Walking down Buckingham Palace Road one summer's morning in 1970, I had no idea that the meeting I was on my way to would engender a relationship between snooker and Gallaher.

Reardon won a Park Drive event

Gallaher was the parent company of Benson and Hedges, which sponsored the Masters for three decades.

At the time, I was managing Jonah Barrington, then the world's top squash player.

We were looking for a sponsor for a five-man event in a variety of venues.

I had heard that Peter West, one of the BBC's best-known broadcasters, and Patrick McNally had just started a company that proposed to take a professional approach to sports sponsorship.

Gallaher had decided to become involved in this field and West Nally were pitching for the account.

They quickly agreed to put squash into their proposal and asked whether I had any other bright ideas.

Back then, I was a man of many parts.

As the Birmingham Post's hockey correspondent, I suggested that the county championship could do with a sponsor.

As editor of a snooker magazine that needed copy, I advanced the claims of snooker - certainly the hardest sell of the three.

Nevertheless, after some discussion, a four-man league with John Spencer, Rex Williams, Gary Owen and John Pulman was created.

Higgins took 13 months to win a title during the 1970s

There were to be 18 matches in various club venues with a final between the two best players.

Peter and Patrick won the account with squash and hockey under the Benson and Hedges banner, and snooker under that of another Gallaher brand, Park Drive.

There were four Park Drive 2000s in 1971 and 1972 - Spencer winning two, Ray Reardon and Alex Higgins one each.

Each final was recorded and shown on BBC's Grandstand.

These events were so well received that Park Drive extended its involvement by sponsoring the 1973 World Championship.

This had always run throughout the season - indeed, it took Higgins nearly 13 months from first match to the last to win the 1972 title - but under Park Drive it was compressed into a fortnight at the City Exhibition Halls in Manchester.

Reardon won it and won again the following year at Belle Vue.

World snooker's governing body, the WPBSA, awarded the 1975 championship to Australia and Park Drive left the sport, but Gallaher remained in snooker with their own event, the Benson and Hedges Masters.