It takes a lot to rattle Marco Fu. After all, we are talking here about a man that man when unwillingly and wrongly dragged into the ‘Chinese cheating’ row a couple of years ago responded with the sledgehammer blow: “Everyone is entitled to their opinion.” So it should come as no big surprise that he is not in the least bit fussed when it comes to how he is regarded when it comes to nationality. His birthplace of Hong Kong, of course, has technically for many years been part of China but the 36-year-old Fu insist he would be happy to be introduced as being from the Moon as long as he is winning.

World No9 Fu said: “I don’t mind at all whether people write Hong Kong or China in reports, or when I am introduced into the arena. I see myself as both from Hong Kong and Chinese, it’s really like saying Jimmy White is from London. He is also from England. Hong Kong is still a special administrative region. It is Chinese but even there has kept some separate identity. I mainly get introduced in the UK as being from Hong Kong, in China tournaments they would say ‘China Hong Kong’. It is a bit different, because they wouldn’t say ‘China Shanghai’ just because a player came from Shanghai. And then in the Asian Games there are three separate teams, China, China Hong Kong and China Macau.”

One of the reasons we set up this website is that it isn’t always easy to interest the national press in the UK in snooker. All too frequently, if they do carry anything about snooker it’ll be somebody knocking the sport, usually employing a catalogue of tired old clichés. This is why we were pleased to see snooker defended by one of Britain’s leading sports journalists, Martin Samuel, in his column for GQ.com, which can be read at the link below.

http://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/comment/articles/2014-01/14/pub-games-daylight-snobbery-darts-pool-snooker

O'SULLIVAN'S CHINESE INSPIRATION

World champion Ronnie O’Sullivan has revealed the inspiration and full background for THAT Chinese song which provided the musical backdrop for his walk-on against Rob Milkins, and that he will be using not only while he remains this year’s Masters but for the foreseeable future.

The Rocket, a four-time Masters winner, raised one or two eyebrows on Tuesday night by picking a Chinese anthem for his grand entrance

O’Sullivan has ditched Robbie Williams’ ‘Let Me Entertain You’ for the ditty, seen by millions as a a motivational tune – think M People’s ‘Proud’ and you wouldn’t be far off – and which means ‘A Man Should Better Himself’.

The theme from popular Hong Kong Fung Fu  film ‘Once Upon a Time in China II’ was sung at various times by both Hollywood star Jackie Chan and George Lam.

And snooker’s ‘People’s Champion’ O’Sullivan claims he identifies with the hero of the movie, played by martial arts screen legend Jet Li, who is loved by the masses.

O’Sullivan said: “My Chinese mate Kenno was doing his shopping for his restaurants and in his car he said listen to this, played it to me and I thought it was great.

“He told me all about the background, Jet Li plays this hero Wong Fei-Hung – he fought everyone off who was trying to invade China with his martial art skills.

“He was the People’s Champion in the movie, which I liked. I have heard the music and loved it and I will be watching the film soon.

“It is a pretty big motivational song over there, and Ken said why not use it for your walk-on and I loved it. Robbie Williams is a nice song, but it is a bit cheesy.

“It is not a one-off, I am sticking with it for this tournament, and probably for ever.

“I have massive support in China and spend time there, I love the place, the culture and everything about it.”

Shaun Murphy should probably take most of the credit for his much-needed win over Ding Junhui at the Masters – but the former world champion was left wondering if other motivational forces had subtly contributed to his success, having chosen for the first time the ‘Superman’ film theme music for his entrance.

Murphy, 31, said: “It struck me over Christmas watching the darts here that walk-ons are your little opportunity to have a bit of fun and show a bit of your personality. I used to have ‘It’s a Kind of Magic’ being the Magician, and the theme from ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’, because I liked it.

“Then it hit me that I have been the biggest Superman fan since I was six, so why don’t I use it? It’s a piece of music I really like, everyone else likes it, it is a bit of fun, and that’s it. It only puts extra pressure on myself walking in to Superman if my opponent has Kryptonite, and luckily Ding didn’t have any with him.”

The power cut a couple of minutes before the start of the Ding Junhui/Shaun Murphy match had officials for the tournament, broadcasters and venue scampering around the building desperately trying to establish the seriousness of the situation, and more importantly how long it would take to fix. In the end, the emergency response team all performed admirably, and a delay of 75 minutes was a result for all parties. It was originally feared it might take several hours to regain the electrics, something that would have impacted on the Ronnie O’Sullivan/Rob Milkins match and may well have resulted in one of the clashes being played very late or very early. But in the end none of that was necessary, and BBC cameraman Jim Cemlyn-Jones got his big moment, doing an impromptu acoustic guitar set in the manner of Cliff Richard - and not so much The Office’s David Brent, as he didn’t have to go home for his guitar. It was in the car.

All of the players both involved, in to practice, and former greats waiting around to commentate insisted they had never seen anything like it before. Murphy headed off to practice before rejoining the dimly-lit party in the arena led by MC Rob Walker, and Ding was taking pictures in the gloom while refuelling on an apple. No, not that one.

Dennis Taylor, the 1985 world champion, was taking it all in his stride. “I haven’t ever seen this happen in a big tournament, never,” he said. “But I do remember plenty of exhibitions during the strikes back in the 1970s which we had to do by candlelight.”

It is uncertain whether that solution would have got past the Ally Pally management on health and safety grounds.

In the build-up to the Shaun Murphy/Ding Junhui match no fewer than EIGHT former world champions were mingling and exchanging banter in the media centre at the same time. The cast list included Murphy himself as he prepared to go out into the arena, Stephen Hendry, Steve Davis, Dennis Taylor, Terry Griffiths, Joe Johnson, John Higgins and Ken Doherty, with a combined haul of 22 world titles won at the Crucible.

Johnson and Higgins were also quick to patch up their minor spat that hit the headlines during the UK Championship, initially sparked by a very strong headline placed on a piece the Yorkshireman had done for a Scottish newspaper discussing the Glaswegian’s recent spell of poor form and changes of cue this season.

John Parrott can hardly contain his excitement in the media centre over Everton’s strong showing in the Premier League this season, telling everyone who will listen that under manager Roberto Martinez his beloved Toffees are not only getting results but playing a more attractive style of football than was seen under David Moyes, something that has seen him attending most games. Parrott and the assembled hacks are in general agreement that after the sale of Belgium star Marouane Fellaini to Manchester United for an astonishing £28million and effectively swapping Moyes for Martinez, Everton chairman Bill Kenwright is the man you would want selling your house for you. Parrott's devotion has dropped him in hot water this season, though. Leaving Old Trafford with ardent Red Devils supporter Ken Doherty after watching Everton win 1-0 earlier in the campaign, an elderly woman United fan started throwing food at the Liverpudlian.