Sporting Events that are less/more popular than they used to be....

I disagree with you on principle

Actually I agree about the Derby.
They should never have moved it from a Wednesday.

the best of all reasons

Stuff I've read/seen says the derby was a massive massive occasion back in the day.  Maybe bigger than the national.  I don't remember cheltenham being so bigwhen I was young, not compared to now.

I think that the Kabaddi boom in the UK is now someway past its peak - haven't seen any on telly for ages.

Hard to believe that show jumping used to be on bbc all the time.Also the boat race. Think most events diminish in appeal as you get older. Younger people might have a different view but certainly it does seem to be true for the events you have mentioned.
Certainly when I was young the Derby , the FA cup final and Heavyweight boxing title fights were massive. I think the only event which has increased it's appeal is the Grand National and maybe the US masters.

Track Cycling is nearly always sold out. Tour de France has been most watched sporting event for decades

Uk Wrestling not on tv anymore

I was gonna say national and us masters.  Yes defo the masters, when i was young i was always under the impression that the open was the big one - now it seems they're both about the same.  Don't know whether that just shows my anglified upbringing.

blackpood:

did tour de france get as much coverage in uk as it does now?

blackpood
05 Apr 11 11:22 Joined: 30 Sep 02 | Topic/replies: 1,010 | Blogger: blackpood's blog
Uk Wrestling not on tv anymore


Everyone from that era remembers the names of all the star wrestlers. Big Daddy , Mick Mcmanus, Jackie Pallo, Billy Two Rivers, Johny Quango

snooker and heavyweight scene is just bereft of real characters at mo-it will turn around soon!!

It wasn't really a sport though was it. It was purely entertainment; every fight was fixed and everyone knew that.

April used to be a magical month with a big event on every Saturday, when I was a kid. I can't remember the order, but you would have, The Grand National, The Boat Race, Challenge Cup Final, London Marathon and the FA Cup final pretty much on consecutive weekends.
All of which, to my young mind, gripped the nation to a much greater extent than they do now.
Moving the Derby was a catastrophic error, with Premiership football being so overwhelmingly dominant in the media now that anything else doesn't get a look in. One of the reasons that I've gone from a season ticket holder (admittedly of a club no longer in the top flight) to someone with a genuine dislike of everything about the game at Premiership and International level (Barca being the one exemption from my ire, I could watch them all day). I wouldn't mind if the product was any good, but who could ever be thrilled by one one bunch of multimillionaire foreigners, with no concept of loyalty beyond their bank balance (not that I blame them, if it's there take it), prevailing over another set of the same. The only distinction being the colour of the shirt (£65 in the club shop, new design out soon) that they're wearing this week.

Jeez, I didn't know that was coming when I began my reply. Apologies for the rant

I think snooker has had it's time.  If the genius, Ronnie O Sullivan, doesn't count as a character then I don't know who does?  Boxing ruined by too many belts and tv money - must be odds on now that pacquaio won't fight mayweather now, madness.

County Cricket Championship has taken a back seat. Use to have massive attendances, especially the Roses matches. Hardly gets a mention nowadays. People more interested in the instant, over in one day type events although test matches between the top teams still popular thanks to Sky

Less so
Football League Cup
Cycling (thanks to Hoy and the others who've made us interesting)
Horse racing (the falling levy paints that picture)

More so
Darts (not myself personally, but it's well punted on in my shop; much more so than cricket, tennis, golf, snooker and rugby). Premier League darts no doubt helping.
The Superbowl (American Football not all that popular, but the final? "Hell yeah")
England's friendlies. Almost regarded as important as qualifiers, because we yearn to see that we're actually getting somewhere for a f*cking change.

wasn't sure what to make of cricket - have to go a fair way back before it was ever that popular or well attended imo.  Never been such a big deal in my time, in fact I'd say the one day tournaments were bigger in the 70s and 80s than they are now.

The egg&spoon race and three legged races have lost their appeal in school sports. Hard to run along with a ping pong ball on a spoon until they invented blue tac - killed the game off completely. Health and safety rules were the death of the three legged race.

They cant take those titles away from me though.

cycling can only be accused of being less popular if you're talking the 3 years since the olympics.  will be big again in 2012.  Not sure I agree on england friendlies or superbowl either.

England rugby is much bigger don't you think.  We hardly had any history of being successful at all did we pre Will Carling?

