Everton played county-level tennis for Worcestershire for 13 years and once managed Jonah Barrington, the former world number one squash player.
[3] He was educated at King's School, Worcester, City of Birmingham College of Commerce, and later at Cardiff University, where he obtained a B.A.
After graduating, he taught English and Liberal Studies at Halesowen College of Further Education, before a career change into freelance journalism.
[6] He entered the British Boys (under-16) English billiards Championship for the first time in 1951, when he was 14, and lost in the first round to Brian Brooking by 147 points to 201.
[11][12] He reached both the 1975 and 1977 world amateur billiards semi-finals,[13] and won the 1980 Canadian Open, making a break of 141 after trailing Steve Davis 195–400 in the 500-up final.
[14] During the 1977 world championship he experienced a back injury which eventually required discs in his spine to be fused, and Everton felt that his game never quite recovered.
[21][22][23] In snooker, he reached the southern area final of the 1977 English Amateur Championship where he lost 1–8 to Terry Griffiths.
[24] A couple of months later, Everton and his playing partner Roger Bales won the 1977 National (UK) Pairs Championship after a 3–0 victory against Dickie Laws and John Pike in the final.
He played in the Welsh Professional Championship on seven occasions, being seeded to the quarter-finals on four of these and the first round three times, but never won a match in the competition.
[32][33][34] Everton said of Snooker Scene: "I had started this as a simple journal of record of what was happening on the table, but it became a crusading vehicle … Taking Wisden and Private Eye as our models we sometimes made our point through hard reporting, sometimes through satire.
This has variously been attributed to his criticism of the game's governing body, World Snooker, his age and old-fashioned style,[41] and his lack of fame relative to the former players on the BBC's commentary roster.
According to Everton, the understanding for the 2010–11 season was that he would commentate if Steve Davis and Ken Doherty were not available due to them still participating in particular tournaments.
Everton said that he was offered four days' work at the 2011 World Snooker Championship, but that this was rescinded when Stephen Hendry was eliminated from the competition and became available for commentary.
Everton continued to work for the magazine as an editorial consultant, also contributing feature articles and reports on billiards events.
[45] Everton played county-level tennis for Worcestershire for 13 years, and managed Jonah Barrington, the former world number one squash player.