I was again invited by World Snooker to be the lead coach in the World Snooker Cue Zone on the opening two days of the 2014 Dafabet World Professional Snooker Championships in the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield. This year World Snooker Coaching launched a new purple polo shirt which is in association with their official charity the Bluebell Wood Children’s Hospice and all coaches will be wearing the new polo throughout the Championships. World Snooker are responsible for delivering Cue Zones at all major TV events and the objective is to promote the World Snooker Coaching Programme. The Cue Zone are a showcase for the general public to play on a professional Star match table. I was joined on the second day by fellow World Snooker Coach Steve Rutter in the Cue Zone which was held again in the Winter Gardens beside the famous Crucible which is also used as the main filming area by the BBC during the Championship.
” The atmosphere around the Cue Zone and the Crucible was incredible and it was great to be invited back by World Snooker to lead the Cue Zone. The first two days featured two main players as it saw the return of Ronnie O Sullivan and a great win for Ireland’s Ken Doherty”.
The public practiced some of my Training routines and were awarded World Snooker Gold medals and World Snooker Certificates. This year we had a large Irish contingent over to support Ken and to watch the snooker which included some of Ireland’s top Junior players like Andrew Doherty, Paul Smith and Daniel Merrigan from Dublin. All players performed excellent and cleared numerous routines and were awarded medals and certificates. This year the famous World Snooker Championship trophy was on display and who knows who will eventually lift the title in two weeks. When I lifted this beautiful cup I got the sense of history of the great Champions who have lifted it down throughout the years and it is the dream of every snooker player to hold it aloft and be crowned the World Champion.
Finally I would like to thank World Snooker, Jason Ferguson, Chris Lovell and fellow World Snooker Coach Steve Rutter for making the two days so enjoyable and I am already looking forward to returning next year.
