“He’s beginning to annoy me” is a quip made famous by Jimmy White in the Crucible Theatre in 1994, following his 3rd consecutive world final defeat by Stephen Hendry. It was in fact his 4th final defeat to Hendry and his 6th in total. One of the big talking points this season, has been Hendry’s return to the tour – or maybe lack of it! He did, however, stress that it wasn’t a full time comeback, when he accepted a 2 year wildcard from Barry Hearn. He has only played in the Gibraltar Open, where he made a century break in a 4-1 defeat to Matt Selt. Incredibly, 27 years on since that famous 18-1 ..read more

Today see’s the commencement of the 47th running of The Masters, most will agree, it is the second most prestigious tournament on the snooker calendar. While nobody is sure who will win the 2021 Masters, one thing we can be sure of, is that love it or hate it, we will hear the term “triple crown” many times over the next seven days…… One week ago, The Masters was to be staged at The Alexandra Palace and Judd Trump headed the field as the bookies favourite, to claim his second Masters title. A week on and the tournament will now be held in Milton Keynes with Neil Robertson and Ronnie O’Sullivan ..read more

Well where to begin? In April, it appeared highly unlikely that we would have a World Championship this year, due to Covid-19. However, thanks to the sheer determination and hard work of Barry Hearn and the WST team, this was indeed the third tournament to be played since lockdown began in March. It’s probably fair to say, that few people expected fans to be allowed into The Crucible this year. Amazingly, this event was announced as a government pilot for crowds at sporting events, where around 300 spectators would be admitted entry. Unfortunately, those with “golden tickets” would only gain e ..read more

Here we are, the culmination of this fantastic seventeen day event. Over the next two days, we will know if it is to be Ronnie O’Sullivan’s sixth world title or Kyren Wilson’s first. The final always brings a tinge of sadness to me. On one hand, there is the excitement of the final over thirty five frames between the two best players of the tournament to see who is crowned champion. On the other hand, I know that three sessions of snooker a day and of course my annual trip to the Crucible is over for another year. After yesterday’s drama of both semi finals ending 17-16 and inparticular, the a ..read more

The final stages are upon us, we now know that the 2020 World Champion  will be one of Kyren Wilson, Anthony McGill, Mark Selby or Ronnie O’Sullivan. For those who don’t know, the word Crucible means melting pot. Very apt  I think you’ll agree. The Crucible Theatre was obviously destined to host Snooker….. The one table set up at The Crucible, is always talked about by players and pundits, as being even more special than when there are two tables in the arena. The set is slightly changed, obviously one table is removed, the dividing wall is removed and instead of the players sitting ..read more

Day 11 sees the start of Quarter Finals day. We are now down to the nitty gritty, the field of thirty two has been whittled down to just eight. This is where the World Championship starts to get serious…. There aren’t too many surprises in the remaining field of eight. In fact, six of the quarter finalists are currently ranked in the top eight in the world. All household names. O’Sullivan, Trump, Williams, Selby, Robertson and Wilson have won 13 World titles between them. The other two quarter finalists- Anthony McGill, a two time ranking event winner and Kurt Maflin a four time ranking event ..read more

A few weeks ago, all ticket holders were contacted by WST/Crucible Theatre Box office giving options/intentions re our tickets for this years WC, should a crowd, albeit reduced, be allowed to attend. The government were in the the process of planning several pilots of spectators returning to watch sporting events. The three options were: 1. Attend this years WC, 2. Receive a full refund or 3. Use your tickets for next years WC. I replied, advising that if possible, I wished to attend this years WC. Therefore, I was delighted when it was announced two weeks ago that all ticket holders that wish ..read more