Our writers offer their choices for the highest honours at the prestigious ceremony, from Ronnie O’Sullivan to Tracey NevilleRonnie O’Sullivan has been winning for 25 years now: five world championships, seven Masters and seven UK titles, the latest of them this month. His 19th major victory means he has overtaken Stephen Hendry and become the most successful player in snooker history. Related: The Anti-Sports Personality of the Year awards 2018 | Simon Burnton Related: Dina Asher-Smith a real contender for BBC Sports Personality of the Year Related: Who are the team of 2018? My vote goes to England’s women netballers Continue reading...
Williams’ triumph at the Crucible, and Charlie Austin’s performance for Southampton, showed how top performers shrug off pressure by concentrating on what they do bestOn Monday evening I stood adjacent to history. Waiting for the delayed evening session, I was pouring myself a Britvic J20 in the Crucible press room when Mark Williams walked in. The 43-year-old was three frames away from winning his first World Snooker Championship in 15 years and prize money of £425,000. It was perhaps the most pressurised moment in his entire life. The Welshman wandered over to where I was standing and spotted a game of micro pool. “I’m good at this,” he said. With a tiny cue he lined up a shot, only for...
Last year’s world title win at the Crucible was overshadowed in the world No1’s home town by the achievements of Claudio Ranieri and co. Not this time aroundFew nicknames are more unsuitable than that with which Mark Selby has been saddled for reasons of rhyming convenience. It’s not that the “Jester from Leicester” is not funny, but the image of him prancing about in a harlequin hat festooned with bells is little short of ludicrous.Polite and likeable, he is a difficult read and when it’s put to him that his win in last year’s world snooker championship was rather overshadowed by his local football team winning the Premier League on the same night, he couldn’t agree more. Related: Mark Selby...