Eirian Williams is a Professional snooker

Snooker

Snooker is a cue sport that is played on a green baize-covered table with pockets in each of the four corners and in the middle of each of the long side cushions. A regular table is . It is played using a cue and snooker balls: one white , 15 worth one point each, and six balls of different :...

 referee. He was formerly a police officer

Police officer

A police officer is a warranted employee of a police force...

 with the Dyfed-Powys Police in the Welsh

Wales

Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

 town of Llanelli

Llanelli

Llanelli , the largest town in both the county of Carmarthenshire and the preserved county of Dyfed , Wales, sits on the Loughor estuary on the West Wales coast, approximately west-north-west of Swansea and south-east of the county town, Carmarthen. The town is famous for its proud rugby...

for 18 years.

Early life

Williams joined the Dyfed-Powys Police in April 1975 and was stationed at Llanelli where he was mainly in the Road Traffic Department during which time he achieved the covetted Grade 1 Police Advanced Driving Certificate. He is also a trained Police Motorcyclist. Following spells at Llandeilo and Ammanford Police Stations (where he had spells in the C.I.D.), he retired in February 1993.

Refereeing career

Williams attained the Class C Snooker Referees accreditation in 1981 and within five years, was the Senior Welsh Referee in the Home International Series. By 1991, his Refereeing Classification had twice been upgraded and he now held the Class 1 (formerly A) certificate. In 1991, the Professional tour, run by the World Professional Snooker and Billiards Association (WPBSA) opened the Professional game to an unlimited number of players thus requiring more Referees to officiate at the subsequent extra matches. He was invited to join the Professional Referees Association and became one of a significant number of new Referees from around the globe to give their services to the Professional game. Following his retirement from the Police Service, he undertook several jobs to subsidise his income while he climbed his way up the Professional Refereeing ladder. By 1993, he had been appointed as a Referee Examiner with the Welsh Referees Association. He is now a Tutor with the European Billiards and Snooker Association.

He refereed his first World Ranking final in January 1998 at the Regal Welsh tournament in Newport, Monmouthshire where Paul Hunter won his first Ranking event title by defeating John Higgins by 9 frames to 5. He has since refereed many more Ranking finals including the Seniors Championship, Welsh Open Championship, German Masters, UK Championship, Irish Masters, Wembley Masters, Malta Cup, China Masters, China Open, Thailand Open, British Open, Grand Prix, Bahrain Snooker Championship, World Open and four World Championship Finals at the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield in 2001, 2005, 2007 and 2010.

He is now one of the two Senior Referees within World Snooker.

Life outside the table

Williams was raised in a small mining village called Cynheidre in the Gwendraeth Valley in South Wales, but now lives five miles away in Llanelli.

He has three children, Geraint, Rhian and Bethan.