Ronnie is in New York, filming a pool documentary … and taking and sharing some pictures. He clearly loves the place.
The name ronnieo147 was already taken and that account is a fake.
I already warned people countless times before about this account being fake, in vain. Now Ronnie has asked on his facebook to raise awareness and share the info.
Ronnie is in America, with his partner, Laila Rouass and his close friend, pool player Raj Hundal. Ronnie and Raj go a long way back: they both played on the pool circuit in the US, in 2005/2006, when Ronnie decided to give pool a go …
Some of us will remember this epic piece of news
Rocket in a stew
Nov 20 2005
Peter Shuttleworth, Wales on Sunday
RONNIE O’Sullivan’s recipe for snooker success is simple – just add carrots.
Arguably the most naturally gifted player of all time, Ronnie insists he has no intention of ditching the game he loves – despite suggestions to the contrary.
He wants to be remembered as the finest ever player to grace the green baize, but in order for the mercurial world No 1 to pacify his tortured soul, change could be as good as a rest.
So in order to get his potting passion bubbling again, ‘The Rocket’ is prepared to make a splash on the eight-ball pool circuit across the pond in the US. As a philosophical O’Sullivan puts it: “Sometimes if you just eat potatoes you become sick of potatoes.
“You can boil them, make chips or have a jacket potato but after a while you want something a little different. “Maybe you want to put a few carrots in the pot, some celery or a swede and add a bit of salt and pepper and it becomes a nice bit of stew. And I like stew.
“So snooker is my potato and pool is my carrots.
“It’s like anything. It’s nice to have a few things boiling in the pot, it gives it a bit more flavour and a bit more spice and variety.
“I like to enrich myself by having a variety of things on the boil otherwise things become too predictable.”
Move aside Plato, or should that be Gordon Ramsay!
O’Sullivan adds: “Pool is something new for me and it’s kind of a trial period.
“I’m not taking Pool too seriously but I want to play in a competition now to suss out the opposition and see how much I’d have to improve.
“It’s all about getting the blend right.
“People automatically assume the transition from snooker to pool is easy because the pockets are bigger but that’s nonsense.
“It’s tougher than it looks and if you’ve any aspirations of doing well then dedication, effort and time is needed because the game deserves respect.”
Snooker is still gripped by the collective fear that the game is close to losing its great entertainer, its flawed genius, its iconic figure in the wake of O’Sullivan admitting his ‘disillusionment’ with the sport.
But the two-time World Champion admits a string of perplexing public utterances, including ‘I can’t take much more of this’ and ‘I probably won’t play next year’, are often made in the ‘heat of battle’ and should be taken with a pinch of his favourite condiment.
“Getting p***ed off is part and parcel of sport,” he explains, with perhaps a little less eloquence.
“It’s all about riding the wave and being patient.
“A team sport is easier when you’re unhappy because you can hide but in individual sports, sportsmen’s vulnerabilities are all the more striking. And I’m just a human being who is not always as cool and relaxed as people think.
“Sometimes people hold you to things you say when it is said in the heat of the moment,” said O’Sullivan.
“But everyone forgets the 50 positive things you say about the game.
“I want to win many more titles and I want to stay world No 1 for a long time – is that the wish of someone who is fed up with the game?
“The measure of a great player is how many titles you win. Stephen Hendry has won seven World Championships, 36 titles and has been in the top two in the world for more-or-less 15 years and that’s an amazing achievement.
“If I achieve half of what Hendry has I’ll be satisfied, and to remain in the top eight for the next ten years will be an achievement.
“I want to be classed as an all-time great when I eventually retire.
“Whether I’m one of the great snooker players of all-time is for other people to judge. If at the end of my career, some old pros debate the best players and I was in the top four or five I’d be happy.
“It depends whether judges put results ahead of style and entertainment. Sometimes it’s hard to be successful and entertaining. I’m a naturally attacking player so people like watching me play for entertainment value.
“I don’t want to change my style of play as I haven’t done bad thus far but what drives me now is to beat Hendry’s record so there’s no question about my all-time status.”