Can barely name any famous england rugby players pre will carling era compared to cricket and football and athletics and virtually any other sport.

Speedway used to be popular, not that I ever liked it. I think most people at the time had heard of Ivan Mauger and Ole Olsen. Not sure there are any stars now that the wider public knows.

Motor-cross use to on the tele a lot - remember Arthur Lambkin used to win everything. Also crown green bowling.

Greyhound racing used to be big many moons ago and there were tracks all over the place - Liverpool had three but hasn't got one now. Seems to be big now thanks to sky and better facilities at a much smaller number of tracks.

Think to motor cross was called scrambling

Rugby Union has grown hugely since the advent of professionalism in 1995 UTI, before then players were mainly professionals in other occs, lots of solicitors and doctors for example. Until then there was no real premiership as such, the best teams nationwide would only ever meet in cup competitions. I suspect being an English youngster you wouldn't have too strong a sense of the England team back in those days as throughout the 70s and 80s they were not particularly competitive, however, if you lived in Wales there wouldn't have been a bigger sport.
That said, i'm sure Bill Beaumont and Andy Ripley must've been on your radar at some point?
The sporting world is vastly improved for the increasing exposure of RU, with the game at all levels offering a character forming challenge to all it's participants, built on a foundation of respect for the game itself, the officials and opponents, with plentiful role models for our youngsters to aim to emulate, rather than the preening fops I ranted about earlier.
I watched an U13 game a couple of weeks ago where a kid swore in frustration at an error that led to a try. The ref didn't hesitate in showing him red. He hadn't even sworn at the ref and he was marching. Imagine how different football would look if that was how it was officiated?

1990 when we lost the decider to Scotland was when I first got into rugby, so still technically amateur.  I was a fanatic back then though my interest has waned somewhat since 2003. I know of Beaumont and Dusty Hare and prince obilensky and I think Ripley, but that isn't many compared to the number of cricketers and footballers I know.  I know the names of the great Welsh players and that they always beat us but I don't know the names of the england players, and I'm not sure too many people my age do even though they may love Rugby.  MOst people that like cricket and are my age could list dozens of former england players post and pre war. 

I actually did a project for GCSE PE about how rugby changed with the advent of a competitive league - think before that it was all just tables showing who'd won the most games but there was no condition that they had to play each other iirc.  I still love rugby but just don't know the players now unfortunately, so can't act all billy bullsh1t down the pub - still a game I can watch without supporting a team - and I like the discipline enforced by the ref.

The domestic one day cricket tournamnets were huge back in the 70's and 80's.Especially the old Gillette/Nat West 60 over comp.Most rounds were shown on bbc and the quarters onwards were huge events.I remember newsagents posting the cricket scores in their shop windows and our school teachers letting us know how the games were getting on.I guess it depended on where you lived (i was in lancs so we had a huge interest)

Though i'm still a big cricket fan the way the one day comps are conducted now are just a mess and the old Sunday leauge 40 over has just become a mix and match meanigless thing along with the 50 over (old benson and hedges) which has become far far worse than footballs own (sadly underrated) leauge cup.

Athletics is another,those huge grand prix meets of the late 70's and 80's were must see events,the likes of Bislet,Zurich and Berlin and the quality of the races with the VERY best of the world lining up head to head was breathtaking stuff.The Coe's ,Ovetts,Walkers etc talk about a golden generation.

Must say Superbowl means diddly squat to anyone i've ever come accross in the uk.Had a brief thing in the early/mid 80's when they had a leauge over here but surely only friendless social imcompetents with facial hair,bad breath and body odour could enjoy superbowl.

IVE BEEN TO EUROPEAN CUP FINALS ,AND CHELTNAM AND VARIOUS OTHER BIG SPORTING DAYS OUT ,BUT MY FAV DAY OUT ,LATER TURNED INTO A WEEK OUT WAS THE WATERLOO CROWN GREENS BOWLING FINAL AT THE WATERLOO HOTEL IN BLACKPOOL ,I FIRST WENT IN 1984,AND THEN WENT FOR THE NEXT 20 CON SEC YEARS ,YOU COULD JUST ABOUT GET A TICKET FOR THE FINAL IN THOSE DAYS ,IT USED TO BE ON THE B B C ,ITWAS HELD AT THIS PUB WITH ITS OWN SMALL ARENA ,LIKE A FOOTBALL GROUND THAT HELD ABOUT 5000,THE ATMOSPHERE WAS GREAT THERE WAS ABOUT 10 BOOKIES AND THE BEER WAS FLOWING FREELY,THE COMPANY WAS GREAT AND YOU MET PEOPLE FROM EVERWHERE,ALAS THE GAME AS GONE INTO DECLINE OVER THE LAST FEW YEARS AND ITS ONLY TWO THIRDS FULL OM FINAL DAY NOW
THERES NOTHING BETTER THEN WATCHING CROWN GREEN BOWLS WITH THE SUN ON YOUR BACK ,AND A BOWL THAT WONT PULL UP OR RUN ON WHEN YOU SHOUT AT IT ,AND YOUIVE GOT A BET ON IT FANTASTIC DAYS

