Rodney has to Walkerway

F5 was the key that most Snooker fans were pressing today. Why? To find out the news on today's AGM. Refreshing snooker websites every 3 seconds to see if it had been announced.

The suspense was crazy. As Dave Hendon said on his Twitter, it made Bush v Gore like a parish council election. So, what was it about?

It was simple, professionals voted on whether he should go or stay, with "go" winning 32-24.

Even from the moon you could hear the cheers of joy from the snooker world as they refreshed Snooker Scene blog to see the headline "Walker Defeated."

It was confirmed by World Snooker soon after that Walker and some other people that no one really cares about had been dismissed. So long!

So who will become chairman now?

I reckon it's between Barry Hearn, Me and this guy.

Snooker in the USA?

The Snooker World Tour plans announced plans for tournaments all over the World. Germany (waiting for a while), Australia (Robertson) and Macau (Chinese fans) are all fine but one struck me as crazy. USA? U.S.A? Since when did they ever care about Snooker? I went to Florida recently and on the sports channels it was NFL, NFL, NFL, Baseball, Baseball, NBA and for like half an hour I discovered some Woman's Pool. The stories of great Woman's Snooker players are out there but they all seem to end with "and after realising she had no money she went off to play in the US Pool Tour and became rich again. Pool is big in America, Mosconi Cup in about a week (can't wait) proves that. But why has Snooker never taken off? Does anyone like Snooker in the States? Do they have their own tournaments? Detective Sammy is on the case.

The USA do have their own federation it turns out, The United States Snooker Federation. And it has it's own website, SnookerUSA.com.

The association was founded by a Brit born in 1991, Michael Collins who wanted to promote Snooker in the USA. It is a member of the IBSF and in 2006 California held the World Team Championships.

In May last year the USA Snooker Championships took place with Ahmed Aly El Sayed winning in the final. You can watch the First Frame here.

This forum proves there is a small but interested fan base and it would be great to see them getting excited if a tournament was announced. Who knows? Maybe a young budding star is out there and could be the first American Pro. Maybe one day, ESPN will be showing Snooker as well as their endless supply of Basketball and Ice Hockey (how can anyone find them interesting?).

Lets hope this proposed U.S Open goes ahead.

Rodney? Barry? Or ME!?!?!

So the time has come, will the disaster end? Will Barry save the day? Of course, it will only happen if the players vote for him, but you know what? I'd quite fancy a go at ruling the World of Snooker, so here is what I would do...

1. Create the "Rodney Walker Award for Absolute Awfulness" and give it to whoever comes 96th in the end of season rankings.

2. Freeze Michael Holt's ranking if he gets in the Top 16 so he stays there till he dies. There's no rule saying the Head can't be bias towards his favourite players.

3. Screw ITV and Sky Sports and put all new tournaments on Bravo. With each match followed by an episode of "When Snooker Goes Bad."

4. Give Earl Strickland a tour wildcard. Here's why.

5. Play over the top dramatic music whenever a player comes out. Suggestions could be this, or this, but surely this.

6. Due to the fact Prestatyn isn't low enough, hold all qualifiers in Runcorn in a 1-Star Hotel.

7. Give Reanne Evans a wildcard. Seriously.

8. Make Pro Snooker Blog and Snooker Scene Blog official websites.

9. All players must get Twitter.

10. Change the shot-clock on the Premier League to 5 seconds with no time-outs.

11. Teach Barack Obama how to play, and then watch in satisfaction as America go snooker-loopy.

12. Hold a tournament on the Moon with the Qualifiers on the I.S.S.

13. When a re-spotted black is played. Make the black-ball remote controlled and give the controls to the player not taking the shot. Hours of fun deciding the frame.

14. Give further tour wildcards to Jedward, Mr T, This Guy, Susan Boyle and Bruce Forsyth.

So what are you waiting for? VOTE FOR ME!

Or Barry

Happy Birthday to Me!!!

Amazing, one year ago I decided to start a blog. I hadn't really a clue what to call it but chose Snooker Sceney, it sounded funky. I started just writing about what was going on in the Snooker World. I didn't update it much and I lacked motivation to update it.

