Mark Wildman

Markham Wildman (25 January 1936 – 18 November 2024) was a billiards and snooker player and cue sports commentator from Peterborough, England. He won the World Professional Billiards Championship in 1984 and was runner up in 1980 and 1982. He made the first televised snooker century break in 1960, while still an amateur.

After a junior career in which he won titles in both snooker and English billiards, he won the 1963 Working Men's Club and Institute Union Championship, an event regarded as the second-most prestigious amateur title in the UK after the English Amateur Championship, by defeating John Dunning in the final. In 1968, he won the English Amateur Billiards Championship with a 2,652–2,540 victory against Clive Everton. In 1977, Wildman was runner-up to Michael Ferreira in a World Open Billiards Championship held in Christchurch. He was accepted as a professional player by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA) in 1979. His best run as a professional snooker player was reaching the semi-finals of the 1984 Lada Classic; in the rankings for the following year he attained his highest placing of 21st.

He reached the final of the 1980 World Professional Billiards Championship, finishing as runner-up to Fred Davis with a scoreline of 2,064–3,037. The 1983 UK Professional Billiards Championship was his first major title win as a professional, secured when he defeated Davis 1,500–1,032 in the final. During the semi-final, against Rex Williams, he recorded a break of 495, his highest. He won the World Billiards Championship title in 1984, narrowly defeating Eddie Charlton 1,045–1,012 in the five-hour final.

Throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, Wildman was a snooker commentator for ITV until snooker was dropped by the channel in 1993. He retired from professional snooker in 1991 but continued to play professional billiards for several years. He served as a WPBSA director, including as chairman from September 1999 to 4 December 2001. Provided by Wikipedia