By Fin Ruane Tuesday saw an extraordinary statement released from World Snooker regarding Ronnie O’Sullivan’s withdrawal from the remainder of the snooker season. I for one was truly astonished as I felt O’Sullivan was ready to resume his career at the UK Championship in York next month and continue on[Read More…]
Features
Fin’s Fables: The Wildcard Question
By Fin Ruane At this week’s International Championship in Chengdu, China, the issue of wildcard rounds has once again been the subject of much heated conversation and debate. Originally introduced in invitation events such as the Benson & Hedges Masters and Irish Masters the wildcards were a way of the[Read More…]
Fin’s Fables: The Greatest Match Ever
By Fin Ruane With the snooker road show descending on Antwerp this weekend for the third instalment of the European Players Tour Championship, one recalls last season’s event in Belgium and to the final which many commentators claimed to be the finest they had witnessed in many a year. It[Read More…]
Fin’s Fables: The Greatest Comebacks
By Fin Ruane After Europe’s incredible Ryder Cup comeback last Sunday, comparisons were soon made alongside other great sporting comebacks. Liverpool’ amazing Champions League Final comeback in Instanbul in 2005 comes to mind as does Manchester United’s in the 1999 Final, but what of the great reverses in snooker? One[Read More…]
Fin’s Fables: A Chinese Snooker
By Fin Ruane In Shanghai this week, PTCs aside, the third full ranking event of the new season is taking place. The Bank of Communication Shanghai Masters is now a regular fixture on the calendar, more importantly however is that it’s the second of five ranking events in China this[Read More…]
Fin’s Fables: The Home Internationals
By Fin Ruane The Republic of Ireland snooker team this week won the 2012 Home Internationals. This brings to four the number of times Ireland has now won the Prince Of Wales Shield following the successes in 1993, 2000 and 2001. The series that is held every Autumn has always[Read More…]
Fin’s Fables: The Return of the Rocket
By Fin Ruane This weekend sees the snooker season continue with PTC3 at the SWSA in Gloucester. Of particular interest, however, is that it also sees the first appearance of world champion Ronnie O’Sullivan on a snooker table since he lifted his fourth world title last May. Plenty has been[Read More…]
Fin’s Fables: Surviving the Cut
By Fin Ruane The retirement of Stephen Hendry during last season’s World Championship raised quite a few eyebrows. The seven-time world champion stunned the snooker community with his announcement after his quarter-final defeat to Stephen Maguire. Many thought, including myself, that he still had a lot to offer the game[Read More…]
Fin’s Fables: The Season So Far
By Fin Ruane So three months into the new snooker season and with the first ranking cut off last weekend it’s time to run the rule over the winners, movers and shakers of the 2012 /2013 season. With qualifiers starting for the Wuxi Classic and Australian Open just a couple[Read More…]
Fin’s Fables: Snooker in the Olympics
By Fin Ruane As this summer’s Games nears its end, the discussion has once again arisen as to whether snooker should be included in the Olympics. The list of sports that make up the Games range from the obvious which are track and field and gymnastics to the more obscure[Read More…]