The Rocket has come of age in terms of tournament victories as his five major title victories last season – not including his fourth BetFred Premier League crown – ensures O’Sullivan hit 18 and is the third most successful player on tour behind Hendry and Steve Davis.
The Essex showman is the youngest player ever to win a ranking tournament, the 1993 UK Championship aged 17, while his two Crucible successes were in 2001 and 2003.
O’Sullivan has fired six maximum 147 breaks including the five fastest on record and is just as comfortable with the left hand as he is with the right. He’s got the lot. Double Welsh Open champion Ronnie is back in Wales this week for the last leg of the Premier League snooker event at Cardiff’s St David’s Hall, before next month’s play-offs. O’Sullivan has already qualified for the finals in Manchester but he wants to pour some more cash into the coffers.
“I’ll keep on my snooker journey as long I keep winning,” said O’Sullivan. “But the difficult thing is when I’ve stopped winning, I might still feel I’m capable of winning tournaments.
“When you’re used to winning, you always believe you can win titles. That’s why many sportsmen go beyond their best years as they win off memory, they still believe they are capable of winning a title.
“I suppose you could put Steve Davis in that column. He knows if he hits top form he can win a title, it’s just a case of being consistent.”
O’Sullivan may be planning his 30th birthday bash but he’s still a child at heart and loves being centre of attention, a fact endorsed by my first audience with him at this year’s Wales Open.
I spoke to O’Sullivan as he sat eating a ham sandwich, with mouth wide open, in the middle of the press room.
And there’s no indication that the habitual fidget, who hops up and down in his seat like an excited school kid, growing up. “Age is just a number,” he says.
“I know many 60-year-olds who act like teenagers and teenagers who act like 60-year-olds.
“I’ve a young soul and all I want to do is enjoy myself.”
O’Sullivan clearly follows his Welsh coach and mentor Ray Reardon as he said of the six-times World Champ: “He’s 73 going on 23! Ray’s not just a world-class player but he’s a worldly guy.
“Forget sports psychologists, I’d rather spend a bit of time with Ray. “He keeps it simple and that’s what most things are about. It’s like Gordon Ramsay having a chat with Jamie Oliver. They have food in common while Ray and I both love snooker.”
it may be more than 10 years old, it still makes me smile …
Anyway, Ronnie tweeted this today:
In New York now so lots of posts and tweets about what I’m doing here with my American pool trip
Whilst Laila and Raj posted these pictures
Ronnie had hinted at that trip in one of his Eurosport blogs with Desmond Kane.
So we’ll keep our eyes peeled.
Ronnie didn’t travel unprepared … he practised “One Pocket” pool with Raj before heading to America and apparently loved the experience, as he tweeted:
Playing some one pocket it’s a great game
This one pocket is the best game I’ve played in years. Think it would go down well with cue sport fans
à suivre …
I had heard about this a couple of months ago but now it’s out in the press …
Published July 6, 2016 by Katherine Cowdrey
Snooker genius Ronnie “The Rocket” O’Sullivan is publishing a “grittily authentic” crime novel with Orion.
O’Sullivan, 40, is a five-time world snooker champion and in May received an OBE at Buckingham Palace. He is also Eurosport’s global snooker ambassador.
His upcoming thriller, Framed, is set in the “dog-eat-dog underworld of 1980s Soho” and is about “a young man with a lot on his shoulders”, called Frankie James.
Said to draw on O’Sullivan’s own compelling life story, the book tells the tale of James, whose parent aren’t around after his mother disappeared when he was 15 and his father is in jail for armed robbery. James owes rent on a snooker club in Soho he’d inherited to one of London’s toughest gangsters. Worse, he swore to his mother that he’d look after his younger, “wilder” brother, Jack. So when Jack goes to prison after turning up at the club early one morning with blood on his hands, Frankie must do all he can to help his brother avoid conviction: he needs to find out who framed Jack and why. The task will mean “entering the sordid world of bent coppers, ruthless mobsters and twisted killers he’s tried all his life to avoid getting sucked into”.
