{"id":280102,"date":"2026-02-04T11:02:06","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T11:02:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/280102\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T11:02:06","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T11:02:06","slug":"former-snooker-player-broadcaster-virgo-dies-aged-79","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/280102\/","title":{"rendered":"Former snooker player &#038; broadcaster Virgo dies aged 79"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Snooker great John Virgo has died at the age of 79, World Snooker Tour has announced.<\/p>\n<p>Virgo, who won the UK Championship in 1979, enjoyed a long and storied career but was perhaps best known for his work as a broadcaster.<\/p>\n<p>He was an established part of the BBC&#8217;s snooker coverage as a commentator, famous for his catchphrase of &#8216;where&#8217;s the cue ball going?&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p>Virgo was also well known for his role on the 1990s snooker show &#8216;Big Break&#8217; and was a regular on the exhibition circuit with his vast array of trick shots.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\">Truly awful news. Thoughts with all Johns family and friends. One of the nicest men you could ever wish to meet <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Xxw68Msn5l\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/Xxw68Msn5l<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Mark Allen (@pistol147) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/pistol147\/status\/2018984777722876406\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">February 4, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Everyone at World Snooker Tour is deeply saddened to learn of the passing of legendary snooker player and broadcaster John Virgo, aged 79,&#8221; a WST statement read.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Our thoughts are with his family and loved ones. Rest in peace, JV.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>                    <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Snooker great John Virgo has died at the age of 79, World Snooker Tour has announced. Virgo, who&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":280103,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":{"0":"post-280102","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=280102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280102\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/280103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}