Mike Watterson

George Michael Edwin Watterson (26 August 1942 – 8 March 2019) was an English professional snooker player, businessman, sports promoter and television commentator.

Watterson established the UK Snooker Championship and moved the World Championship to the Crucible Theatre, where it has remained ever since. He also created the World Professional Darts Championship, staged the first floodlit cricket in Britain and had a stint as chairman of Derby County.

Early life George Michael Edwin Watterson was born in Chesterfield, Derbyshire on 26 August 1942, the son of steelworker George Watterson and Olive (née Pilkington), and was the third of four children.

Later that same year, he staged the inaugural UK Championship,

However, in 1983 he was told by the WPBSA that he was no longer needed as a promoter. According to Gordon Burn's book Pocket Money, every time he missed a meeting, he found he had lost another tournament. In a relatively short period of time, he was squeezed out of the game, as the WPBSA started promoting the events themselves.

Watterson laid the blame for this on the late former WPBSA chairman and snooker manager Del Simmons, as well as his former employee Paul Hatherell, and former player come WPBSA chairman Rex Williams. He said that when he lost the World Championship, it was like someone had killed one of his children. His highest ranking achieved as a professional was 34th.

His regular commentary partners were Canadian Jim Wych and Willie Thorne. The event he most enjoyed commentating on was the one-off Mita World Masters in 1991, an innovative event created especially for television by Barry Hearn. He also commentated on the British Open and International Open for several years, when the coverage moved from ITV to Sky. When Sky moved its sports programming from Eurosport to Sky Sports, which it owned outright, Watterson continued in the role.

He stepped down from Sky in 1994 to spend more time enjoying his property in Spain during the winter months,