A funny thing happened at the Crucible tonight....

Not something that has ever happened in my time there so far at the World Snooker Championships......

In the first round match between 2015 champion Stuart Bingham and qualifier Jack Lisowski with the match 4-5 after the first session, in the first frame (frame #10) of the second session, Jack Lisowski had rushed into a 60-0 lead and one of the lights over the table went out:

Referee Jan Verhaas looks at the light, Stuart Bingham points it out to the World Snooker crew.

After some discussions, the players agreed to complte the frame.  The light metres then came out and it was decided that the light was good enough all over the table to continue - the frame eventually going 76-22 to Jack Lisowski who then went on to win the game 9-7.

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

World Snooker Championship - Day one and Ali Carter knocks out defending champion Stuart Bingham

A late night on the first day of the 2016 World Snooker Championship saw defending champion trail two-time finalist Ali Carter 5-8, and then rally to lead 9-8 with breaks of 88 and 113.  A century break by Carter saw it tied at 9-9 and then Bingham missed twice missed the pink in the same middle pocket to exit in the first round.

 "I'm gutted to be going back home," said Stuart Bingham at the press conference afterwards.

First session at the 2016 World Snooker Championships

The tradition is for the defending champion to have the honour of opening the next Championships by playing the first match.

Today, Stuart Bingham was drawn against Ali Carter and, on the other side of the barrier, Marco Fu took on Peter Ebdon.

 Stuart Bingham walks out to start his match on Table 2.

 Stuart Bingham and referee Paul Collier who will also referee the final.

 In the match on Table 1, 2002 Champion Peter Ebdon was playing Marco Fu.

 14th seed, Marco Fu.

 Stuart Bingham rues an early miss that let Ali Carter take a 4-1 lead.

 Ali Carter lines up a long shot to get out of a snooker.

The opening event of the World Snooker Championships - the Cue Ball

For the past 13 years there has been a black-tie event on the eve of the Snooker World Championships to raise money for the nominated charity of the Championships.  The St Paul's hotel is the venue and this year's charity is Sheffield Children's hospital: http://www.tchc.org.uk/

Rob Walker was the compere for the evening, and Dan Walker (no relation) was there supporting the Children's Hospital.

 Stuart Bingham made a welcome appearance to do a short presentation.

This included a presentation to the Children's Hospital Charity of a photograph of the world's top 16 Snooker players from earlier in the day, with the mount signed by each player.  Another copy of the same was auctioned for £1000 on the night!

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.

Gearing up for the World Snooker Championships

One week today and the 2016 World Snooker Championships sponsored by Betfred will be under way at the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield with Stuart Bingham defending his title.

Almost as soon as 'The Nap' finished it's run at the Crucible last Saturday, the theatre staff started moving out of the venue so that it could be prepared for the competition with rooms emptied and paint refreshed and the scenery set for another World Championship.
 

The qualifiers are running now at Ponds Forge - I watched Jimmy White recently when he came agonizingly close to making it through the first round.

The last pre-event before the Championship itself will be the Cue Ball on Friday 15th April - the thirteenth time this has been held, at the St Paul's hotel.

2015 - a year in review

As the year starts to draw to a close it's time to look back on another great year for sporting photography.

The year usually starts off with a host of indoor athletics meetings, culminating in the UK Indoor Athletics Championships (http://www.britishathletics.org.uk/british-athletics-series/indoor-british-championships/) at the EIS in Sheffield where Katarina Johnson-Thompson set a new UK record for the high jump of 1.97m:

As Spring really starts to get going, Sheffield hosts the Snooker World Championships (http://www.worldsnooker.com/) over 17 days at the Crucible theatre.  Ronnie O'Sullivan again was a main focus of attention and, having missed all of his noteworthy antics this year (taking his shoes off, putting the chalk on the table, hitting the table with his cue...) it was good to see Stuart Bingham come good and claim the title:

Manchester hosts one of the series in the 'Great City Games' (http://www.greatcitygames.org/manchester) where athletics comes out of the stadiums and onto the streets.  Jessica Ennis-Hill continued her comeback with a strong performance in the 100m hurdles:

June saw me splash out on a GoPro Hero4 (http://gopro.com/) which has been very impressive it's capabilities for recording video while stuck on the end of a long pole (basketball) and propped up at the base of the water jump (athletics - steeplechase).

Nottingham hosted National Table Tennis day (http://tabletennisengland.co.uk/news/how-will-national-table-tennis-day-inspire-you/) in July and the highlight of this fest was playing a game against Desmond Douglas:

September saw the 10th running of the Great Yorkshire Run (http://www.greatrun.org/great-yorkshire-run) and I was fortunate enough to be asked to be the official photographer for the day which resulted in a double-page spread in Athletics Weekly:

And so the year finishes with Sheffield Sharks (http://www.sharksbasketball.org/) delighting the home crowd at the EIS with a hard-fought 69-66 win over the London Lions:

A brief rest over Christmas and then it's back to it starting 2nd January 2016 with the 'Finish Line' indoor athletics event at the EIS, Sheffield.

All the best to everyone over the festive season and especially for a great year in 2016.

Stuart Bingham - Snooker's new world champion coming to terms with his win

Four months after beating Shaun Murphy 18-15 to become the Snooker World Champion, Stuart Bingham who started the tournament as a 50-1 outsider, is coming to terms with what this means.

All of the long hours and travel mileage of the many years of his career came to a fruition in early May 2015 as he put aside any tag of being a 'journeyman' and with that broad grin which came with the win, accepted his position at the top of the pile.

Stuart Bingham holds aloft the World Snooker Championship trophy, Crucible Theatre, Sheffield, May 2015

His intention is to continue to enter many events on the tour as "...it is a numbers game...your number might come up once or twice..."  He is on the lookout now to add the UK Championship or the Masters to the trophy cabinet.

We all look forward to seeing him back at the Crucible next April.

It's over...the Betfred 2015 World Snooker Championship has it's gripping finish!

On a late night at the Crucible theatre in Sheffield, Stuart Bingham finally overcame Shaun Murphy 18-15  to win his first World Championship.

Beginning the session with a  14-11 lead, Murphy started a comeback that, at 15-15, had him the bookies favourite.  The 31st frame was an epic 63 minute 31 seconds long but Bingham eventually took it to close in on victory.

He made a steady break of 65 to go 17-15 in front and clinched the title with a brilliant 88.   In doing so, he became the oldest champion since 45 year old Ray Reardon in 1978.

Collecting £300,000 as the winner, he should rise from tenth to second in the world rankings.

 Stuart Bingham salutes the crowd who had cheered him on both days of the final.

 It had been a good final, enjoyed by both players who were genuine in their respect of each other.

 Barry Hearn, who has done so much in the last five years to turn around world snooker, and Kell Brook (IBF welterweight world champion).

 Fred Done of Betfred who were so welcome back to the Crucible this year.