Snooker on the Internet 2012

Those who know me, know that there are a few reasons why I decided to start PSB back in 2008, but one obvious reason was the distinct lack of quality snooker websites on the internet. These days however the landscape is a little different and for a fourth year in a row, I highlight what to me at least, are the must read sites for snooker…

The early sentences of this article barely require much alteration from year to year because the quality of the sites speak for themselves and once again Snooker Scene Blog takes top honours. Still the only snooker site that I make a point of viewing as a daily habit, the news, stories and opinion are second to none and are essential reading for anyone wanting to keep abreast of the latest developments in professional snooker.

While Dave brings the behind the scenes information however, when it comes to latest scores and results, there is nowhere better than Hermund Årdalen’s newly re-branded snookerorg (formerly WWW Snooker) website, which appears to be going from strength to strength. Whatever the tournament, the results, drawsheets and latest scores are always updated and perhaps more importantly, given the history of the site and the commitment of those behind it, I know that I can trust the information that it brings 100%.

Elsewhere, the Snookerbacker blog continues to go from strength to strength with its mix of betting tips, occasional photos of scantily clad German ladies and general carelessness. Ok on a serious note, the humour, whilst going over my head some of the time (but then most things do), helps to make the site unique and make it always worth coming back for more.

What SB deserves particular credit for though is his endeavours in organising his first snooker tournament, the Snookerbacker Classic. At the time of writing, 2012 SB Classic champion Martin O’Donnell stands just two matches away from a place on the main tour, as he prepares for a fourth round clash with Paul Davison in round four of the first Q School event of 2012.

As I explained last year, aside from ‘is there a stream?’ perhaps the most common question that I receive is where can a reliable list of century breaks be found and sadly this is the case even more now following the sad death of Chris Turner, who until then maintained a comprehensive record at his Snooker Archive.

While there is no such list at the site, the first new entry for 2012 to this page is the CueTracker website, which is continually being updated with results going back from present day until (at the time of writing), 1998. A useful resource for head to head stats and various other stats, this one is only going to get better over time.

Elsewhere there are various other snooker blogs around these days for those who like to read everything, the most prominent including OnCue, Maximum Snooker and SnookerHQ. I would be lying if I said that I read the sites regularly (oh for there to be more hours in the day), but I have met the men behind the blogs and know that they are all keen snooker fans who are looking to help promote the game which can only be a good thing.

Aside from the blogs, there is of course the official World Snooker site which while not being perfect, is a lot better than it was a few years ago and is particularly useful for finding the schedule of matches during tournaments, as well as detailed match reports. Why they insist on publishing drawsheets in the form of badly scanned pdf documents I do not now, but generally, with near-faultless live-scoring and now live streaming, it is more functional than it once was.

Turning to the players themselves, this remains one area that above all others, is perhaps most obviously lacking. The sites of Mark Selby and Shaun Murphy are still among the better ones, though Mark’s blogs have become more infrequent in recent times and the fact that the site describes him as the ‘world #4 snooker player’ is perhaps not the best sign. Those of Ronnie O’Sullivan and Neil Robertson are among the other good efforts, Ronnie’s in particular being regularly updated.

Rather than maintain websites, it has instead been the trend for players to share their news via Twitter instead and you can find my list of snooker tweeters here. Generally speaking, the snooker community on Twitter has been a vibrant one for a couple of years and in most cases it is valuable to be able to interact with the players and ask them the questions that in the past we have purely been able to speculate on.

Are there any other new contenders? A relatively new addition is that of Living Snooker which brings blogs from various professional players, but generally speaking it is the tried and trusted named above that continue to be the ‘go to’ places for snooker news.

As ever, while I am sure that I will have forgotten a number of sites, by following the above links you should not go too far wrong and if that still isn’t enough, click here to view my full links page, including some of the various international websites.