commentator in the world, he's in the top three".
Johnson owned a snooker club called Cue Gardens in Bradford and ran a coaching academy with Richard Harrison. Johnson is married to Terryl and has seven children. By 2017, he had survived seven heart attacks.
Performance and rankings timeline
Career finals
Ranking finals: 3 (1 title)
Non-ranking finals: 8 (5 titles)
Pro-am finals: 1 (1 title)
Amateur finals: 3 (1 title)
Notes
References
Citations
Bibliography
External links
1952 births
Living people
Sportspeople from Bradford
English snooker players
Winners of the professional snooker world championship