{"id":7975,"date":"2026-02-04T16:31:20","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T11:01:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/2026\/02\/04\/snooker-legend-virgo-dies-aged-79\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T16:31:20","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T11:01:20","slug":"snooker-legend-virgo-dies-aged-79","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/2026\/02\/04\/snooker-legend-virgo-dies-aged-79\/","title":{"rendered":"Snooker legend Virgo dies aged 79"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>ByElizabeth Botcherby,\u00a0BBC Sport journalist\u00a0<!-- -->and<!-- -->\u00a0Michael Emons,\u00a0BBC Sport journalist<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Published4 February 2026, 09:28 GMT<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Updated 9 minutes ago<\/p>\n<p>Snooker legend and BBC commentator John Virgo has died aged 79.<\/p>\n<p>Virgo enjoyed an 18-year professional career, winning the 1979 UK Championship among four non-ranking titles, and reaching the semi-finals of the World Championship in 1979.<\/p>\n<p>He is perhaps best known for his post-playing career, presenting snooker TV programme Big Break alongside comedian Jim Davidson from 1991 to 2002.<\/p>\n<p>Following his retirement from playing in 1994, Virgo became a BBC commentator.<\/p>\n<p>His last commentary for the BBC came 17 days ago when Kyren Wilson beat John Higgins in the Masters final.<\/p>\n<p>He was a popular commentator, with his famous &quot;where&#x27;s the cue ball going?&quot; catchphrase when a player was close to committing a foul.<\/p>\n<p>A World Snooker statement read: &quot;Everyone at World Snooker Tour is deeply saddened to learn of the passing of legendary snooker player and broadcaster John Virgo.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;Our thoughts are with his family and loved ones. Rest in peace, JV.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>More to follow.<\/p>\n<h2>Related topics<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"\/sport\/snooker\">Snooker<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Snooker legend Virgo dies aged 79ByElizabeth Botcherby,\u00a0BBC Sport journalist\u00a0and\u00a0Michael Emons,\u00a0BBC Sport journalistPublished4 February 2026, 09:28 GMTUpdated 9 minutes agoSnooker legend and BBC comme&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":7976,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-decor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7975"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7975\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}