O’Sullivan’s own parents both went to prison – his father was convicted of the murder of a driver of the Kray twins’ brother Charlie, for which he was given a life sentence, and his mother went away for tax evasion – leaving him to take care of his younger sister.
The book will be O’Sullivan’s first crime novel, after publishing his autobiography, Running, with Orion in 2014.
Framed is due to be published in hardback on 17th November, priced £16.99.
Now I’m curious …
Yesterday artist Daniela Reich published this great pencil portrait of Ronnie, on twitter.
If you don’t know Daniela, here is an article written by Hector Nunns (inside-snooker) before the World Championship.
ARTIST DANIELA IS ALWAYS IN THE FRAME
Always fancied a portrait of your favourite player, or something for the club walls beyond a bog-standard photo? Then salvation may be at hand in the form of Austrian artist Daniela Reich.
Snooker has been fortunate over the years to have had a number of talented painters and caricaturists – not to mention pro David Grace – take an interest in the sport and its leading names.
And another enjoying a growing reputation and profile within the sport is 31-year-old Daniela from the town of Altheim, who produces high-quality pencil portraits.
Mark Selby
A quick browse through Daniela’s web site, www.reichdaniela.com in German and English, and you will find an eclectic mix of pictures of snooker players, her friends and family, movie stars and the Downton Abbey cast.
Hugh Bonneville
But as she looks forward to the World Championship at the Crucible, why the particular love of snooker?
Daniela says: “I first got interested in snooker during the World Championship 2012. My granny had been a huge snooker fan for years and I began to see it was a very fascinating game.
Judd Trump
“She explained to me some of the rules and I watched the rest of the WC at home. I fell in love with snooker right from the start and I have been hooked since then!
“In 2013 I attended the Paul Hunter Classic in Fürth, for the first time seeing it live and really enjoyed the atmosphere and meeting some players.
“Since then I go up to Fürth, which is about three hours away from where I live, every year and I’m looking forward to it all year round. It’s great watching the snooker, chatting to and getting some pictures with the players, and meeting other snooker fans.
“John Higgins is definitely my favourite player, I’m also a huge fan of Joe Swail, Alan McManus, Martin Gould and Ali Carter.
“Some snooker players bought a drawing but they asked me not to make it public. I did a drawing of little Finley, the son of Kyren Wilson, I was very happy about this commission.
Kyren Wilson
“I also got a commission from Allan Taylor for doing a drawing of his late friend and coach Vic Harris, which was really an honour for me.
“It’s difficult to choose a favourite drawing, but it has to be one of the recent ones, as over the last year there was quite some development in my drawing style; my latest drawings have got even more realistic.
“My favourite snooker drawing is the one of Paul Hunter I’d say, apart from that I did a drawing of Downton Abbey’s Hugh Bonneville, I really like that one, too.
Paul Hunter
“If I post drawings of players on Twitter I get reactions from most of them, they often like and retweet the drawing, some tweet me back, saying thanks, telling me they really appreciate it.
“Some even use the pictures of the drawings as profile pics. It’s nice and I’m always happy if players are recognizing my work!”
Ronnie O’Sullivan
Daniela has had other jobs, having worked in an office and as a personal assistant. But with the orders coming in thick and fast, her passion became a full-time career rather than just a sideline.
She adds: “I did my first pencil portrait in school when I was about 14 and my teacher was pretty surprised how good it was.
“When I was 16 I started doing some drawings at home, still lifes and moved on to drawing portraits of my favourite actors and musicians.
“Soon my parents thought that I might have some talent. They encouraged me and bought me some proper pencils and drawing paper. Until then I used only one single pencil on copy paper.
“When I was about 20 I did drawings of my grandparents as gift and they all loved my drawings. As I got older I lost interest in drawing a bit and other things got more important.
Stephen Hendry
“That was until 2014 when I drew some snooker players and posted them on Twitter. The snooker community seemed to like them from the start and I started doing it seriously as a freelance.
