Tom Terry: Hello Mark. Thanks for agreeing to have a chat about yourself and about the game. Where were you born?

Mark Wildman. Peterborough

Big family, many of you?

I was one of seven children. There were four sisters and three brothers.

Were there any sporting connections in your family?

Yes. they were all sportingly inclined. My eldest sister was a county and East of England hockey player, and my youngest brother was very good at many sports. I played a lot of different games myself and for a short time I was also a county hockey player.

So yon were keen on sport. Where did you start billiard playing?

I started at the old Unionist Club. They died out and I then played at the local billiard hall, and I had a small table at home. My father played, he had a highest break of 164.

Did you learn from your father, who were your models as a young player?

My father taught me the some of the basics, you know, the 3-6-9 positions, things like that, but I graduated, if that is the right word, through John Barrie. He was from Wisbech, 22 miles away, and I used to travel on the old steam trains, the old M and GN line on Saturday morning and come back in the evening.

Did you play with him or just go to watch him?

In the end I used to play with him but in the initial stages he used to teach me. I had ten lessons that my father paid for, I remember he paid £33.

It must have been well worth it for you at the time.

Well, Barrie was a great top-of-the-table player, in fact he was a phenomenal top end player, one of the best I've ever seen. He would have ranked with the great players of the thirties in terms of sheer ability at the top. Yet, you know, even when I was eighteen, I used to watch him at the top and I always seemed to end up playing the red ball. Funny thing, playing at the spot-end seemed to come all at once. It was as if it had been latent in me and just waiting to come out. I made a break of 375 at Burroughes and Watts, London, which beat my previous best by well over a hundred, and it was all at the top, and I'd never made a real top-of-the-table break before in my life. And then, blow me, I made a 367 all at the top in my very next match which was against Clive Everton.

How old were you then?

About twenty.

It was before that, I've been checking in the records, when you had your first real successes, I suppose they were your first successes, and it was in '52/53, and '54, when you won the boys billiards, and the British junior Championship. Do you remember much about those games?

Yes. At Burroughes and Watts. Frank Collins was the referee, he was a famous referee, in his eighties when he refereed my games. I remember both of the players I beat in the junior. They both disappeared from the scene and one of them, Emlyn Parry, tragically died quite young. The other, John Burgess, I never saw him again.

You were also successful about that time in the Boys, and Junior, Snooker tournaments. But I'm more interested in your billiards career. How did it develop after those years? You don't seem to appear in the records again until 1968 when you actually won the English Championship. What happened between when you were about 18 and when yon started to show in the Amateur?

Well, I had to work for a living and I had to do National Service, but I did play a lot of snooker and as a matter of fact I was the first player to make a snooker century on TV. I didn't go back to billiards until the late '60s. I hadn't any illusions about billiards, I hadn't played very much, but oddly enough it came back to me very quickly. In '68 I won the championship and I played in the world championship as well.

That's right

Then, do you know, I left it alone again, and it wasn't until 78 or 79 that I started playing seriously again. I went to New Zealand. I lost to Michael Ferreira in the final of the World Open.

I see. So you had two longish periods, the late '50s and then the early '70s when you played very little billiards. At that time the star players would be Dagley, just coming into prominence, and Driffield, of course, was still around.

Yes. I think that if I had kept on playing billiards I'd have a lot more pedigree. But I really did give the game up for long periods, mainly to play snooker, but to further my career, and of course to help bring up the family that we had.

I see. but you did play in the world amateur in '69 - the year Karnehm won - and finished 6th. I'm sure you'll remember that. Won by Jack Karnehm from arguably the strongest field ever.

Do you know, I would have finished second if I'd won my last game, I finished joint third but they put me sixth on points scored. It was a great championship. We had Ferreira playing at his best, we had Satish Mohan, we had Lafir, Karnehm, Mifsud. Mifsud's highest break was about 150 before he played in that. Another good player, the chap from Wales?

Roy Oriel

That's right, Oriel. What a red ball basher he was, he never missed.

Yes, and one name you've not mentioned, the most famous of the lot, Bob Marshall.

Oh yes. I had a great game with Robert. As a matter of fact I beat him and was I proud of that I can tell you. Jack Karnehm had the tournament of his life I reckon, he wasn't among the favourites you know.

Yes, he certainly did do well. Tell me Mark, what sort of breaks were you making at that time. What was your highest?

My highest, let's see. I'd made a 427 in the English and beat Nolan. I used to make a lot of 100s and 200s and I was into the 400s, but I didn't make many 500s. My best in competition is 497 in the UK against Rex Williams. My best in practice is 764.

When did you turn Pro? I turned pro in 1980.

There was quite a gap then between that world amateur and your turning professional, though you had played in a world open in New Zealand losing to Michael Ferreira in the final.

Yes, but as I've said, I had a lot of other interests. I didn't devote all my time to billiards and snooker and perhaps as a consequence of this I've always found concentration difficult. I can at times play absolutely awful. But I thought I would have a go at the professional game.

But since you turned pro you have had your successes. You've had the UK and the World Professional titles.