Go along to a game UTI, my hometown club are struggling along in Yorkshire div2, but it's still a great afternoon out, watching with a couple of hundred others and a pint in your hand. I'm not sure if you have kids, but my lad loves to go as well. Unfortunately he prefers to go and watch Leeds Carnegie get stuffed every week more, but that's mainly because he can meet the players that he sees on Sky every week afterwards when they're having a pint in the bar, when they're always happy to stand and chat to a fan for a couple of minutes.

It is only 12-18 months ago I was still playing on a Saturday Desmond.  I used to watch Bedford now and then when I was a kid - Harlequins, Carling et al, came once, was a big event that for the whole town it seemed.  Bedford's quite a big town not to have a decent football team so it was quite a big rugby town and it had two v.good private schools too which I think helps.  Think they might've flirted with the top flight back in the day.

,BUT MY FAV DAY OUT ,LATER TURNED INTO A WEEK OUT WAS THE WATERLOO CROWN GREENS BOWLING FINAL

That really made me laugh, no offence.

They're still flirting with the top flight UTI! Going really well in the playoffs, although unlikely to make it, they're a very decent outfit. You would see some good rugby down there. If Leeds don't pull off another miraculous escape, then I'll be seeing them next season at Headingley.

UTI NO OFFENCE TAKEN ,BUT YOU HAD TO BE THERE TO EXPERIENCE IT,ITS NOT WHAT YOU IMAGINE IT TO BE,THERES NOTHING LIKE SEEING A BOWL PULLING UP AT THE JACK WHEN YOU THINK ITS ON THE WRONG ROAD AND GOING TO FAR THROUGH,

Do wah, you're still making me laugh though.

On the south coast now des, might have to look see what teams are round here.

I put cycling under the wrong one! Only a bit more interesting though I'd say, not massively.

UTI PLEASE IF YOU GET A SPARE 9 MINS GO ON U TUBE AND WATCH THE 1982 WATERLOO FINAL MERCER V STRUT,  YOUWILL GET A LITTLE IDEA OF WHAT I MEAN ,IMAGINE HAVEING HAD A BET ON MERCER ,AND YOUVE HAD A FEW PINTS ,AND SO HAS EVERY ONE ELSE ,YOU GET TO KNOW MOST OF THE PLAYERS PERSONALLY AND MERCER WAS ALWAYS MOANING EVERYONE ELSE WAS LUCKY AGAINST HIM ,I ALSO KNEW HARRY RIGBY THE COMMENTATOR WHO I THOUGHT WAS VERY FUNNY AND GOOOD COMPANY,

Cheers do wah, I've just watched that.  took me a bit to understand the rules but I could see the excitement.  Like the way he has his pipe in his mouth.  Good stuff.

My gran still plays bowls for a team btw and she's 93 this year.

I tell you what bowls is a bit under represented on wiki.  crown green bowls doesn't even have its own page.  and world championships and a fair few world champions on normal bowls don't have their own page either.

THANK YOU FOR TAKEING THE TIME TO VIEW IT ,IT WAS IRONICAL THAT THE MAN WHO MOANED ABOUT EVERY ONE ELSE GOOD LUCK AGAINST HIM ,HAD ALL THE LUCK WITH HIS FINAL BOWL,

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Athletics has suffered because every track race over 800m is dominated by Africans.  The culture is that they are "impossible" to beat which is self fulfilling and to your average archair viewer they all look and sound the same.  If you look at a GB top 20 list for everything from 800m up you'll be lucky if there are more than 2 athletes in the list from the last 20 years.