“Business was pretty good right from the start and since then it’s my main job. I’m really happy I could turn my passion into profession and if the order situation continues to flourish I really can make a living from it. It would be great if I could also do prints of my portraits.
“Portraits are definitely my favourite. I did some still lifes and landscapes, they were nothing special.
Alex Higgins
“All my drawings are done with art pencils; I also tried charcoal pencils but they didn’t work for me. I use pencils in five different strengths, paper stumps, brushes and art erasers.
“The drawings are made on a very smooth Bristol paper now. After sketching the features I work out the details step by step, then shading and highlighting. Each drawing takes me about six to eight hours.”
Stuart Bingham
Much as I love spending time with the snooker-playing fraternity, sadly I must confess I didn’t want any of their mugs on the wall at home.
But appreciative of Daniela’s work and coincidentally on the lookout for something along these lines I commissioned three portraits of my wife and two daughters (no need for one of me spoiling it!)
They are superb, just what I wanted, and will have pride of place in the hall in the house.
Further details and prices at www.reichdaniela.com
Yesterday, Ronnie recieved his OBE at Buckingham Palace, as reported by various media, this particular excerpt being from the Daily Mail
Ronnie O’Sullivan enjoyed a royal welcome on Friday as he collected his OBE at Buckingham Palace, supported by Footballers Wives actress and partner Laila Rouass.
The Rocket, a five-time world champion, was handed his gong by Prince Charles at the formal investiture, having been named on the New Year Honours list in December.
O’Sullivan, who said he was not deserving of such an award two years ago, wore a dark suit and black tie to the event on a bright and warm afternoon in the capital.
Afterwards, he posed for photographs with Rouass. The former Holby City star, who became engaged to O’Sullivan in 2013, posted a message on Twitter which read: ‘A proud day’.O’Sullivan’s mother, Maria, was also at the event to see her son pick up his award.
The snooker star said it was ‘surreal’ to be at the Palace and one of the best moments of his career.
Despite his nerves, O’Sullivan said Charles made him feel so at ease that at first he forgot to address him as ‘Sir’.
He said: ‘Winning world titles is great – and don’t get me wrong, they are special moments – but I didn’t expect to feel how I feel.’
Pictures published on various social media, including Ronnie’s FB page
And here you can watch and listen to Ronnie’s interview on the occasion: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/embed/video/1289170.html
Ronnie also spoke to the media about how inadequate preparation was at the root of his early exit at tha World Championship. This excerpt is from sportinglife
The five-time Crucible champion and tournament favourite suffered a surprise second round defeat to Barry Hawkins at Sheffield.
O’Sullivan thinks his lack of competitive action in the build up to the Championship was to blame for the early exit and has vowed to play in more tournaments to become match-sharp for next year.
The 40-year-old, who received his OBE for services to snooker from the Prince of Wales on Friday, said: “I probably wouldn’t change much other than just to play a few more tournaments.
“It’s like making a dish – you have to get the right balance of the right ingredients and this year I probably played too many exhibition matches, but for those exhibition matches I was scoring well and potting well.
“So maybe play a little bit less exhibitions and a few more tournaments, and then once you get the right balance then I have got the right attacking, right defensive game, and then I’ll be better equipped to win tournaments if I’m not playing at my best.
“It’s very difficult to win when you’re not at your best. Probably Mark Selby is one of the only players that can do it, but if I’m playing at 70, 80 per cent then I’m still capable of winning tournaments.”
O’Sullivan said of his OBE: “Winning world titles is great – and don’t get me wrong, they are special moments – but I didn’t expect to feel how I feel.”
He hopes to have another decade at the top of the game.
“I won’t beat myself up, I look forward to the next season and the next World Championships,” he said.
“If anything the standard now, a lot of the older players are doing better now than they used to, so hopefully I have got another 10-odd years.”
This morning, I found the annoucement the SnookerRoom channel is no more
Dear friends and snooker fans!
