World Snooker Final And After Party< May Day In Brighton | Blog | The Saatchi Gallery And A Play > Earlier this month I went to see the World Snooker Championship Final in Sheffield with my friend Tristan. It was my third time in Sheffield to watch the snooker, which you can read about here and here. Tristan was already in Sheffield before me to see the earlier matches before the final. I caught a train from Guildford to Reading early in the morning. My train to Reading was around 20 minutes late, which worried me at first, as I had another train to catch from Reading to get to Sheffield. I arrived at Reading station and luckily the other train I had to catch was there waiting.
I got on the train and found my reserved seat and the train set off. Two backpackers sat opposite me, a young woman and a young guy. I bought a sandwich and some drink and waited for the long journey to take me to Birmingham. Through the train window, I watched the countryside speed past me. As the train went further north it past some through rolling hills and countryside, then some industrial areas including three large and high chimneys. Some hours later, I got off the train at Birmingham, and then got on my final train to Sheffield. Around twenty-five minutes later at 12.30pm, the train stopped at Sheffield. As I got off the train, I saw Tristan waiting for me on the platform. He told me that he had just seen off his girlfriend Kate, as she got on the return train heading the opposite way back to Guildford, just before I had arrived. We left Sheffield station. Outside the station, I saw the familiar fountains that I had last seen there in previous years. I took a few pictures with my camera.
We walked towards the hotel, which was the Novotel. I had stayed there before with Tristan the first time I went to Sheffield a few years ago. It was a short walk to the hotel. We walked past a building that had a poem on the side of it.
We entered the hotel and Tristan showed me the room. I had a sofa bed to sleep on.
I unpacked my bag and then we left the hotel to walk towards the Crucible, which is where the snooker championships were being held. We walked round some more fountains and giant balls.
We walked through the Winter Gardens, which is a large indoor garden in a big glass greenhouse, a bit like Kew Gardens.
At a small café in the Winter Gardens, I bought a hot chocolate drink and a hot Panini, which had hummus and roasted vegetables inside it. The Panini tasted good. We sat at some tables and chairs outside the Crucible whilst I ate and drank. It was quite windy and the wind blew away some of my serviettes off my table. Tristan took a picture of me eating.
From where we sat, we watched some cheerleaders doing a display; I took some pictures of them.
After I had eaten, we had a look inside the snooker exhibition centre in front of the Crucible. At the entrance there was a hedge cut in the shape of a snooker player.
Inside was some people playing at a snooker table, and a wall of computer games. Tristan had a go at a snooker quiz game.
It was now time to enter the Crucible to watch the first part of the snooker final. The game was split into four matches across Sunday and Monday. The final was between John Higgins and Shaun Murphy. Outside the entrance of the venue Tristan took my picture.
Inside the Crucible Tristan gave me my ticket, and we had a look around inside.
There were quite a few people inside.
I bought along a radio earpiece which Tristan’s girlfriend Kate had been using. At the stall I paid for a snooker programme book.
We sat at our seats inside the Crucible. Other audience members then came in and sat down.
From where we where sat, we were behind the snooker table in the third row, and the TV cameras were pointing in our direction facing the table. It is a good position, and it’s where we have sat in previous years.
Its interesting seeing it live, as you can watch the players, cameramen, audience, see the commentary box, and other things going on, which you don’t get to see on TV.
The MC then came on to warm up the crowd, his name is Rob Walker, we met him in person at an after party the day after, but I will write more about that later.
Walker warned people to switch off their mobile phones before the match, and then he got the audience warmed up with lots of cheering. The MC introduced some people in the audience who had travelled from other countries to see the match. One eager fan was wearing a t-shirt and a bandela with his support for Higgins written across it.
The referee then came on, who was an attractive Scottish female called Michaela Tabb.
The players were next on, and Rob Walker used his famous catchphrase of ‘Let’s get the boys on the baize’ as they entered.
