Ronnie and Jimmy were in Hamm, with Jason Francis, yesterday evening for an exhibition organised by Snookerstars/Thomas Cesal. It was a bit of an adventurous trip for Jason whose luggage didn’t arrive and he had to go for an emergency “pants shopping” 🙄

The event was sold out and Ronnie beat Jimmy by 6-2 in front of some 1400 German fans. There were two centuries.

Here are a few images shared by SnookerStars on social media

They also shared this video showing the crowd at the start of the event

And some more of the buffet organised for the “VIPs”

It isn’t the first time that Ronnie plays an exhibition in Hamm, far from it.

Notably, he did play there end November 2008, as the reigning World Champion, in an event called the “Hamm Invitational”. You can find information about that event here,

This was, I think, the first “tournament” I went to. I have been pestered to add Ronnie’s victory into his professional record. I will NOT add it because, although the event was sanctioned by World Snooker, it was essentially exhibition stuff. It was played over three days and it involved a lot more players than appear in the above-mentioned report. I remember Ken Doherty being there on the first day, and Matthew Stevens, as well as German amateurs. There were all sorts of snooker challenges going on as well as “speed snooker” with Rolf Kalb doing live commentary in the arena. A lot of banter and a lot of fun. “Sanctioned” only meant that the players were allowed to play in, without being in breach of their professional contract. The tables were not certified at professional standards either.

Here are two of the reports I had written at the time and shared by Matt Huart when he was a blogger and not a member of the WPBSA staff. The report on day one seems to have disappeared entirely.

Day 2 in Hamm (29 November 2008)

Day Two from Hamm

November 30, 2008 matt2745 snooker

Click below to read Monique’s excellent report from day two of the exhibition event currently going on in Hamm as Ronnie O’Sullivan entered the fray…

Click here to read the report over at The Snooker Forum or carry on reading here:

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“So here comes day 2 report …

It all started early afternoon, 2:30 pm, with two “quarter finals”.
Neil Robertson vs Mark J. Williams: 1-5. To Neil´s “defence” it must be said that after the Pragues exhibition he and Ronnie had a very short night. I heard they landed in Dusseldorf already as 7am and then were driven to Hamm before breakfast. No wonder he was a bit out of sorts  He nevertheless made the only one ton in the match. But nothing taken from Mark who played very solid. Ryan Day vs Barry Hawkins: 4-5. Barry started very strongly leading 4-0 while Ryan was obviously “cold”. Everyone expected a short match … but then Ryan recovered, and how! He won four on a row to make it 4-4. Decider was on. Barry held himself very well, and finished in style … only missing the century ball! Enthralling match and good snooker.

At 7 pm we got the evening session.
I started with the “semi final” between Barry Hawkins and Mark J. Williams.
Very hard fought match. Until the final frame there wasn’t more than one frame difference between the players. Both playing well and building some good breaks. I’m afraid I lost count of the centuries … I think both made at least one. Finally Barry got the better of Mark and won 5-3. His reward is to play Ronnie tonight … 

Then we had some “fun” with a “speed snooker tournament”.
1. Potting ten reds as quickly as possible
2. Random spotted colours … pot then in order as quickly as possible
3. “Shot out”. Five reds in a line between the middle pocket, to be potted in the “top pockets”, each player in turn … “penalty” style.
Shaun Murphy vs Ryan Day: 2-1 … it must be said that both players struggled with penalties  Shaun the winner by 1-0  Ronnie O’Sullivan vs Neil Robertson: 1-2 … Neil potting all five “penalty balls” while Ronnie missed the fourth  and finally Neil Robertson vs Shan Murphy 2-0. So Neil is now official ” World and Hamm Champion of Speed Snooker”

Last part: exhibition match Shaun Murphy vs Ronnie O’Sullivan: 2-3 … with three centuries in the process, one for Shaun, two for Ronnie. So you guess it it was quality. Although Ronnie’s long potting was almost not there, when in the balls he was lethal and didn’t need many chances to make the most of it. Some very clever shots to rescue the second frame after a bad start …

The venue was fully packed and even more… My estimation is that there must have been about 2000 persons there. All players were supported warmly but when Ronnie was introduced … he got a long standing ovation and you could have feared the roof would come down. It was a bit crazy  All players expressed their satisfaction and awe at the support they got and wished to be back in Germany soon possibly for a ranker!

