Charity snubs stricken snooker champion

FORMER snooker star Chris Small has been refused the help of the sport's ruling elite as he battles a debilitating spine condition.

The 33-year-old Edinburgh sportsman has been turned down for a grant by snooker's main charitable trust for players who have fallen on hard times.

The benevolent fund of the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association - which organises the World Championships at Sheffield's Crucible Theatre - is believed to have paid out funds of up to £35,000 to former players in the past, including stars such as Alex "Hurricane" Higgins.

The decision to refuse Small has sparked anger inside the sport, with former BBC commentator Clive Everton condemning the move.

Small, who once ranked among the world's top 16 players, retired in 2005 because of the intense pain he suffered every time he bent over a snooker table to play a shot.

He had made repeated appearances in the world championship quarter and semi-finals for many years and won his first major prize when he claimed the LG Cup, in 2002, beating Scots John Higgins and Alan McManus en route.

But in 2000 he was diagnosed with the rare spinal condition ankylosing spondylitis, from which sufferers can end up wheelchair-bound.

Stars including Stephen Hendry, John Higgins and Dennis Taylor turned out for a testimonial dinner for him at the city's Hilton Grosvenor hotel last year.

The father-of-three said he had been given no reason for his application being refused.

"Yes, I was knocked back," he said. "It's annoying as I was a top player for ten years. It's not often a snooker player has to retire through ill health.

"I knew I wasn't going to get anything as my face doesn't fit with World Snooker."

Small's illness means he, his wife Clare, and their three young children now depend on her work as a part-time child minder for their only income.

The couple had planned to use any cash they received to set up a childminding business, which Clare would have run, had they been successful.

He said: "I was used to earning £30,000 or £40,000 a year, now I'm on absolutely nothing. It's hard and we still have a mortgage to pay."

Mr Everton, who now edits the magazine Snooker Scene, said Chris Small was one of the most clear-cut cases for aid he had ever come across. He said: "Here we have a highly deserving case who is not getting a grant.

"He has his whole life to face and has no means of earning a living. If Chris Small isn't worthy of a grant, who is?"

The WPBSA Benevolent Fund was set up as a charitable trust in 1983 and is managed by a board of three trustees.

It stated aim is, "to provide charitable assistance to professional players of billiards and snooker and their dependents requiring such assistance by reason of disablement, superannuation, death or otherwise."

Small's former manager Gordon McKay, of Leith State Snooker Club, is listed as a trustee of the fund on the Charity Commission's website. But today Mr McKay said: "I'm no longer a trustee. I resigned a few months ago. I can't comment on the case as it's confidential, but I wasn't on the board when they made the decision."

The benevolent fund has been at the centre of controversy before. An internal report into the affairs of the WPBSA produced more than a decade ago found that the benevolent fund had been misused.

In one case, the Blake report alleged loans of more than £35,000 had been used to pay off player Neal Foulds' debts and tax bills at a time when his father Geoff was the Association's chairman. It is understood that the charitable trust paid accommodation bills for Alex Higgins during a period when he was ill in recent years.

Elaine Goldsmith, the WPBSA's company secretary, said nobody at the association could discuss Mr Small's application.

She referred all the Evening News's inquiries to the Charity Commision's website.

She said: "We don't discuss any matters relating to the fund, which is a private charitable trust. We are a private members company. We can't disclose any details."