As we watched the game, everyone sat in silence. I had a tickley cough that day, which was difficult for me not to cough so as not to distract the players. It made my eyes water trying not to cough. So I had to save my coughing for when the audience applauded a good shot, although a few slipped out whilst they were playing. My mum heard me coughing on live TV. Although the audience was warned to switch off their mobile phones, a few started ringing, including an old gentleman in the front row, who couldn’t work out how to turn it off. I listened to the commentary through the radio earpiece Tristan gave me, but the battery ran out, as his girlfriend had forgotten to turn it off when she had last finished using it. At first, Higgins and Murphy were fairly even with their frames. When the first match ended, we returned to our hotel. Tristan was a bit disappointed that his favourite player Murphy was not in the lead, but he was still confident that he could win the final. At the hotel we used the swimming pool. I had a paddle, as I can't swim. When we left the hotel we had a walk round Sheffield. We walked through a market and saw two people dressed as snooker players on stilts.
I liked the look of the food on sale at the market; all the stalls were selling different types of food from across Europe.
We then looked round a cheap second hand DVD and CD shop. I picked up a dance compilation which I was hoping to buy there, but they did not have the CDs for it, so I was unable to buy it. Tristan bought a few DVD’s. Then we went into HMV. I bought a music DVD called Roy Orbison: Black & White Night to take home for my Dad as a gift.
Walking through the Winter Gardens, we were able to see through the window into the reception of the luxury St Paul's Hotel. Tristan spotted famous snooker player Steve Davis sitting inside reading a newspaper. I saw some the Trams running through the city. I was hoping for a ride on one, but we didn't have time.
We had an evening meal in an ‘all you can eat’ Chinese buffet restaurant. Tristan spotted some family members belonging to famous snooker players eating in there. I had a large plateful and some pudding, whilst Tristan ate several platefuls and a few puddings as well.
We then went back to our hotel, and then later returned back to the Crucible to watch the second part of the match. I went to the desk that sold the radio earpieces and told them my earpiece was faulty, and they gave me another one free, which saved me buying one. I didn’t tell them the faulty earpiece was not mine and that the battery had worn out because it was left on.
Higgins was leading the match against Murphy and the match ended with Higgins in the lead.
After the match, we returned to the hotel to watch a movie.
The next day was the last two matches of the final. Higgins was again leading during the first match of the day. At the hotel I lost my mobile inside my sofa bed, Tristan was in stitches and took photos whilst I tried to get my mobile phone from out of the sofa bed.
Tristan took some photos of us holding the snooker final tickets for the last session in the hotel room.
For the final match some of the audience were dressed smartly, with men in dinner jackets and bow-ties, with some women in evening dresses. The MC Rob Walker was also wearing a dinner jacket and bow-tie. I wore a black tie and tried to look fairly smart. A lot of people though were dressed in jeans and t-shirts though.
I saw the Mayoress of Sheffield sit down in the audience.
One guy who was dressed in a dinner jacket tripped down the steps and fell over on his way to his seat in front of me. Famous sports presenter Ray Stubbs and snooker players John Parrot and Steve Davis were standing in the corners talking to the TV cameras in their dinner suits.
The champions cup was placed infront of the snooker table.
It was a good match, although fairly short, Higgins won the game.
Everyone stood up, applauded, and cheered.
Ray Stubbs did a short interview with Murphy who lost the game, and then with the winner Higgins.
The paparazzi came in and stood behind the snooker table taking lots of photos of Higgins.
I was able to take some photos of Higgins holding the cup. His family then came on. Higgins son was very shy and didn’t want to face the cameras.
Then the snooker players left, as well as most of the audience. Some BBC crew started dismantling their cameras and equipment and taking it away. As the final match was short, there was an extra snooker game played just for the remaining audience members. Four famous snooker players came on, who were John Parrot, Ken Doherty, and two others I didn’t recognise.
The MC Rob Walker said that we can now switch on our mobiles, cameras, shout, scream and do anything we like.
I took pictures and a video of the match.
They had a game of snooker doubles and messed about whilst playing. John Parrot was the biggest joker of them all. One of the snooker players had a faulty microphone, which gave off a noise like farting, and John Parrot kept on making a joke of this.
