The Top 16 Snooker players gather at the Crucible

In a scene reminisent of last year, the day before the 2017 Betfred Snooker World Championship gets underway, the Top 16 players gathered for a photo call before the press conference that started the tournament.

Gathered together were: Mark Selby, Ryan Day, Neil Robertson, Marco Fu, Shaun Murphy, Ronnie O’Sullivan, Liang Wenbo, Ding Junhui, Stuart Bingham, Kyren Wilson, Mark Allen, John Higgins, Barry Hawkins, Ali Carter, Anthony McGill, Judd Trump

Last snooker blog entry for a while - honest!

It's all over for another year, the Crucible is being put back together as a theatre.  All we have is lots of memories from the last 18 days - 17 days of competition and the press day that preceded the competition.

For the press day, we were given the opportunity to photograph the top 16 players with the trophy outside the Crucible.  In the end 14 turned up in time for the photo, though Judd Trump and Neil Robertson did make it 5 minutes later for the press conference.  And they all graciously signed a mount frame for the occasion - my best reminder of the 40th playing of the World Snooker Championships in Sheffield.

World's top 16 Snooker players at the Crucible

Friday 15th April 2016 - for the first time ever, the world's top 16 snooker players gathered together at the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield for a press conference in advance of the World Snooker Championships.

Mark Selby, Stuart Bingham, Shaun Murphy, Neil Robertson, Judd Trump, Ronnie O’Sullivan, Mark Allen, John Higgins, Ricky Walden, Joe Perry, Barry Hawkins, Martin Gould, Mark Williams, Marco Fu, Michael White, Stephen Maguire - all in place on the stairs at the Crucible.