A cosmopolitan audience on Saturday’s semi-finals day at the Masters reflected the growing influence of the rest of Europe within snooker, and not just the better known countries of Belgium, Germany, Poland and Bulgaria. Fans who had travelled from Finland, Austria, Sweden and Iceland approached MC Rob Walker and asked for a name-check in the arena. Those who had made the trip from Reykjavik were slightly startled when the sometime athletics and Olympics commentator began to regale them with tales of his stag do in the city, a 23-strong mission that involved tobogganing down glaciers.

WILLIAMS TARGETS MASTERS RETURN

There were some familiar faces absent from the Dafabet Masters line-up this year, including Mark Williams, Ali Carter and Graeme Dott. The 38-year-old Williams, known for being fairly laid back about all things snooker and indeed life, has made the most of the week off but even the Welshman, a two-time winner of the title, admitted he has unfinished business at the tournament for the top 16 only after missing only his second Masters in 18 years.

World No18 Williams also admitted that he has not been glued to the TV from afar, with Ronnie O’Sullivan almost the only player whose matches he can sit down and enjoy from start to finish.

He said: “Of course I would have preferred to have been at the Masters, there’s a few of us not made it that are usually there with Ali Carter and Graeme Dott. But I have made the most of the week off and enjoyed myself.

“I have taken the kids to school, spent time with the family, been out for a few drinks, chilled out, and played some darts. I have actually been practising very hard recently, I know some people might find that hard to believe.

“And I don’t think I am finished at the Masters, and will be looking to be back there next year. You certainly aren’t going to get there without practice.

“I haven’t watched too much of it, bits and pieces and to be honest Ronnie is virtually the only one I would watch all the way through, so I saw all of his first-round game against Rob Milkins.

“Ronnie is pretty much the only person I can watch and enjoy watching. If I tune into other matches it might be a frame and then turn over. I’d rather watch ‘Location, Location, Location’ than a whole match involving some of the others.”

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.”