SNOOKER legend John Virgo had a gambling habit that was about to cost him his home and his marriage – then he got the job that saved his career.
With his snazzy waistcoats and down-to-earth wit, John was seen by comedian Jim Davidson as the perfect wingman for his new TV project, aptly named Big Break.
The game show, which featured John playing trick shots and commentating on contestants’ attempts at playing snooker, attracted up to 14million viewers every Saturday for 11 years from 1991.
Co-host Jim last night paid tribute to John, who died yesterday aged 79 at his home in Spain, less than three weeks after commentating on the snooker Masters final.
He told The Sun how the BBC did the pilot of Big Break with EastEnders star Mike Reid and snooker referee Len Ganley.
Heartbroken Jim continued: “They didn’t want Mike Reid to do it, so they asked me. I said, ‘Don’t use Len, get John Virgo in’.
“I thought he would be brilliant.
“He used to do shows during the intervals at the big championships, impressions and trick shots, and I thought he would be perfect.
“I contacted him.
“John always said, ‘My life was going down the pan quickly and then I got a phone call from Jim and it changed everything’.
‘Northern socialist’
“We were like chalk and cheese, but we got on great and he was funny.
“John was a real staunch socialist and I was a really staunch fan of Margaret Thatcher, who he hated.
“That’s where half the banter came from.”
John himself once recalled of Big Break: “It aired first on a Tuesday night and it did so well it was moved to the Saturday night spot.
“I didn’t feel nervous filming as I was working with people I’d known all my life.
“Jim was such a funny and talented man and somehow the combination of a crafty cockney conservative and a dour northern socialist really worked.
“At the beginning of the second series, Jim gave me a £10,000 Cartier watch as a thank you for helping his showbusiness career revival.”
At the time, both John and Jim were going through divorces.
And Jim revealed that whenever Big Break’s theme tune Snookering You Tonight! was played in the studio, John would always say, “More money for the ex-wives”.
A quiet, unassuming son of a dock worker, John lived a complicated life, especially where women were concerned.
He cheated on his first wife Susan, who ended the marriage when he did not see their ten-year-old son Gary for nearly a year.
And when he was living with second wife Avril, mother of his daughter Brook Leah, he was seduced by a gangster’s wife.
At the time, he was at the height of his fame as a snooker player on televised tournament Pot Black.
But when the woman’s husband found out, he warned: “Keep away from the girl or you’ll end up in pieces.”
Avril, who found a note the woman had left in John’s hotel room, said later: “I wouldn’t be one of those wives who just hope it would pass.
“She’d have the imprint of my MG wheels up the front of her jumper.”
John Trevor Virgo was born on March 4, 1946.
Mum Florence brought up seven children during rationing, while dad William worked as a crane driver on Salford Docks.
On Christmas Day 1954, John came downstairs to find a 6ft x 3ft snooker baize on top of the dinner table.
That day a champion was born.
John recalled: “I didn’t get on particularly well at school and left aged 15, to get a job as an invoice clerk at Banister Walton and Co.”
Now that he was earning £3.50 a week, his dad did not mind him going to the snooker hall, and within a year he won the 1962 National Under-16 Championship.
He said: “My parents were thrilled to bits.
“I carried on with doing a bread-and-butter job, and played snooker after work, playing in all the local leagues.”
He won the British U19 championship in 1965 and became the first amateur to make an official 147 break, which earned him a place in the Guinness Book of World Records.
In 1972, John’s hero Alex “Hurricane” Higgins walked into his Chorlton club and they played for £2 a frame. After 64 frames, John led by 14.
John recalled: “Alex said he didn’t have the money on him so he’d have to owe me.
“As he walked out he said he was going into town and could he borrow my jumper?
“Of course, I said, so out he strode with my pullover.
“He never did give me the money he owed and I never saw the jumper again.”
As TV made snooker a household sport, John went professional in 1976, age 30, and audiences loved it when he did impressions of other players, such as Ray Reardon, Willie Thorne and Dennis Taylor.
In 1979 he won the UK Championship but the prize money was only £4,500 — and John was not earning enough to meet his increasing overheads.
His hobby away from the tables was horse racing and in 1985 he bought a half share in a £6,000 horse named Jokist.
John recalled: “After it won three races in succession someone offered us £40,000.
‘Vicious circle’
“I had got attached to the horse and gave my friend £20,000 for his half.
“It didn’t win another race for 18 months.
“There were great days getting up at 6am in Newmarket to watch the gallops, enjoying that beautiful air on a summer day.
“I flew Concorde to New York for the Breeders’ Cup, stayed in the Sheraton, spent two days at the races and sang in Rosie O’Grady’s pub opposite the hotel.”
With the big prize money not coming in though, John began to gamble heavily, losing £10,000 on horse racing within a fortnight at the height of his addiction.
Over six years in the 1980s he borrowed more than £200,000 against his mortgage to fuel his gambling. His three-bedroom Surrey home was later repossessed.
John said: “It was a vicious circle.
“I was doing commentary for the BBC and had exhibition work but if you’re not winning you are not earning as much.
“And when you’re seen as a successful sportsman, people assume you’re earning a good living.
“There was pressure on me to have the newest car, a more expensive holiday.
“It was all about keeping up appearances.
“When the results weren’t coming on the snooker table, I tried to supplement things by gambling on horses even more.
I was borrowing against the mortgage just to keep up the pretence that I was successful.
John Virgo
“I went through a period when I was addicted to gambling.
“It was a compulsion that I struggled to get to grips with.
“By 1990, it was in danger of ruining my life.
“I was borrowing against the mortgage just to keep up the pretence that I was successful.”
Saved by Big Break and pantomime appearances with his pal Jim, money began coming in again and he retired from playing competitions to concentrate on showbiz and commentating.
But by 1999, his love life was shot when he became homeless after both Avril and his mistress threw him out.
Avril claimed that while John lived the high life she and their daughter had been plunged into debt.
But he found love again with his third wife Rosie, who he called “my guardian angel”.
They were married for nearly 17 years.
Finally content, he spent his time commentating on snooker tournaments all over the world, including a mammoth 76-minute frame between Mark Selby and Marco Fu at the World Championship in 2016.
It was here he had a famous hot mic incident, when he was accidentally heard saying: “I wanted to watch a bit of racing this afternoon; I’ll be lucky to watch some f***ing Match Of The Day!”
Most fans would have laughed.
And Jim Davidson spoke for millions of them when he said: “John was funny, a great snooker player, a great dad and a great bloke.
“See you, JV.”
