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The Ooty Club, birthplace of snooker

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Snooker was first born millions of miles away from the UK in a small town in the Nilgiri hills of Southern India. Recently Dennis Taylor went to this club and played on the first ever table produced. The Ooty Colonial Club was set up amongst 65 hill stations for the British army. Built by Sir William Rumbold In 1836, the club was built in a colonial style  and houses a bar and billiard room. A relic of the Raj period, the mixed bar still has a strict dress code and is set in a building and surrounding area that could be produced by bursting a time bubble and even has the original ball room. Inside the Billiards Room, stands the first ever snooker table made. A rare antique that is still playable and reminds us how old the game and how far it has travelled
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Place your bets

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Match fixing in snooker has unfortunately been in operation since the very early days of the game with reports of Joe Davis having "carried" weaker opponents in multi-session matches to maximise the gate revenue. This trait continued through the history of the sport with players such as Willie Thorne and Alex Higgins claiming they were offered large sums of money to lose matches. Players may not enter a match fixing agreement on their own free will, being subject to threats of violence if they fail to submit. The lucrative criminal act is largely based in the Far East where gangs devise money making scams in various sports, using their players to infiltrate the individual sport and extract multimillion currency earnings. Although this happens, World Snooker has been very vigilant to attempt to stamp out this criminal activity in recent years. The main punishment being heavy fines or bans from the game. Recognisable figures such as Quentin Hann, Stephen Lee and Joe Joggi...
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Snooker Shootout

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The tour now moves to Watford with the start of the Shootout on the 19/02. This hybrid of snooker has a mixed reaction in the sport, attracting an audience that largely go for the beer rather than the baize. Personally, I believe there are good and bad aspects to this event. It is good that it involves every player on the tour, 128 in total, that with a one frame format and the suspense of the shot clock, any player can win a match on the day and the fact that players can gain ranking points and be entered into the Champion of Champions tournament the next season. However on the downside, this tournament lacks the finesse of snooker.The bar brawl atmosphere is best kept to a darts venue.The use of walk on girls and loud music cheapen the event and the audience are largely not snooker fans. Like Power Snooker before it, this format may work for some but not for others. Frankly I love anything that promotes the sport but like Marmite, you either love or hate the Shootout. Miracles can ...
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