After the match there was a autograph session. It went for about two hours: almost all of the estimated 2000 wanted something signed by Ronnie it seems.
People who are coming again today were asked to give priority to the others.
Many went home disappointed or even angry alas. Ronnie signed a zillion things, books, t-shirts, cues and piles of posters. He didn’t sign programs or tickets though, his manager making the “filtering” … I’d want to say that this was not his decision, it was not being “moody” neither. Perry and me were both in the VIP room when this was decided by the venue manager and Ronnie’s manager. Without disclosing the content of a private conversation we overheard only because they were standing just next to our table, I can assure all disappointed fans that they had some good reason for wanting the schedule kept within reasonable limits – as it was, it already finished well after midnight – and that Ronnie wasn’t even asked about it, he wasn’t even at the venue at that moment. He signed everything he was presented with, including some tickets and programs from people who had gone through the seeve, and wrote many, many personalised messages on people’s request… It was just not possible to do more.

The last frame of the Ronnie vs Murphy match is still available on YouTube

Day 3 in Hamm (30 November 2008)

Day Three from Hamm

December 2, 2008 matt2745 snooker

For those of you wondering what happened on the final day in Hamm, please click below to read the latest in Monique’s trio of updates from TSF…

To view her (and other) posts in the original thread, please click here.

Day 3 and final …

Only serious snooker on Sunday night. Best of eleven between Barry Hawkins and Ronnie O’Sullivan. Again a fully packed arena, again a standing ovation!
It was a very good entertaining match both player playing open attacking snooker. No centuries but breaks over 50 in every frame but one. Ronnie attempted a maxi but lost position after the 10 th red. Final score: Ronnie 6 – 2 Barry. Both players looked genuinely pleased after the match.
More autographs, again an incredibly long line. Again certainly it must have finished after midnight although I didn’t stay until then… at 11:45 the line was still rather impressive.

All praise to the organisers. This was a very good event with a good mix of fun and serious quality snooker. All praise to Rolf Kalb who did a very good job at animating it. Thanks to Bernie Mickelheit and Oli Strailers (I hope I spelled this correctly, please don’t hesitate to correct me …) who “ruled” the overenthusiastic crowd sometimes firmly but kindly. And above all thanks to ALL the player who gave it their best! THIS WAS GREAT.

Now heading home. Pictures to come in the coming weeks. Be patient… I’m still working with films, so developing and scanning take some time.

Be sure to keep an eye out for those photos!

The said photos – in black & white because I developed them myself – were shared on TSF but, unfortunately, apparently all my contributions disappeared after I left the forum.

These I think are the only two surviving ones because I shared them with the players on Facebook:

Willo playing cards in the players room and Barry during his semi-final match.

This was actually the first time I saw, close up, what depressive episodes were doing to Ronnie. For most of the second day, he was sat at a table, not moving, not talking to anyone, not eating, white as a sheet of paper, eyes empty. His manager, Django, had to remind him that maybe going to the toilet before his match would be a good idea… and then took him there. In the tunnel before the match, he looked so unwell that we feared he would be sick there and then. He came to life during the match, and signed any number of items afterwards.Eventually, he asked me to get him a coffee and a couple of biscuits – I had to raid the kitchen as everyone had left already – and that was all he ate on that day. He was in tears in the taxi on his way back to the hotel … ashamed to have played so badly (sic). Nothing Django or I said would console him. Eventually, Django made sure that he was safely tucked in bed … Fortunately the next day, he went for a run in the snow, and came back in a much positiver state of mind.

This was also when I saw what kind of character Willo is. Yes, he can be rough, but he’s fundamentally a good, kind person with a warm heart and a lot of empathy. He was the one who regularly came to check on Ronnie on that day, trying to get him to eat or drink something, trying to lure him to a game of cards. He was acting like an older, caring brother. The next day, when Ronnie was OK again, normal service resumed with rough banter and never ending mutual teasing.