It’s time to announce that our project called SnookerRoom come to it’s end. Unlicensed broadcasting is bad, bad, BAD!!! It is illegal and it makes harm to the sport and players. Of course you understand it and you have just the same opinion, especially when you’re sitting in the office of World Snooker or in London’s branch of IMG corporation with billion annual revenue.
Honestly we have a slightly different point of view, but we can’t resist to business sharks. We don’t believe that the organization of webcasts to a small number of loyal fans of snooker caused damage to anyone of the players. We made lots of broadcasts and records of the game to those of you who could not take advantage of the TV or official streams due to territorial or some other reasons… However the commercial director of World Snooker Mr. Pearce (milespearce@hotmail.com) and IMG lawyers clearly know their interests and therefore demand to remove content from our YouTube channel as well as website broadcasts, otherwise we will be prosecuted/threatened litigation and harassment.
We tried to keep alive our channel, which has more than 66 thousand subscribers, and which entirely covered snooker life last years. Moreover, we proposed different compromises to right holders: to put a TM on every video, to indicate their authorship, to give them the whole YouTube channel just to keep it alive without removal of all videos… Well. There is no compromise. All the people who could not see snooker because of the circumstances now is left without snooker. It’s like a sad joke. they say that SnookerRoom s extremely harmful, but they use the video of our YouTube channel even at the World Championship in Sheffield.
We apologize to the players, who suffered some losses because of our activity. The losses which are declared by pricey lawyers of right holders… We hope that we did our best for the promotion of the game which we love. SnookerRoom tried to convey the universe of snooker to those who wanted it, not to harm the game. Thank you for your support, guys! Thank you for watching us, dear friends! Keep calm and love snooker!
P.S. From now @snookerroom twitter account will be maintained by its previous owner. He is not related to our YouTube channel, website or group in Facebook.
I deeply regret that it has come to this, and I will try to explain why.
I totally understand and accept that intellectual property and rights have to be respected, but then … it shouldn’t be a one way thing.
For several years, as a keen snooker fan, I have been paying for every possible official source of broadcasting available to me, in Belgium where I live. Through my telephony and Internet provider, I pay to be able to watch BBC and Eurosport – ITV isn’t available. I also have a subscription to the Worldsnooker streaming … since it became available. And finally I also pay for the Eurosport player subscription.
Despite this, only too often, I have not been able to watch the sport I love, except through “illegal” streaming. Why is that?
Despite paying to watch BBC (only BBC 1 and 2 are made available to me), I don’t have access to the red button functionality. I don’t have access to the iplayer and I don’t have access to the videos on BBC website. Recently even using a VPN hasn’t helped, they are getting smarter.
Despite paying for Eurosport, I’m not always able to watch snooker when it’s on. Why? Because I only have the choice to watch ES on the NL and FR channels, and ES2 only on FR. As you know, if you follow Eurosport, local channels have a good degree of freedom as what they chose to show and, in particular for the FR channel, snooker isn’t high on the list. Moreover, they don’t always respect their published schedules: I’ve stopped counting how often cycling, football or winter sports go overtime at the expense of the snooker, even when the snooker is “live” and the other sport is actually a replay! This also means that when, as a working person, I record the broadcasting, I’m never guaranteed to actually record what I want to record because the snooker has been shifted to another timeslot, or to the other channel, without prior notice. And, as a last note, the commentary on the FR channel is beyond terrible, they have no clue about the sport.
Despite paying for the Worldsnooker streaming, I only too often was unable to watch it because of the “territorial restrictions”. Now I wouldn’t mind if I had actual access to the snooker through Eurosport or BBC, but as I explained just above, this was not always the case, far from it.
I also pay for the Eurosport player, which has often proven to be be the most reliable official source. But then again, it did not give me access to the UK ES channels, which means that I had no chance to follow their punditry or commentary, and when I had the opportunity to follow the Ronnie O’Sullivan show, it was with an annoying voice-over translation that I don’t need and don’t want.
