TIME TO HAIL SNOOKER'S UNSUNG HEROES

The Daily Telegraph runs a worthwhile occasional column called ‘Unsung Hero’ featuring people working selflessly behind the scenes without whom the stars of a sport would have a lot more difficulty.

There are plenty of great candidates for such a feature in snooker in a number of roles, both at the Crucible and on tour generally keeping the show on the road and clearly the sport is extremely high-profile for the 17 days of the World Championship so very newsworthy.

However when approached and offered a piece that would have slotted in perfectly the Telegraph replied that is was “only for football”, ie some press officer who is probably being handsomely paid for what they do anyway at the club they support.

As someone who not only covers football also professionally and has watched it as a fan since being knee-high to the proverbial grasshopper, I do still find the slavish obsession ONLY with football to the detriment of other sports in some papers can be profoundly depressing at times.

We’ll do it on here instead, coming up soon.