Yes. I had a 500 against, Bernard Bennett, I think, in the world, you could check that, and I remember a great game with Rex Williams. In my very first pro tournament I was runner up in the world. That game with Williams, it was 1500 up and he had a 530 odd and another big one and got about 800 in front, but I still reckoned I could win and I did. That was about my best ever performance.

Now Mark, you've just mentioned Rex Williams, and you've mentioned Driffield and Dagley. What are your views on some of the great players you've met in your career?

Well, talking of players up until the Russell, Sethi, era, the most talented was John Barrie, next to him I think was Rex Williams - in artistry, I stress artistry, I wouldn't necessarily back them always to win but they were the ones with the potential for a real big break, perhaps even a two thousand. They had the potential to do it, Ferreira was like that, Karnehm was like that. The great amateur players? Well Norman Dagley and Leslie Driffield were always favourites to win whoever they played, and especially in cut-throat situations against the more artistic players. But I don't think they were quite in the same billiards playing mould. Their pattern of game was different.

So you think that, say, Rex Williams, could have got into the 2000 break class if there had been the amount of play that there used to be?

No doubt about it. Yes, he had that exquisite control at the top. I know we are chatting about the players of some time ago but there are players today who are well in that class. Russell and Sethi have both had thousand breaks and Roxton Chapman will soon be joining them. I've always thought that Foldvari has the game to do it.

Well, he has made a thousand break or two, in practice of course.

Yes, he has the skills, he can play the cannon from the back cushion and hold the balls in position. There are quite a few players who can make, you know, 100, 150, with the postman's knock, and that's tremendous, but I'm talking about something quite different. Do you know, I've seen Barrie two or three times get into the nine hundreds where he's hardly ever come away from the sequence. That's the kind of skill I'm talking about, and now, Russell, Sethi, and one or two others are getting there. Well, I say getting, perhaps I should say that they have already got there. If they had the amount of competitive play that the old timers used to get then they would be averaging just as well as Newman and the rest of them did years ago. But as regards winning. If I had to bet, if I had to put the mortgage on it, a four hour game, at his best it would have to be Dagley - as he was. Dagley, though Driffield and Russell wouldn't be very far behind. Not a lot in it, but Norman, well, he was a great match player. He's not been the best player but I have to think he's the one I would have put my money on, certainly in the days before the latest lot came along.

Yes. Of course Norman was a considerable artist in his own right.

Of course. Let me re-phrase what I said. He had a Rolls Royce cue action. He was a great red-ball player, he was very effective at the top, especially postman's knock, but he didn't keep them all that close. But don't get me wrong. He was, and still is, a tremendous player, one of the best all-round match players of the lot. I think the greatest artist was Barrie. Work-horses - well, you wouldn't find a more brilliant work-horse than Driffield. Another artist, well, what about Michael Ferreira in his prime. How would I describe myself in such company? Well, I was always terribly vulnerable, that was my temperament, my cue action is a mongrel affair deriving from both games, I can play at the spot end for longish periods - but I was light years behind Barrie in my best days and am light years behind Russell. I put myself above one or two of the other players who were around in my best days and that's about it. I suppose that's why I only ever won one championship.

Your cue action always looked good enough to me. You have mentioned John Barrie quite a lot. Did he play the nurseries?

Yes he could. The thing about the nurseries is that you've got to be able to masse, and masse both ways, and very few players have been able to do that. There's one man I'd like you to say a word about. A man who was always a true amateur in the days when some amateurs made a bit of money out of it - and I don't say that in any disparaging way - what are your view's on the late Herbert Beetham.

He was a real genuine top class amateur player right out of the thirties. A fine all-round player, he could also play at the top-of-the-table, a lot better than he was ever given credit for. A great player and a great gentleman. His highest was about 489 I think, you'd have to check.

Well Mark. We have mainly been talking about the game and the players of your best days though I hope your best days are not quite over yet. We haven't talked at all about your involvement with the administrative side of the game and perhaps that's not appropriate here, but just to finish, a word on the stars of today.

The younger players of today are so good it's almost unbelievable. Unbelievable that they have become so good at such an early age. They make the top-of-the-table look like child's play. They are superb potters, hardly ever miss, very strong all round, approaching the standard of the great players without having ever had the opportunity for match play that the old-timers had. Russell must be one of the most talented players ever. Sethi is a great player. Gilchrist, Foldvari, and one or two more are not far behind. And I tell you this, Roxton Chapman has the game and one day he will be world champion.

Thank you Mark Wildman. I know that you believe the game to be in a healthier state than it has been for years, and I know that some of the credit for this must go to you. Let's hope that the game will become ever stronger. Thanks once again.

Well thank you Tom. I would agree with you that the game is in a better state than for years. I must mention that thanks to the WPBSA, Strachan, and now ITC, there is at last a real chance for some of the players to make a reasonable living from the game. I know we've had our critics, and I don't claim that we have always got it dead right, but no-one can say that we, I mean the Professional Billiard Players Committee, haven't tried to do our very best for the game. We're managing a bit of television coverage, and there's a pretty tidy sum guaranteed for the next three years. I am very optimistic about the future.

Thanks once again Mark and Good Luck to you and all concerned with the future of the professional game.