ISSN 1757-7276
Datateam Business Media Ltd
London Road, Maidstone, Kent ME16 8LY. Tel: 01622 687031 Fax: 01622 757646
Editor Robin Barwick
robin@barwickmedia.com
Feature Writer Yvonne Holberton
Publisher Paul Ryder
01622 699105
pryder@datateam.co.uk
Advertising Manager Mark Bridges 01622 699160
mbridges@datateam.co.uk
Subscriptions & Circulation Karen Wright
www.sgb-sports.com 01622 699109
Production Editor Brian King
bking@designandmediasolutions.co.uk
Transcription Helen Farress
Annual Subscriptions £76.00 (UK); £82.00 (Europe); £118.00 (Air Mail); Single Copies: £6.50 (inc.p+p) Subscriptions include SGB Sports and Outdoor Guide to the Trade, the only annual directory published for the UK sports and outdoor industry. Subscribers to SGB Sports and Outdoor are entitled to receive SGB Sports and Outdoor Newsline free of charge, to the weekly emailed news service, instead of paying £180 per annum.
Datateam Publishing Ltd 2002. All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, fax, email, recording or otherwise, without prior permission of Datateam Publishing Ltd.
SGB Sporting Goods Business
First Words H
ow sad it was to learn of the recent death of Alex ‘Hurricane’ Higgins, at the age of 61. A tortured genius, Higgins sometimes seemed better suited to bare-knuckle boxing in the back streets of Belfast than he was to snooker, yet with a cue in his hands, and when the mood took him, Higgins was untouchable among his peers over the green baize.
The rise of Higgins to becoming World Champion for the first time in 1972, aged 22, at his first attempt, remains one of the great achievements by a British sportsman – albeit a sportsman who smoked 80 a day at times – and it was this anti-establishment maverick in an open collar who did more than anyone to attract a younger crowd to snooker and gave the sport mass appeal as it emerged into its boom era of the 1980s.
It was recently reported that in snooker’s hay-day of 1984, two years after Higgins famously won the second of his World Championship titles, the BBC broadcast 335 hours of snooker, compared to 187 of football. And the TV ratings converted into snooker retail sales too, and pub and club landlords throughout the UK cashed in by installing more snooker and pool tables.
Admittedly, Higgins could never be called a role model, but then snooker had Steve Davis as the ready-made antidote. We do need to encourage discipline among our young sports people, but the sports trade would be a much poorer place were it not for inimitable characters such as Higgins, in more ways than one.
Robin Barwick, Editor
SGB Sporting Goods Business
www.sgb-sports.com The partnership voice for the trade
SGB Sports and Outdooris the UK member of the European Sports Trade Publishing Group, a co-operative of leading business magazines. ESPG partners exchange news and publish Sports Retail Europe, the only pan-European sports trade magazine – free to SGB Sports and Outdoorsubscribers. ESPG members include SAZ (Germany), SPORTeco (France), cmd (Spain), Sportfack! (Sweden) and Sportimyyja (Finland).
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"With Vibram Fivefingers the Foot IS the Technology" Cover Story . . .
www.primallifestyle.com
SGB
Sporting Goods Business www
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August 2010
Fresh footprints Questions answered on minimalist running
Supporting role We showcase the latest sports bras
On cue
Snooker showcase for 2011
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