Ben Harrison claimed the title with a 10-6 victory over Ant Parsons in a fine encounter which saw both men scoring solidly throughout, registering 83% and 81% positional success respectively.

After a seesaw morning session in which neither player could establish a lead, Ben forged ahead at the start of the afternoon session and then refused to let a determined Ant come back at him, answering an excellent 78 from Ant with a 75 of his own to maintain the breathing space he’d earned. He eventually closed out the match by clinching the final two close-fought frames he needed.

Ronnie was at his imperious snookering best throughout the entire week at Alexandra Palace, dropping only 7 frames on his way to a fifth Masters title.

We’re very excited to bring you our first live scoring event from Spain on Sunday 27th October. This is an invitational tournament organized by Ander Isuskiza, the driving force behind Spanish Snooker Blog, himself a qualified EBSA coach. The event will feature some of the best players currently plying their trade in the country.

And we have our first four qualifiers through to Finals Day:

Ben Harrison

Kishan Hirani

Adam Wicheard

Jamie Clarke

To keep up with the latest order of merit list (#SBOOM), head over to our Score Centre.

For a full round up of the first weekend’s events, head this way to hear from the man himself: snookerbacker-classic-2014-gloucester-opening-weekend-review

Ronnie makes it five: 2013 World Snooker Champion. Photo courtesy of Monique Limbos.

Here’s a few adjectives that should never be used in association with Ronnie O’Sullivan: natural, gifted, blessed. It might look that way to the rest of us, but the truth is he’s one of the hardest working players the game has ever known.

He may actually have been born for this game, but only in the sense that his dad started him off playing top players from a very young age and gave him access to a table, instruction and practice. He studied every aspect and nuance of the other players’ techniques and cherry-picked from these to produce a style better than any of them. In many respects, you could say snooker was put on a plate for him and he simply took advantage…

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.