By Free Ball Come on now. Who was crazy enough to sacrifice live snooker – and what snooker – to watch “40 Golden Years” on BBC Two on Second Sunday evening? Yes, no doubt it’s a beautifully put together piece, reflecting on moments both joyous and torturous at the Crucible[Read More…]
Features
It’s There! Free Ball’s Crucible Curse
By Free Ball On Friday morning I woke up feeling suitably groggy after another day’s heady mix of snooker and refreshments. Like a bear with a sore head, I went to put the morning porridge on only to find the cooker wasn’t working. I tried to turn the TV on,[Read More…]
World Championship: Second Round Preview
The World Championship is almost a week old and the first round is coming to its conclusion at the Crucible. There are still two encounters from the last 32 to be completed on Thursday but the second round also simultaneously gets under way on the sixth day of action in[Read More…]
It’s There! Swear’s the Commentator Going?
By Free Ball Where’s he going? Nowhere apparently. The first session of this year’s World Championship was not so much naughty snooker, more naughty commentary. What was surprising, to most watching, was that the culprit was back in the box during the afternoon. The stalwart Leicester City supporter is not the[Read More…]
It’s There! The A to Z of the Crucible
By Free Ball A is for Appearances. Steve Davis has appeared at the Crucible more than any other player. Competing 30 times, he is three up on Stephen Hendry. This year will be Ronnie O’Sullivan’s 25th showing, and it will be interesting to see if he hangs around long enough[Read More…]
QUIZ! World Championship Players at the Crucible
It’s the morning we’ve all been waiting for – Happy opening day of the World Snooker Championship! After a long, hectic campaign it’s come down to 32 players at the greatest stage of them all, the Crucible Theatre, with global glory within reach. Yesterday evening in Sheffield was a celebration[Read More…]
Paula Judge Challenging Long Reign in Irish Women’s Snooker
The RIBSA Ladies National Championship gets under way this weekend at Newbridge CYMS in County Kildare. Michelle Sherwin has dominated the game in Ireland for more than a decade but one player who has been making waves of late and is seeking to end Sherwin’s reign at the top is[Read More…]
Sniper’s Snippets: Grand Prix
By Jonathan Williams The Grand Prix for me went better than expected. It wasn’t necessarily the best in terms of a last eight appearance, but more the fact that I beat Robert Murphy for what I think was the first time in around 12 years. Now, I may have only played[Read More…]
Sniper’s Snippets: Irish Masters
By Jonathan Williams My Douglas Jewellers Irish Masters was very short lived. It was not the best first round draw against Colm Gilcreest, but I didn’t feel confident going into this event and hadn’t really been playing so got the result I expected. I missed the last ranking event after[Read More…]
New Snooker Triangle
By Paul Beck It was several years ago that my colleague and I decided to take time out and try to develop what snooker skills we had. We arranged to rendezvous at a local watering hole and started to play. It wasn’t long before some of our skills resurfaced and[Read More…]