What makes The Crucible, home of the Snooker World Championships, special? Is it the venue, the closeness of the people to the players, the history?

Or is it the Knowledgeable Crowd – the intelligentsia of the snooker world. Those who cleverly applaud a well-thought out shot and provide delicate, enlightened applause when frame ball is potted. Only a hardened cynic would suggest these activities might be influenced by the fact that most people have headphones with commentary and can see TV screens with the scores.

Now, thanks to MySnookerStats, you can become part of the Knowledgeable Crowd™ from the comfort of your living room / office / snooker parlour.

The Northern Snooker Centre, Leeds, played host to the conclusion of the Snookerbacker Classic 2013 on Friday 22nd February. If you were there, you witnessed some of the highest level snooker that the amateur game has to offer. If you weren’t, then hopefully you were one of the many delighted fans around the world that followed the live scoring we provided.

Well, there’s now just one day to go until the Snookerbacker Classic Finals 2013, when our new live scoring solution gets its first public airing. There’s bound to be the odd technical glitch on the day, because unlike the original scoring apps which were lovingly tested by me and pals over a period of many months each, I’ve built this on a much reduced timescale with this showcase event in mind. Let’s just hope the lost sleep was worth it, but I think you should be prepared to be dazzled. Well, just a little bit.

While the rest of the snooker world is waking up to the skills of the brilliant young Luca Brecel, we’re keen to bring another hugely talented Belgian snooker star to your attention. She’s just been crowned the 2012 IBSF World Ladies Champion and we were lucky enough to get the full match stats from all of her performances in the event and catch up with her to find out a little bit more.

Had a fine afternoon out at Saffron Walden snooker club watching the closing stages of the Hexagon Invitational event. Now in its fourth year, it attracts a high standard crop of amateur players, thanks to the generous prize money provided by promoter Kevin Starr. In fact, last year’s winner Martin O’Donnell went on to clinch his place in the professional ranks at the end of last season after a very successful trip to Q School.

[Get your Snooker Backer Classic stats right here.]

I’m still buzzing after one of my fullest days out in a while. A 4am wake-up and the best part of four hours on the M1 brought me to the amazing venue that is the Northern Snooker Centre in Leeds – and there will rarely be a snooker club welcome to match the one awaiting the day’s players (except at the other dates in this series, of course!). Continue reading →

Brilliant trip to Fürth to see Paul Hunter Classic. Saw some great stuff out there – check out some of these performances for a taster.

The weekend of August 18-19 saw the first running of a new invitational event featuring some of the top players in Lithuania and Latvia. This time out it was a relaxed occasion with players bringing along their families to watch and soak up the atmosphere.

The Residence.

Whilst not being an officially recognized tournament by the Lithuanian Billiard Federation, the organizer hopes to attract more sponsorship and a higher profile and more entrants for next year’s event.

It was also the first time that the MySnookerStats Tournament system had been deployed in the region and it was very well received by the players. The eight invitees played out a single frame round robin group stage with the final placings being determined by aggregate point difference where frame records were identical. The top four finishers qualified for the final stages, played on the Sunday.

Baltic Snooker – Past, Present and Future!

Thomas Puodžiūnas, two-time Lithuanian snooker Champion, produced the highest break of the day with a 60 and was joined in the knockout stages by Lithuanian 6 reds champion Mindaugas Maisiejus and former Latvian champions Sergey Sergeyev and Maris Volais. In the first semi-final Thomas Puodžiūnas led 1-0 and 2-1 before eventually succumbing 3-2 to Sergey Sergeyev, while Mindaugas Maisiejus triumphed 3-1 over Maris Volais.

Maisiejus then dominated the final, relatively cruising to a 5-1 win, securing both the trophy and his invitation to defend it at next year’s event.

Mindaugas Maisiejus claims the trophy.

You can see all the stats from the event over on our tournaments pages now.

The final of the United States National Snooker Championship took place last night in the Embassy Billiards Club, San Gabriel, California. MySnookerStats was fortunate enough to have a reporter in the crowd. (The live streaming of the event was good too, but the nine hour time difference wouldn’t have done us any favours for today…) Continue reading →

I’m not sure whether it was the constant drip-drip of advertising by the Great Goggled One himself (our Dennis) during the World Championship commentary, or more likely just the discovery that there was a Legends event as nearby as Radlett, which is basically around the corner from where I live (give or take 20 miles) that enticed me to attend this encounter between two of the greatest exponents of the noble art of snooker to ever live. Or maybe it was just the fact that Michaela Tabb was on refereeing duty? I’m sure about one thing though: it wasn’t the prospect of another dazzling JV waistcoat… Continue reading →