While I hope that you readers find my posts here on PSB to be useful, there are of course some other informative websites on the net too. As a result, here are a few of my other favourites, including some strong international and young new alternatives. Apologies if I have forgotten anyone obvious!
The Big Four
First up is the one I expect most of you will be aware of, Global Snooker. Arguably the primary source of snooker information on the internet for what must be nearly a decade now, the site has recently undergone something of a redesign and is looking a lot more up to date for it.
Not only do Janie Watkins and co continue to provide excellent coverage of the main professional events, but they provide an invaluable service to snooker fans like myself by giving live updates on the qualifiers, the PIOS and other amateur events. Indeed one thing that I particularly like to do on my site is provide up to date information on the lower ranked players and this would not be possible without their hard work at Pontin’s and elsewhere.
And just as useful is Snooker Scene Blog as written by the magazine’s assistant editor David Hendon since June 2006. What Dave’s blog lacks in presentation (though there is a revamp coming apparently), it more than makes up for in content as not only does he produce some excellent articles on specific players, tournaments or the game in general, but generally the big news is reported in his blog first and that makes it an essential place to visit.
Overall it complements the magazine very well and with the recent addition of Snooker Scene podcasts enhancing the blog further, it is hard to remember following snooker without it! Like Janie Watkins, David has also helped me a lot during the months I have been using this site so thanks to both for that.
While Global Snooker provides the scores and Dave provides the inside info, for me The Snooker Forum (or TSF for short), is probably the best place around to discuss the sport with fans from all over the world. Not only are fans of the sport on TV encouraged to post but there are also sections for those who play the game at any level, as well as some excellent statistics as provided by The Statman. Like Global Snooker this site is continuing to develop and hopefully it can continue to be successful in the future.
For many British snooker fans not aware of the more specialist websites like Global Snooker, Snooker Scene Blog or PSB here, the natural place to go to find out more information on the sport in the BBC Snooker website. While that does have some useful pieces (particularly during the events that they cover) however, at other times of the year updates are relatively rare and when they do come, tend to focus on the likes of Ronnie O’Sullivan and Jimmy White.
The Eurosport website though is a different story and over the last couple of season has improved immeasurably. Not only does it provide the major news stories, but it devotes time to some of the lesser known players, incorporates some of David Hendon’s blog posts and also features a weekly blog as updated by 2008 Masters champion Mark Selby. Eurosport might attract a lot of criticism for some of their TV coverage, some of it justified, but when it comes to their website, I feel that they have done a really good job with it.
Blogs and International
Initially this was intended to be two different sections but as many of the international websites take a blog format, it made sense to combine the two!
As well as PSB and Snooker Scene Blog, there are some other interesting blogs out there, all offering a different perspective on the sport and proving useful in their own right. One of these is Sammy’s Snooker Sceney Blog which instead of looking at the serious grind of the professional game, instead puts a humorous slant on the sport and offers something unique.
I appreciate that it is not just snooker which might interest many of you however and for readers interested in their pool and billiards, the excellent Billiard Pulse stands out, as well as Pete’s regularly updated blog over at CueSport.tv. Both are well-written, informative and for fans of cue sports generally, worth a look.
It is not just England that produces good blogs though, just look at Portuguese site The Snooker Planet (profiled in Snooker Scene this month incidentally), and the Spanish Snooker147, the latter translating some of my profiles into Spanish for those of you interested. Not being able to speak either language I cannot speak in depth about the articles but both look to be updated regularly and to me capture the growing enthusiasm regarding the sport in mainland Europe perfectly.
Next up is the Russian Top Snooker website, one that again appears to be regularly updated, is attractive on the eye and full of excellent content. There are a few sites around from this area but from what I have seen this appears to be the best.
As you might expect though, some of the best international websites come from Germany and my favourite has to be the Snooker Virus. As well as providing the latest rankings, calendar and everything else which you would expect, there are also some fabulous photos and the site also does a great job of providing access to snooker news from various sources.
Finally come SnookerSpot and Snookermania, again both from Germany and definitely worth checking out if you are looking for a German snooker site!
On the up
One site to keep an eye on is the recently started 147.com which many of you may have seen on the t-shirt of snooker fan James Lawless at the Crucible this year. As you can see I am helping the site out by allowing them to mirror aspects of PSB over there, while there are some excellent videos of various snooker 147’s available in full and a discussion forum. Hopefully in time their site will develop into a top notch snooker resource as the potential is certainly there.
Official Player Sites
One thing that has always baffled me about snooker players is why so few of them have their own website. Even many of those that do seem unwilling to update them on a regular basis and it seems to be a wasted opportunity for them to interact with their supporters.
Still, this does not go for every player out there and the best effort by far in my opinion is that belonging to world number Mark Selby. As well as his blog (which like that over at Eurosport is an interesting insight into the life of a pro), he has a very impressive online shop open, featuring t-shirts, keyrings, cues, all sorts. It is this kind of merchandise that I think the WPBSA should look into producing, if not more players themselves. Overall I think that the website is an excellent one.
Predictably, Ronnie O’Sullivan also has a pretty decent one, the highlight being the active forums while Neil Robertson also has a decent effort. Finally last season’s Shanghai Masters champion Ricky Walden also has a pretty good site which you can access here.
Stat Attack
To finish off, every snooker fan surely likes a statistic or two and in addition to those mentioned on TSF earlier in the post, one of the best places to go for such information is Chris Turner’s Snooker Archive. As well as providing the lists of century break makers, tournament winners and all sorts of other nuggets, the beauty of this website is that it is so regularly updated, so you know that the lists are as accurate as possible.
Finally it might not be strictly statistics you will find here but the long-running WWW Snooker website is another excellent all-round website which amongst other things contains some excellent material relating to tournaments going back to the mid-1990’s. Want to know the frame scores to the 1996 Welsh Open for example? This is the place to go.
Conclusion
While this is not a comprehensive list of snooker sites on the internet, it is a very good starting point and I think that from these sites and of course PSB, you should be able to access all you would ever need to know about the sport and more…