The guy just ended his interview with a shout-out to Mark Allen and said that all the players are behind him. I know Allen said he's got a flood of support, but I hope this kind of love really helps him. All of snooker are behind him.

Mark Allen returned at the Northern Ireland Open today, and was defeated by his friend Jordan Brown. He seemingly announced his retirement from snooker in a very emotional post match interview, following today's defeat. This was his first match back after his infamous semi final defeat at the Crucible earlier this year.

It was a very difficult watch, that interview. Both he and host Rachel Casey were close to tears, and I feel like Mark took this opportunity to appear on camera to make his decision official. His opponent and good friend Jordan Brown was also interviewed right afterwards, and he too was fighting back tears.

It was a very sad thing to see. I don't know what off-table issues he's dealing with, nor is it my place to know, but I hope Mark Allen recovers mentally.

Really hope he’s good! Very emotional reaction after his match.

What's the ref's name? I love that he looks like he spent 30 years in prison for mauling someone to death, but has this super soft, gentle voice

Im a beginner, and the leap from english pool to snooker has been rough but rewarding. I'm pretty comfortable with most shots and can understand that a miss is just a misjudged angle.

But is this shot possible? It seems way harder in snooker. I always seem to get this path where after the initial bounce off the cushion, it gets stuck moving in a straight line.

I lost eurosport back when tnt took over and have missed watching all the matches so much.

I have Virgin so where is the best place for me to get all the snooker, is it tnt or do I swap to sky sports. Any help would be great thanks :0)

Many people said that Ronnie never used Taom but in this video doesn’t it look like he’s using Taom? This is from the finals between trump and sullivan at the 2020 Betvictor Northern Ireland open. You can see at at 12:22.

Has anyone ever brought their own pocket radio to tune into the commentary at the home nations events? I'm going this week and bought one that starts at 60mhz, has anyone had success tuning into the commentary?

Why GBL cues price went up from last year and on ?

I'd choose Jimmy White for 24 hours back in the '80s :)

Is it me or have we lost some tables ?

Normally when we have a 128 player tournament there a 8 tables in use in the early rounds but today I only seem able to watch 1,2 & 3

The other's are not showing the Northern Ireland Open but some other Chinese matches ?

has something changed ?

Good read this was, never knew much about him. How good was he as a player and what do people know about him?

I was not very good when i used to play, 30 years ago (had to stop playing billiards due to going blind) but still had a couple 60+ in Game, yet once in a local league match i "made" a century... By cheating.

Very minor cheating tbh, i already had won the frame, was on a personal record run (iirc it was 80 atm) and touched one of the colors with my paunch very slightly, nobody saw and changed nothing... But 30 years later still bothers me... Would you count that century as your all time high break?

Idrk what I want to achieve by making this post, but I need to get it out somewhere.

Never thought Id see the day snooker stars would show ads.

I just played 2 matches on it, and then had to see an ad for fcking Instamart.

Why does this happen, is the game doing so poorly in terms of users that they need to stop to such levels.

Are snooker interests on such a downward trend. Is there any way to fix this monstrosity.

I was playing snooker with my uncle last week as I normally do, he did a regular break and yet one of the reds somehow made it into the middle pocket, have you had that happen before?

Gold members now only get £1 discount per hour per table. Tables are £12 in the eve, so loyal members get only 8% off, it used to be £3 discount per hour, or 25% off per hour. They offered a 10% online booking discount too, which has been removed also, so now a three hour snooker session costs £33 for gold members rather than £24.92. More than £8 extra.

Having to pay about £2.66 per hour more is terrible news for people who want to practice and learn the game, I.e. the loyal customers.

Anyone else seeing this affect their ability to play and practice?

Understand there are other local clubs to go to, but not as convenient or guaranteed to find a free table. Most local clubs aren't bookable either.

'Go somewhere else' just isn't good enough.

This price increase/reduction in loyalty reward pricing is going to hurt cue sports in the UK massively.

Gutted, annoyed, and hoping that Rileys reads this.

Anyone affected up vote this and comment your opinion so we can hopefully change their mind.

The revenue loss from disgruntled loyal players will massively outweigh the revenue boost they expect to get from the increased hourly rate.

Verocious landlords

What's your take on elbow drop? I actually didn't know I had one until I recorded myself playing snooker which was about 2 years after I started playing

I haven't been able to change it back to the traditional upright elbow after completing the shot either maybe because I've been playing for too long (if you got advice feel free to share).

My main question was, is it generally bad? I mean the greatest of all time Ronnie has a elbow drop. I've seen that when playing soft shots that drop dead weight around the black he doesn't drop the elbow at all (meanwhile I do). Also do you think it looks a little weird on TV seeing the elbow go down? And do you know any other players on tour with it? I personally haven't seen anyone. Maybe Stan Moody a little.

Deciding frame in the 2022 Masters semifinal between Neil Robertson and Mark Williams.

One red (35 points) remains on the table and the score is Robertson 26, Williams 67.

The black is extremely close to a corner pocket, and the red is extremely close to the black.

The commentators say that, despite the point difference, Robertson can plausibly win, because, if Williams pots the black, the score will be 33–67 with 35 on.

My thought — if Williams pots the red and black in one shot on purpose (and assuming no miss is called), that would be 33–67 with just 27 on and two snookers still required.

So my question is twofold:

1. Is that something reasonable to strive for? Is it possible to reliably pot two balls that are in such a position (if you're Mark Williams!)?
2. Could the referee call a miss, allowing the position to be re-placed?

So I've been practicing solo for about 3 months now.
I've seen much improvement, some examples such as:
- Averaging 50-60% pot success on long straight blues from baulk line
- Can clear colors from spots, around 1 in 3 attempts I'd say, improving everyday
- Made a century in line-up too.

I get 2 hours practice time every weekday, and I'm absolutely alone in the hall (I literally got a key made for myself and my practice time is outside of hall opening hours)

The problem is, all the good things I see in practice go to the dumpyard in a tournament.

I literally ended up missing an off straight close range red that I wouldn't miss ever in practice.

I can't find time when hall is open or play on weekends, plus the place I go to has no good players so playing them is almost waste of time.

I'm curious, does community have any ideas on how can I simulate match situations in my practice hours? How to become more match sharp?