Ruth McAvinia describes herself as journalist and snooker broadcaster – she
covered snooker on Irish radio, did commentary for TG4, and wrote for 110sport –
but more importantly she is a “snooker person”. Today she published this very interesting, and well written, article about Ronnie on Medium. Thank you Ruth for allowing me to share it.

My trouble with Ronnie O’Sullivan

It’s taken me a long time to come to terms with this, but Ronnie O’Sullivan is the greatest snooker player ever. He’s not the greatest professional, at times he’s a pretty awful ambassador, but he’s the best player by an ever-increasing distance. …

Read the full article on her Medium blog

I totally agree with Ruth about the necessity for snooker, and snooker fans, to look beyond Ronnie for the future of the sport, whilst enjoying him while he’s still playing and competing. He’s a one-off, a fantastic player, but as she writes he will not be around forever.

One statement I don’t agree with is that, at times, he’s an awful ambassador. Is he really? I know that he has his moments, that sometimes he says and does the wrong things. But is it really that important? Over the years he’s probably attracted more fans to snooker than anybody else. Is that not what an ambassador does? Sure, he’s not perfect, far from it, but I wonder to what extend it’s not precisely that “imperfect nature” combined with his genius at the  table that attracts – or repels – so many. After all, none of us, humans, is perfect and personally I find it hard to relate to “perfect” people who always say and do the right things. “Are they real, genuine?” is the question that inevitably comes to my mind. I can’t warm to them.

Nothing is worse than indifference and Ronnie certainly doesn’t leave people cold: he triggers emotions, divides opinions. Come to think of it, was Alex Higgins a great ambassador? Probably not by today’s criteria and still nobody can ignore how important he was for the development of snooker.

Other than that, Ruth invites readers to look around and point at the young players they perceive as serious prospects. Please, feel free to give your opinion and name your prospects in comments.

Ronnie O’Sullivan wants to bring the raucous party atmosphere of a darts crowd to a snooker event.

Ronnie O’Sullivan: Wants a party atmosphere at snooker events

The five-time world champion has landed his major titles by playing in enforced near silence at snooker’s major venues, including the Crucible.

The atmosphere can still be electric, but O’Sullivan is a regular visitor to the darts PDC Championship at Alexandra Palace, where the crowds, often fuelled by large amounts of alcohol, and razzmatazz provide an entirely different sense of occasion.

O’Sullivan wrote on Twitter: “The new rock stars are the dart players.”

He asked his followers: “By the way who would go and watch a snooker match played in a darts atmosphere?”

Despite a mixed response, O’Sullivan added: “Ok we will do one and see how it goes, I will play (Judd) trump first and see if it’s what the public wants.”

“I’d love to play in that atmosphere, and anyone who can’t, go home.”

O’Sullivan, 40, was awarded an OBE in the New Year Honours and will make his first tournament appearance since the World Championship last April when he plays at the Masters this month.

The Masters – also at Alexandra Palace – runs from January 10 to 17 and O’Sullivan starts his bid to win the event for a sixth time when he plays Mark Williams on January 12.

Similar articles have been published by other online “papers” as well, all inspired by Ronnie’s tweets today.

Personally, I’m not convinced that this would work at all, and, I’m not convinced that Ronnie would like it so much either once he’s tried it. Not in major events anyway: how could players concentrate on their shots with dozens of people screaming, gesticulating and walking in their line?

Ronnie takes a lot of pride in the quality of his performance, he hates playing badly and let the audience and himself down. How is he going to maintain that level of quality in a drunken circus atmosphere? One thing he isn’t taking into account is that dart players aren’t that close to the audience and, more importantly, they don’t face the audience when throwing.

In a way it’s a bit what the snooker shootout is trying to offer and … guess what? A number of top players have not entered it, Mark Selby, Neil Robertson, Ding Junhui … AND Ronnie, they all give it a miss. So?

Thoughts anyone?