Davis, Hendry, O'Sullivan, Thorne - when it comes to sport, snooker has it all

How can anyone say the World Snooker Championships are boring? Fans of the game love it!

Snooker is a game of strategy and skill - the brilliant break building, tactical safety play and weird trick shots all in one. Just look at the array of veteran past champions like Dennis Taylor, Cliff Thorburn, Joe Johnson and then the new boys like Ronnie O'Sullivan, Shaun Murphy and Ken Doherty.

How can we forget the game's greats who have won the World Championships more times in recent years than anyone - that ever-present '80s legend Steve Davis and his '90s rival Stephen Hendry? The play of all these guys is phenomenal and a pleasure to watch in rainy April, climaxing in a Bank Holiday bonanza weekend of the great snooker final.

Football, tennis, cricket - as a youngster growing up in Blackburn,  I'd watch absolutely any sport I could find on TV. Things never change and even the curling World Championships got my attention last weekend along with the US Masters golf.

There are different reasons for watching different sports - the skill, the tactics, the power and the quality. But snooker has it all.

In my childhood, I used to love watching the World Championships. I would switch on the TV and watch the balls being potted for hours. My grandad would visit and there we were, eyes glued to the TV while the women chatted. ''Shhhhh!'' we would say, but those ignorant of the game's qualities would talk louder and comment that there was nothing to listen to anyway, just the sound of ball against ball.

However, the commentary is part and parcel of the game. We all like to see how the tactics unfold and hear the commentators discussing which shot the player should go for and whether a red will pass into the corner pocket.

My all-time hero as a child was Willie Thorne. Although now more used to commentating than actually playing, Thorne was a great and I would often stay up late just to catch the highlights on BBC2 of his World Championship match.

You always feel that any player has a chance of beating his opponent - but because the Crucible championship matches are over a great number of frames, only the very best can sustain such good form throughout the two weeks in Sheffield. All of which goes to show the importance of snooker's most prestigious tournament.

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