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Lots of interesting comments. Just 2 clarifications. Chinese 8 ball is the most popular billiards game. It’s also only second to Snooker in viewership. Snooker draws 60 million viewers on the Chinese sport channel…Chinese 8 ball 40 million. And gambling. Sports or otherwise. Macau dwarfs...

Although low on the radar after the Crucible, this is an important tournament for these players. The winner qualifies for the Champion of Champions.

Four years ago Ronnie lost out to an amateur, James Cahill, in the first round of thre World Chamionship. I and many others thought it ‘the end’. Two world titles later and glad we were wrong. I doubt if he will retire but he will likely be more selective in choosing what tournaments to...

Good to see Snooker as top billing on BBC sports. Pleasantly surprising with the end-stretch tight races the Premier League and other leagues.

It’s also a testament that all three of them have made a concerted effort to keep fit and healthy. O'Sullivan has been a health nut for a few years but great to see Higgins has shed weight and has a bounce to his step. The 2 top ranked players, Selby and Robertson, are also big into fitness...

Not a lot of surprises. Actually hard for there to be surprises in the final 16 as no overwhelming favourites. Any of 7 or 8 can win it all. I’ll go with Selby or Robertson. Then again maybe Trump or Higgins…or maybe Bingham an Williams will win another Crucible….or that guy called OSullivan.

I grew up speaking German and French. Although my mom is English, I can’t understand half of what OSullivan,Higgins and Williams are saying most of the time. Fortunately McManus is more articulate and I get 100%. The easiest to understand is Sean Murphy as he grew up with a posh background.

‘Jackson’ Is odd as a British first name. Sounds more like a Motown singer from the late 60’s. He’s played solid. Unfortunately defeated the Hawk. Maguire can defeat anyone on a given day. Glad he advanced against Murphy…my least favourite player in the final 32.

Crokinole! I have a Crokinole board. Can’t say i’m good at it. However, have a buddy from Saskatchewan who could be in the Crokinole Hall of Fame…if there was one. Only compensation is I can whip him at table top hockey. Now that you mentioned it I’m going to get my board out and mess...

Backgammon is humbling. I thought I was a decent player in university and then we played a couple of Armenians and were destroyed.

What’s that song? : ‘Two out of three ain’t bad’. I play billiards and darts. Might bowl twice a year. However in Canada we have ‘5 pin’ …I prefer it to Americsn 10 pin with those Flintstone balls. I was a ‘decent’ but not great 5 pin bowler at one time. I had a job pin setting and could...

True. Chinese 8 ball is ‘the’ billiard sport of skill after Snooker. It eclipses anything in Europe or North America in participants and viewership.

I mostly play Snooker but at age 68 still learning after 55 years of playing. Re the cueball. What I was trained to do is sometimes to ‘only’ watch the cueball after I make a shot. Don’t look at the object ball or care it’s it sunk or not. This seems easy to do but it’s not as it’s still in...

Pool is too vague a term. From my experience it would be Chinese 8 ball as a ‘played’ billiards game. Snooker is most popular as a spectator sport but Chinese 8 ball is close. In my country, Canada, pool is synonymous with American 8 ball. In the UK its Blackball. If you were in a bar, a...

True. Pro billiards can’t thrive from without major sponsorship, and that major sponsorship is not billiards related sports equipment. It has to be sponsorship outside of the sporting industry be banking, tech, travel, insurance, etc. These companies want their brand name associated with a...

China made cues? Why not. There are more Chinese billiard players. I’m not American. I want a decent cue, I don’t care if my cue or my new iPad is made in China or in country a or b. My car is made in Japan and not Canada.

I believe about 5% of hustling stories…and those 5% only because I’m a gullible person. Pool and bars are full of folks who like to ‘exaggerate’. They all made so much cash that they are hawking dvd videos on ‘Secrets of Pool that Mosconi taught me and made me promise not to reveal until 20...

So true. My wife and I sometimes play Snooker ‘doubles’ with another couple. She likes it not only as a social activity but less pressure on her to pocket many balls…her game improves a notch. Even if she flubs a shot I sometimes will fib and say ‘ that’s ever better’.😉

This is not to knock these performances. The Rocket is the best billiard player in history. However, it’s a lot easier to make 147 in a fun game than in a professional tournament. In a fun game O’Sullivan will try for shots that he wouldn’t risk against other pro players. There’s a few...

True. I’ve used the same cue and tips for the last 14 years. It seems some players use a different cue very two years and then on top of this change cue tips types when installing a new one. Then they wonder why they can’t make simple shots consistently. When asking about a type of cue or...