This year’s World Snooker Championship has produced what some fans of the sport would consider a long overdue wind of change on the baize. Sure, Mark Selby can cement his place in history on bank holiday Monday if he wins the title for a fifth time, but the sight of two players under the age of 30 in Luca Brecel and Si Jiahui playing out a world semi-final felt refreshing if nothing else, given how the sport has been dominated by the same clutch of players for so long.
Sports thrive on progression and evolution when it comes to the stars of the show – but away from the action, consistency is a valuable commodity. And for all the change snooker is trying to undergo, there is one bastion of consistency who perhaps never quite gets the credit they truly deserve. In an ever-changing world, nothing screams comforting reassurance like Hazel Irvine presenting the snooker on the BBC. She will utter the first words to the new champion of the world on Monday evening and these days anyone other than Irvine on hand for the biggest moments that matter in snooker feels wrong.
Irvine has been a fine broadcaster for more than 30 years, attending some of the biggest sporting events in the world, including several Olympic Games. But it is the Crucible which is the venue you feel she will now be forever synonymous with after 20-plus years of leading the Beeb’s coverage of snooker’s premier event. She has handled interviews with players who can often be unpredictable with a microphone in hand with aplomb, and it is clear she has the respect of everyone she works with.
There has been a welcome and exciting arrival of female sporting anchors in recent years. The likes of Alex Scott, Laura Woods and Seema Jaswal, who has presented some sessions of this year’s tournament, are all fine examples of that. But for years, Irvine has stood tall – and often alone – in a world that until recently was dominated by men. She is simply a wonderful broadcaster. But the presence of a woman leading major television coverage for so long will have undoubtedly served as an inspiration for many.
Irvine rarely gives interviews and when she does, is quick to praise those around her with a team-first mantra. That team, including some of the finest players snooker has ever seen, would be quick to turn the spotlight back on her, you would imagine. She is quiet and unassuming away from the cameras but when the lights go on, she is a bastion of her industry and a master of her craft. How proud her mentor, the late, great Dickie Davies – who worked alongside Irvine in her early days as a broadcaster – would be to see her continue to lead the coverage of a British sporting institution such as the world snooker final with such consummate professionalism.
When Selby and Mark Allen were playing their semi-final to a dramatic finish long into the small hours of Sunday morning, you almost felt as if you needed a comfort blanket to see you through to the finish. For snooker fans, there’s no presenter quite like Irvine in that regard. There could be a new name on the trophy come Monday night in the shape of Brecel, or a familiar one with Selby. But one thing you can be assured of is that one of sport’s finest broadcasters will be there with us to watch it unfold every step of the way. Long may that continue.
