I'm Loopy for Snooker!

Snooker has always been a popular pastime in the UK but reached the height of its popularity in the 1980’s due to TV coverage of games at ‘The Crucible’. The players of the days, such as Steve Davis, Jimmy White and Stephen Hendry became household names and pocketed tons of cash when they became snooker champions.

However, in recent years the game seems to have lost its popularity and world class snooker players are no longer well known throughout the country. In the last few years snooker has been enjoying resurgence due in part to coverage of big games on the net, which has allowed people to watch when they like rather than being restricted to the late night broadcasts favoured by terrestrial TV companies.

Some of the current rise in popularity can also be attributed to the fact that more and more young people are being encouraged to take up snooker as a hobby because it such a positive activity to undertake. The closure of thousands of youth clubs and other facilities across the country over the last few years has only added to anti social behaviour and other problems which have come to be associated with young people in the UK.

However, throughout turbulent times snooker halls have remained open to everyone, giving young people somewhere to go to hang out and socialise whilst developing their snooker playing skills.

The wonderful thing about snooker is that it teaches valuable life skills but does so in a subtle way, so young people never suspect for a moment that they are learning anything. Perhaps most importantly snooker teaches young people about winning, losing and competition. In order to find willing opponents people have to learn how to lose graciously, which can be carried through into their daily lives.

In addition snooker can also teach young people that success requires hard work. In today’s society there seems to be a worrying attitude amongst the young that they can gain economic success without having to work for it. This is in part due to the media and their love of making people famous and rewarding them monetarily when they have done little to deserve it. However, for the majority the likelihood of making money from doing nothing is extremely slim.

Snooker teaches young people that to achieve success hard work, practice and perseverance is required. It also helps them to realise that it’s not possible to succeed all the time but that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t keep trying.