'Match-fixers should be banned for life'
The World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association said "there was no more serious breach of the rules than betting related match fixing" and it had "a long track record of thoroughly investigating such allegations".The WPBSA added there was evidence that King had been involved in fixing match results."In this case there was strong evidence against King that necessitated action under the WPBSA's Conduct Regulations. This was vindicated by the findings of two independent KC Chaired Tribunals," a statement added.
Strain on family
King, who is a former Northern Ireland Open champion, said the situation had put a strain on his family. "I think the hardest person affected is my wife. She had a pacemaker fitted not long after the investigation started," he added."It's really took the toll on her."The Essex player, who climbed to 11th in the world in 2003, is a recovering gambling addict.He said he has struggled with bad mental health since first being suspended.The WPBSA said the mental well-being of players was always a priority. "From the start of this case Mark King was offered a full range of support," they said."This was both continued pastoral support, including the availability of counselling therapy through Sporting Chance, the Mental Health & Wellbeing partner of WPBSA Players, and signposting to pro-bono legal advice to ensure that he had access to informed and independent guidance."
After receiving his suspension, King said he received a phone call from three-time world champion Mark Williams and a few other professional players."One of the first players that rang me straight away was Mark Williams," King said."He said, 'listen, I don't care what's going on. I'm just ringing up to see how you are.' That's a proper friend, we've known each other a long time."King said he was struggling to pay the costs. "Well, I obviously haven't got £113,000 in my back pocket for a start," he said."I'm out of work because obviously I'm a 51-year-old man. I did a little bit of a labouring job but that was a bit too much for me."He said he was not sure if he would return to the sport when his suspension was lifted in just under three years."I honestly don't know at this time," he added. "I love playing and I love the life of it and travelling all around the world and playing but at the same time I still feel hurt and angry."
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Will the Epping hotel riots spark another summer of unrest?
After an asylum seeker staying at a hotel in Epping was charged with sexual assault, the past two weeks have brought a series of escalating and violent demonstrations from local residents and far-right agitators. On Sunday came the most serious unrest yet, with about 1,000 people gathering outside the hotel, escalating into what local police called 'mindless thuggery'. Ben Quinn, a senior reporter at the Guardian, was at the scene and describes to Helen Pidd how the Reform UK leader, Nigel Farage, reacted at a press conference the next day: Farage: Do I understand how people in Epping feel? You bet your life I do. Nick Lowles, the chief executive of the anti-racism organisation Hope Not Hate, says Epping has been a hotbed of far-right activity for years. He describes how the recent demonstrations have drawn nationalist activists from around the country but says that, despite that fact, local anger should not be ignored. Lowles believes that listening to residents and offering them a better future is the best way to counter the racist and violent narratives increasingly entering the mainstream. Support the Guardian today:
Sky News
an hour ago
- Sky News
The comeback queens - these Lionesses never give in
When all seems lost, these Lionesses find a way to rescue it. The comebacks queens, always coming back for more. And now into a third consecutive final with a chance to defend their European crown. But even Sarina Wiegman feared they would be flying home today when the clock hit 88 minutes in the semi-final with Italy and they were still trailing 1-0. Just why had the defence been picked apart too easily again in the first half to concede to give Barbara Bonansea the space and time to score? Just why were Alessia Russo and Lauren Hemp, in particular, not clinical enough? 0:25 Maybe that is a recipe for success rather than a desperate rescue mission. Because when Wiegman saw there would be seven minutes of stoppage time, suddenly there was hope again. Especially as five minutes earlier, the manager had brought on Michelle Agyemang. It's a lot to rely on a 19-year-old. But this is a striker who scored 41 seconds into her international debut as a substitute in April. And she scored the equaliser that sent the quarterfinal into extra time last week before England beat Sweden on penalties. Now the weight of the nation was on her shoulders again - and she delivered in the sixth of the seven minutes of injury time. "She has something special," Wiegman said. "She's very mature, she knows exactly what she has to do. "When you talk about little things that she picks up straight away, because she's not only in the 18-yard box very dangerous but when we have to go to her as a target player, she keeps the ball really well too." The Arsenal forward even hit the crossbar in extra time before the Wembley winner from the final three years ago showed again why she's a super-sub. Just when it seemed England would need to win another shootout, Beth Mead was brought down and now they had one penalty to win it. Chloe Kelly was denied but alert to pounce on the rebound. And with a 2-1 win, England will go the distance for a third tournament in a row. No England team has ever previously enjoyed such a deep run. For Kelly it will be a second final of the year after winning the Champions League with Arsenal. But it is a year that began despondent at Manchester City before securing a move to the Gunners. "The moments when in January I felt like giving up football makes you so grateful for these moments here today, and this makes you enjoy every minute of that," Kelly said. "I think confidence comes from within, but from around you as well. The players that we stand side by side with on the pitch, give confidence in each other." And England will certainly feel confident. These Lionesses never give in. How many teams would want to bottle up that fighting spirit and resilience? "When it finishes like this I am enjoying it but it's a little bit dramatic," said Wiegman, who has now reached an unprecedented five tournament finals with the Netherlands and England.