Parrot also did other funny things, like sit in the audience and wear a curly wig. It was funny to watch what was going on.
After the snooker players finished they walked round the arena and Tristan got their autographs. I got my picture taken with John Parrot and my snooker final ticket signed by Ken Doherty.
We asked a guy in the audience to take our picture in front of the snooker table. We then got chatting to him, and he invited us out for a drink that evening to a bar called the Graduate. His name was Brian. He told us about an after party where some of the snooker players would be, so we agreed to meet him.
Then we returned to the hotel and ordered some food to be brought up to our room. I ordered a veggie burger, but it tasted horrible and like beef, maybe it was a beef burger, so I could not eat it. We then got changed and made our way to the Graduate bar. Tristan messed around in the lift. As the lift had mirrors inside. The photo looks quite funny.
Brian was in the Graduate bar with three of his friends, two guys and a blond woman. One of the guys was wearing a funny tie with 'I love snooker' printed on it. We got chatting to them about the snooker which we all had just seen. We had quite a few drinks at the bar and Tristan started to get a bit tipsy. The guy behind the bar rang the bell for last orders, as it was now near to closing time of the bar. There was a man sitting slumped on a bar stool, who had passed out from drinking far too much. The bar staff could not wake him. They tried pouring a glass on water on his head, but it still did not wake him. A girl walked past him and pulled his stool away, which made him fall flat onto the floor, and he then woke up, everyone laughed at him as he staggered out of the bar. Tristan took pictures and a video of him, which I’ve included below. It looked like he was about to be sick.
We left the bar and walked towards St Paul’s Hotel to where the after party for the snooker players was being held. Inside the reception of the hotel, some of the guests were leaving. We spotted the winner Higgins about to leave the hotel. The girl who was with our group managed to get her picture taken with him. I tried to get my picture with Higgins too, but he was quickly ushered off to a car waiting for him outside.
We had some more drinks at the hotel bar whilst trying to work out how to get into the after party downstairs, as it was invitation only.
There were some guests leaving and we got talking to some of them, and we managed to get their tickets.
We were now able to enter the event past the security with the tickets we were given. The party was inside a large function room that had many tables where the guests had previously been sitting for their meals.
The tables were now mostly empty and most of the guests were on the dance floor.
We spotted quite a few celebrities. Shaun Murphy was on the dance floor with the MC Rob Walker. At one point, Rob Walker was dancing on the tables, which was funny to see.
As we walked past the tables, we spotted reservation signs for John Higgins and Shaun Murphy’s tables. I took the table reservations home as a souvenir.
It was quite surreal to be on the dance floor with famous snooker players like Shaun Murphy and sports MC Rob Walker.
I saw sports commentator Ray Stubbs standing by the bar chatting to someone. I bought MC Rob Walker a drink, and we got chatting to snooker players Shaun Murphy and Ken Doherty. We had our pictures taken with them as well, which I’ve included below.
We also saw a well known snooker fan James, a big friendly chap with curly hair, who has been seen on TV quite a few times and been interviewed, as he is always at every single snooker game each year. We had our picture taken with him as well.
Brian and his friends were a great crowd of people.
At around 4.30am in the morning we left the party and returned to our hotel. Brian and his three friends were also staying at our hotel and followed us. Tristan and I managed to get a few hours sleep, and then we had to get up and pack our things. We had breakfast in the hotel, and then we booked out. We saw Brian and his friends in the breakfast area looking a bit hung over, we said our goodbyes to them, and exchanged our contact details. It was then time to catch our train back home. I felt a bit sick on the way back, as I was sitting backwards on the train.
I got back to Guildford in the afternoon. I had a bit of a sleep sitting in a deck chair in the garden at home. I had a great time in Sheffield. Related ContentComments on World Snooker Final And After Party |
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Ohh what a long post... but wonderful photos! I sure would love to have my photo taken by that fountain too!
Btw, thanks for the ec ad. I approved it now and it should be running in a few days!