Hoo-Ray

Ray, who lives in Aldershot but is based at the Sovereign Snooker Club in Farnborough, has been a familiar face on the Cuestars circuit for many a long year. His 23-year-old son Ryan is one of the ‘names’.

But it was dad, so often in the shadows, who took centre stage in the fourth leg of six at Salisbury Snooker Club last Sunday.

The namesake of the TV survival star made his Championship Tour debut at Salisbury on December 19, 2010.

And in this, his fourth outing, he graduated by picking up his first winning frame.

The historic moment came in the third frame of a 3-1 group-stage defeat by clubmate Jessie Stevens.

Playing to win rather than not to lose, Ray doubled the final black into the middle pocket to triumph 49-46.

“It was obviously a good feeling, especially as he is a much better player than me,” said Ray. “And I had lost the second frame 45-46 after Jessie needed both pink and black.”

For the record, Stevens won the first and fourth frames 26-56 and 14-50 respectively.

Ray reckons his about-turn in form is down to the extra practice time available since he retired in August, 2010, after 43 years working for the GCSE and A Level exam board AQA and its predecessor AEB.

As a student, he started at AEB part-time in April, 1966, and was taken on full-time in 1967.

“The only computational aids they had were three Olivetti add-listers and a Facit (mechanical calculator),” he recalled. “Quite a change from when I left!

“I originally worked on compiling statistics (by hand of course!), then in computing from 1973 to 2001, and finally in the processing department.”

Ray is joint 47th on the Championship Tour and joint 21st on the Seniors Tour.