Times
2 hours ago
- Times
Global Clipper race lives up to its name, with Britons in the minority
A Frenchman, an American and a Belarussian board a Clipper Round the World yacht and the skipper says 'where have all the Brits gone?' It may sound like the start of a joke, but the increasing popularity of Sir Robin Knox-Johnston's race has resulted in the proportion of British crew plummeting, with more than half of sailors taking part hailing from the rest of the world. 'Originally it was only the Brits and a few Europeans taking part, but the last race had 43 nationalities' Knox-Johnston, 86, said, before the start of this year's race at the end of next month. 'The international crew were at 53 per cent in the last race, with the Brits down to 47.' The biennial race, where about 700 amateur sailors pay to race around the world on a 70ft racing yacht, helped by a professional skipper, first launched in 1996. This year's event, which takes place across eight legs and involves a fleet of 10 Clipper 70 yachts, will have the highest number of international crew so far. 'We've got better known internationally,' Knox-Johnston said. 'We go to these ports around the world and when you get crew from other countries their newspapers send reports back, so that's bloody good advertising.' Forty-five per cent of the crew aged 40 and under are female this year, while across all ages about 25 per cent of the crew are women. The biggest group of participants, after the British, is now Americans. 'It used to be Australians, but that's dropped,' said Knox-Johnston, who became the first man to sail non-stop around the world solo in 1969. The first thing prospective crew have to do is complete four weeks of rigorous sail training on the Solent, where Clipper has its headquarters in Gosport, Hampshire. It costs about £10,000 to complete the training and take part in one of the race legs. For those wanting to do the full circumnavigation of the globe it costs more than £50,000. When The Times joined a crew of 12 amateurs completing their first week of training, only two were British. The rest came from Canada, New Zealand, Japan, Switzerland, France, Belarus, Germany and the US. It is a steep learning curve as many sign up without any previous sailing experience, having seen an advert at a time when they want to radically change their lives. Kyle Vacca, 43, a former pilot in the US Air Force who is now an engineer and mission manager at SpaceX, managed to lose his iPhone overboard just before the crew's first man overboard drill, after someone knocked into him on deck. 'It's been a very intensive learning experience,' Vacca said. 'I am used to operating procedures in potentially hazardous environments while being safe and working with a team, so the details are new to me but there are a lot of similarities.' By the end of the first week they are beginning to get to grips with the vast array of different ropes onboard and bewildering terminology. 'You need to load the halyard on to the pit winch and open the jammer,' Nigel Parry, 60, the skipper of the training boat, shouts into the wind at Alice Morel, 35, a French travel agent living in Queensland, Australia, who has no previous sailing experience. Then he barks: 'Oliver, are you milkmaid? Then you should be on the other side of the mast.' Later in the day they attempt their second man overboard drill. Trish McLaughlin, 55, a retired Canadian police officer from Mount Currie, a small town of 5,000 people in British Columbia, is winched over the side to retrieve a floating dummy from the choppy Solent. 'I've always wanted to learn how to sail for my retirement and see the world,' she said, after successfully retrieving the dummy on the third attempt. 'I saw Clipper on my social media feeds and this made me realise I could learn to cross an ocean.' McLaughlin said the training had been 'a lot'. 'I didn't realise sailing was as technical as it has been,' she said. 'I used to have a water phobia but I conquered that so I could go sailing. 'I did have some people saying, 'Are you crazy?' and 'What are you wasting all your money for?' but it's my investment in my retirement, to be able to meet beautiful people in beautiful places, and see a little bit more of the world.' The 14th edition of the race sets sail from Portsmouth on August 31, but for those who prefer to keep their feet on dry land, a new five-part series called No Going Back, which follows the teams in the 13th edition, is available on Amazon Prime Video.
