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Snooker and Bribery

23:18 Sun 02 May 2010
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Thanks to the wonder of the internet, I’ve been able to catch pieces of the World Snooker Championships. The final is currently quite close, with Neil Robertson leading Graeme Dott 9–7 after the first day.

I find snooker quite mesmerizing; it’s tough to stop watching it once I start. Which is particularly problematic considering how long the matches (and individual sessions) are. There’s something about the commentating that holds my interest, also—unlike other sports, I’m generally not inclined to wish I could turn the commentary off at times, and in fact hearing Dennis Taylor and Ken Doherty commentate makes me feel strangely at home.

I’m not particularly interested in this final per se, although I’d like Robertson to prevail on the grounds that he’s left-handed—also, I’m currently a little biased against Dott because his manager is Pat Mooney, also the manager of John Higgins, and Higgins is at the center of a fixing scandal in which he was apparently recorded agreeing to throw specific frames in return for money. Pat Mooney was also present when this occurred, and in the video of the incident appears to be completely at ease with the business at hand.

It’s quite disturbing. Higgins claims that he felt frightened by the situation and that he was willing to say anything to get away from the individuals he was dealing with; the video doesn’t necessarily rule that out but does make it seem implausible. It certainly looks damning, and he’s been suspended. The repercussions for the sport could be quite serious indeed.

This is also the 25th anniversary of possibly the greatest World Snooker Championships final ever, the 1985 match between Dennis Taylor and Steve Davis, which went to the very last black. I stayed up rather late to watch the end of that final, which remains the most-watched BBC2 program ever.

One Response to “Snooker and Bribery”

  1. Graham Says:

    You ever play pool with Fionn?

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