The long-demolished New Camden Snooker club in Camden Town

I REMEMBER Clive Everton ringing me up back in 2011 with that unmistakable voice as if it was yesterday.

The legendary BBC snooker commentator of more than 30 years, who died last week aged 87, wanted to talk about the impending closure of New Camden Snooker, and recalled how John Lazarus and Tony Samis set up the club in Delancey Street during the sport’s 1980s television heyday.

He added: “John and Tony were good friends of mine and great blokes. They set the club up because they wanted to spend time with snooker people, it wasn’t to make huge profits.

“If the future of the game is to be secure it is vital that there are pleasant clubs for people to play in. The clubs that are surviving right now are the ones that are owner-run. The sad truth is that a lot of property owners are finding more profitable uses for their properties.”

Built in the 1880s as a public hall, the New Camden Snooker was originally Camden’s first cinema that opened in 1908.

It, along with the Crown and Goose pub, were smashed down and replaced by flats and a guitar shop in 2012 – after a long campaign.

Seven times world champion Stephen Hendry was once a regular there and John Virgo ran fundraising nights each year up until the closure. Regulars will remember club legend Alfred “John” Meadows, 81 at the time of the closure, who helped clean the tables and generally run the place.

Most sports fans like a bit of serendipity – and it just so happened that in the week of Mr Everton’s death the world’s top players were competing for a trophy named in his honour at the British Open in Chichester.