John Parrott

English professional snooker player who won the 1991 World Championship and UK Championship in the same year, later a fixture of BBC snooker broadcasting.

Born in Liverpool on 11 May 1964, John Parrott turned professional in 1983 and rose to become one of the leading players of the late 1980s and early 1990s. He reached his first World Championship final in 1989 but suffered a heavy 3-18 defeat to Steve Davis, the largest losing margin in a modern-era World final. Parrott exorcised that disappointment in 1991, beating Jimmy White 18-11 in the World Championship final at the Crucible. He completed a rare Triple Crown double later that year by beating White again to win the UK Championship, becoming only the third player at the time — after Steve Davis and Stephen Hendry — to win both titles in the same calendar year. He spent three consecutive seasons ranked world number two between 1991 and 1994. Over his career Parrott won nine ranking titles, including three European Opens and the 1994 International Open, and reached the Masters final three times without success, losing each time to Stephen Hendry. He compiled 221 century breaks and remained inside the world's top 16 for 14 consecutive seasons. Since retiring from full-time competition, Parrott has become a prominent BBC snooker commentator and pundit, and a long-running team captain on A Question of Sport, remaining one of the most recognisable voices in British snooker broadcasting.

Consistent, technically sound all-round game

One of only a handful of players to complete a World-UK double in a single year; long-serving BBC broadcaster