Milestone for SnookerHQ as Website Turns Ten

SHQ was launched on this day in 2011.

Getting under way today is Q School, but May 27th represents another important day on the snooker calendar – the birthday for the website SnookerHQ.

On this day ten years ago, the very first post was published here and there have been more than 3,500 on the website since, making it arguably the most dedicated online resource for snooker-only content during the last decade.

What initially began as a blog has since developed over the years into a more typical news website, and the success of the project is something that I’m very proud of.

SnookerHQ has given me the opportunity to combine two of my own personal passions – snooker itself, which I have loved since I was a young boy, and journalism, which I studied in university.

Through the site I have been fortunate enough in the past to have gained behind-the-scenes media access at various snooker tournaments, including at the World Championship in Sheffield.

Probably the most memorable moment from many to choose from was being at the press conference when seven-time world champion Stephen Hendry announced his first retirement from the sport at the Crucible Theatre in 2012.

I had only been around the snooker scene for a relatively short spell so experiencing an enormous breaking story like that up close was a real thrill.

But since May in 2011 there have been countless snooker stories covered on this website and it’s impossible to limit those that stand out to just one.

What has generally been a solo project, there have been several guest writers who have contributed special pieces at different times, and to those people I offer my gratitude – in particular CrossGuns Snooker Club owner Fin Ruane and player Jonathan Williams, who both helped immensely in the early years when the site published a lot of content on the Irish amateur scene.

More recently, the focus has primarily been on the global game, and it has been fascinating to watch the sport grow from strength to strength over the course of the last decade.

Indeed, SnookerHQ owes the likes of Barry Hearn and Jason Ferguson a debt of gratitude too, as if it weren’t for hard-working people like them – and of course the players themselves – the sport may not have risen from the depths of despair it languished in around the 2009/10 campaign, and this website probably would never have been able to flourish.

In a testing 2020 for obvious reasons, SnookerHQ attracted a record 1.2 million page views, and then more than 300,000 last month during the 2021 World Snooker Championship alone.

Back in 2011, I would have been more than happy with 3,000 monthly views, so to draw in these kinds of staggering figures is humbling.

To every reader who has visited SnookerHQ I offer my sincere appreciation, as this level of success really comes down to you and your continued support.

Here’s to the next ten years of framing the game with daily content, news, features, interviews, and quizzes on SnookerHQ.

Cheers!