Finally SnookerRoom provided a wealth of videos of past matches, a service that none of the above official channels offer at all. For people new to the sport eager to learn about its history and past matches and players, it was a great source. The “Classic Matches” during the World Championship were hugely appreciated, which proves there is a demand for this, that isn’t currently covered by any “official” source. SnookerRoom did it.
For all those reasons, I find it hard to understand how a project like theirs was actually damaging the sport. Yes, I’m sure a number of people opted out of the paying sources because they knew they could watch it for free. But was this “damage” bigger than the benefits of the promotion and exposure the channel brought to snooker? Personally I doubt it very much, but maybe I’m being naive. Wasn’t there really no possible compromise?
Anyway, I once again want to thank the SnookerRoom team for what they offered to me as a fan, and it was a lot, and I don’t have a bad conscience for using their “illegal” service at all because I did and still do pay for all official sources available to me …
Yesterday was the Annual Awards day in the Dorchester in London and here is Worldsnooker report on the evening.
John Higgins was named snooker’s Player of the Year at the sport’s annual awards ceremony in London tonight.
Higgins won two ranking titles during the 2015/16 season, the Australian Goldfields Open and International Championship, and climbed from 13th to 6th in the world rankings.
Mark Selby was named Snooker Journalists Player of the Year after winning the World Championship and finishing the season top of the world rankings. Selby’s Crucible triumph also earned him the Performance of the Year award.
The Kunlunshan Fans Player of the Year award, which included votes from fans on Twitter, Weibo and WeChat, went to Ronnie O’Sullivan, who won the Masters and Welsh Open.
Darryl Hill from the Isle of Man won the Rookie of the Year award after climbing to 92nd place in the world rankings during his debut season.
The Magic Moment of the Year category was won by Ali Carter for winning the Paul Hunter Classic, his first tournament victory since returning to the tour following battles with cancer.
Former World Champion Stuart Bingham was inducted into snooker’s Hall of Fame, alongside Rex Williams and Sindhu Pulsirivong.
Snooker legend Steve Davis, who announced his retirement last month, was given a special Lifetime Achievement Award.
The awards ceremony at the Dorchester Hotel also helped raised money for Bluebell Wood Children’s Hospice, which is World Snooker’s official charity – for more details see
Full list of awards:
World Snooker Player of the Year: John Higgins
Snooker Journalists Player of the Year: Mark Selby
Fans Player of the Year: Ronnie O’Sullivan
Rookie of the Year: Darryl Hill
Performance of the Year: Mark Selby
Magic Moment of the Year: Ali Carter
Hall of Fame inductees: Stuart Bingham, Rex Williams and Sindhu Pulsirivong.
Lifetime Achievement Award: Steve Davis
I’m not sure I fully agree with the list …
Whilst winning the World Championship, despite being far from is best, was a fantastic effort by Mark Selby, I think that a few other performances this season could have been recognised as “performance of the year”:
I’m also not convinced that awarding John Higgins “Player of the year” for winning the Australian Open and International championship is the best choice. How is that better than winning the Champion of Champions and UK Championship (Neil Robertson) or the Masters and the Welsh Open (Ronnie O’Sullivan)? Granted these are two ranking events, but frankly the Australian Open isn’t the most prestigious, or one with a particularly strong and motivated field. Both the UK Championship and the Masters are far more prestigious and coveted titles than any Higgins won.
And for me the “magic moment” of the year was China Team B, two teenagers, celebrating their win over seasoned pros at the World Cup. The sheer delight of the two boys, so genuine, so refreshing, so spontaneous it was infectious.
Honouring Steve Davis was of course totally appropriate and deserved.
Also I believe that mentioning and rewarding how well Stuart Bingham acquitted himself of his ambassadorial duties as a World Champion should have been appropriate.
Today, Ronnie will be at Buckingham Palace to receive his OBE … I wonder if he will wear a tie for the occasion.
And, yes, Ronnie said, during the snooker awards ceremony, that he will play more next season … he needs to!
Ronnie O'Sullivan 