At the end of the year I decided to do something different, a humorous look at what would happen in 2009. About a week later, it was spotted by Cuesport TV, and the blog started to become known. I then decided it was time for a change, so I redesigned the website to turn it into a fun place for Snooker fans. More funny blog entries followed and I started to get a legion of fans. Comments came, I was linked to on websites, I was mentioned on a Russian Forum and I appeared on Bongo from TSF's sig.

It wasn't long until I decided to join Twitter. It's been great fun and I managed to get to my target of 50 followers by the end of the year quite comfortably.

Who knows what the next year holds for Snooker and more importantly(ish), me. I hope you enjoy the blog as much as I do and keep reading!

Thanks for a great year.

Sammy

My Top 5 Fave Blog Posts:

1. My Magical Crystal Ball

2. Tour Survival for Dummies

3. If They Were Football Teams...

4. My Crystal Ball is Fixed!

5. 10 Things You Didn't Think Last Season

My Top 5 Readers

1. Bongo

2. Pete Williams

3. Matt from PSB

4. Whoever Subscribed First (Can't Remember Name)

5. Everyone Else

My Top 5 Players

1. Michael Holt

2. Davy Morris

3. Tom Ford

4. Judd Trump

5. Ali Carter

Don't Worry! I'm Still Here!

Readers would probably have noticed that the Shanghai Masters Daily Reviews stopped at Day Two. And, it did. Everything sort of went Wrong. I suddenly realised how busy I was that week. And my Sky+ was clogging up. I then ran out of time, had failed recordings and just lost it. Very Annoying. So those who suspected I went to cry in a corner for a week because Holt lost were wrong(ish). Otherwise there hasn't really been anything to write about apart from the Premier League which... (Dramatic Pause)

I'M GOING ON THURSDAY!

Woo Hoo!!!

Can't Wait cause it's gonna be AWESOME.

I'm gonna go and try to be all PSB and all that by updating using my phone. But I'm not sure how to do that. Meanwhile, (again hopefully) I'll try to update with some pictures using my DSi and Facebook. Yay! Again not sure how to do that but I'll still try. Can't wait till Thursday!

Wow, my spelling and grammar goes out the window when I'm excited.

Shanghai Masters Day Two: What Made Me...

Laugh: Ricky's fluke snooker that led to Mark lobbing his chalk across the table. Turned the match, the fluke not the chalk.

Cry: Marcus Campbell letting slip a 4-0 lead against Hendry. Horrible Hendry I feel so sorry for Marcus, although he should of finished it off earlier.

Need a Stress Ball: Joe Johnson's commentary. Please. Just. Stop. Now.

Dance: Music, nothing in the Snooker.

Fast-Forward: God, don't they have any adverts to show other than the "Eurosport Text Service?"

Get Excited: Eurosport are gonna show Holt v Murphy not Ding's match! WOOOO!!! Anything bad I've said about Eurosport must be reversed.

Shanghai Masters Day One: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

During this week I'll be reviewing each day of the Shanghai Masters, with the Good, Bad and Downright Ugly. Here's Todays!

The Good: Snooker's Back! Well that was a certainty. After waiting 4 Months, the Season has begun, woop woop! Shame there's only 6 tournaments, but still, woop woop!

Dave Gilbert's New Hair Cut! Looking at his hair last season, I was thinking that was the reason he was underachieving, and he has responded with some new shorter, spikier, better look.

Eurosport Not Overrunning! OK, two matches went to 5-1 but well done to Eurosport for giving good coverage. Dave and Mike commentated well and we hardly missed anything. (Still not as good as BBC though)

Tiang Penfei! How is this guy not on the Tour? He was amazing! Didn't quite get the 147 but with like 5 50 breaks in the match it shows why he should be on the Tour!

The Bad: The Crowd! Apart from the Liang match, where were they?

The Chairs! What. The. Hell. They were shaped like Car seats! Obviously because of the Sponsor. Still, I'd love to sit in one and while my opponent was at the table I'd pretend to drive!

Liang's Miscue! Think it was Frame 2 when Liang was about to cut a red in and completely miscued it! He left Gilbert right in. Probably the day's highlight. I laughed like mad but I have no idea why.

The Ugly: Frame 4 of the Liang-Gilbert match! Never has a single frame has so many pots missed. Summed up the whole match, so boring.

OVERALL:

A Good fun start to the season. Looking forward to seeing Selt v Higgins tommorrow!