Snooker Re-Rewind

It's snooker season again. Yay. Which has prompted me to think again about nicknames in snooker. In the past only the best or most popular players got nicknames.

• The Nugget - Steve Davis
• Alex "Hurricane" Higgins
• The Whirlwind - Jimmy White
• The Rocket - Ronnie O'Sullivan
• Alan "Angles" McManus
• Psycho - Peter Ebdon

My research has just turned up Alain "Scoobie" Robidoux.  That's a nickname. 

But for whatever reason, every player who gets onto TV these days needs a nickname. And they are really scraping the barrel with some of them. There are some apalling examples that I will spare you. Here are a couple of typical nicknames of modern players.

• The Captain - Ali Carter
• The Jester from Leicester - Mark Selby

... which naturally prompted me to give players my own nicknames. Here are my own suggestions.

• Gypo - Anthony Hamilton
• Stephen "Pies" Lee
• Pizza Face - Steven Hendry
• Pinhead - Graeme Dott
• The greatest player never to win the world championship - Jimmy White

Sometimes, they come up with hilarious names for players in this modern era. Here are some of my favourites.

• The Sherriff of Pottingham - Anthony Hamilton
• Marco "Cue-man" Fu
• Wenbo selecta - Liang Wenbo