The sad factor is that drug abuse dominated the sport (womens and throwing events were a complete joke), in the 70s and 80s, when it was most popular, and it never got mentioned that the East Germans in particular were corrupting the whole sport.  Now it's virtually clean no one wants to know unless its a showpiece event.

The BBC used to run some excellent competitions for unfashionable sports, the most famous of which was 'Pot Black'.

Anyone else remember the special magic that the BBC Sportsnight Greyhound TV Trophy used to generate?

There was also a BBC Rugby League Floodlight Trophy that was a winter staple for years.

And how can we forget the BBC Darts compaetition 'Bullseye' won by Tony Sontag and then twice by Jocky Wilson? 

There was also a Bowls tournament, which I think was called 'Jack High'

All lost and gone forever. Maybe 'One Man And His Dog' has a chance of making a comeback? Otherwise we are just left with 'The Hole In The Wall'.

TT racing used to be covered live on BBC radio

There used to be the Transatlantic Trophy as well over the Easter weekend, Britain vs US. It was at Mallory Park, Oulton and Brands Hatch, used to be televised by the BBC - Sheene, Grant, Steve Parrish vs Kenny Roberts, Steve Baker Pat Hennen. I remember the public outrage when they had to leave the racing because it was running late and it was time for Play School or something

Play Away with some Cant?

Athletic meetings, I used to go to Crystal Palace meets years ago and they were always a sell out with plenty of ticket touts around. Now I wouldn't go to an athletics meeting if it were free and that includes next years Olympics.

In terms of spectator interest -
The FA Amateur Cup Final.   Okay, you could say that interest in it has declined because the competition doesn't exist any more - but the final used to attract huge gates to Wembley, something that its successors, the FA Vase and the FA Trophy, have never managed.

Reserve team football - declined with the advent of BBC local radio in the 1970s.  Going to a reserve game used to be the quickest way to be updated with how your club's first team was doing in an away game - reserve home games would kick off at 3pm on a Saturday at your team's home ground, and while gates were never massive  there would be a couple of thousand there, at least for the teams in my part of the country.  Now some teams (Birmingham and Spurs among them) don't even have reserve teams, and nearly every reserve team plays its home games at a non-league ground with Villa, for instance, playing theirs at Hinckley.

Agree totally with Desmond regarding the footy....used to love the footy in the 70/80s but the overpaid mercenaries strutting there stuff in the epl have turned me right off ...same as des.. only make a point of watching barca these days

BBC used to do a grand job on Rallycross,coming from most of the uk tracks from Brands to Mallory park and Oulton etc.Fantastic racing in all weathers with mixed races like minis against escorts and porches etc.The minis were suberb on the corners and through the mud baths yet would inevitably lose power on the straights etc.

Sportsnight was also a great show with some cracking british boxing, a mid week match etc(ok it was carp if they had show jumping but still)

It's a great shame that the BBC more or less abondoned sport in favour of politically correct female friendly drama and the seemingly endless promotion of homosexuality.Perhaps the powers that be see bumming as a sport these days.

Generally agree with OP

Nothing has fallen as far as The Derby . I remember them moving the off time because Engalnd were playing a Friendly against Jamaica a few years back.

Really was a massive event as recently as the 70s/80s , and was probably still bigger than The Grand National til around then. Going back further it was the biggest sporting event in the world . IIRC  it was the only sports event that was a Bank Holiday until they scrapped a load of them because of WWI (which were not restored). Crowds of a quarter of a million.

The FA Cup also is greatly diminished .An odd one that .Back in the day when a large % of the population (maybe 60%) had no interest in football whatever, the nation would stop and watch it . Now that Football is all pervasive hardly anyone - even committed football fans - seems bothered .

I date the decline to 1991. Woking were on a great run of Giant Killing and then had a home draw with Everton.They then asked - quite brazenly - to switch the match to Goodison so that they would make more money out of it.The FA stupidly allowed this ,Everton said thankyou very much and won a tie they might otherwise have lost that would have been talked about for years.This then became the norm, and was actively encouraged by The Media  'lets hope Farnborough (or whoever) can move the game to Old Trafford and get a big payday' .Who gives a sh1t how much money any club makes out of a football match? It should be about creating history .Because of this i feel the Giant Killing stuff fell by the wayside in the 1990s.

When it got to the semi finals they then allowed Arsenal and Spurs to be played at Wembley and this killed completely 'the magic' of 'getting to Wembley' (by actually making the final) .And , IMO , it was rather special to see your team play there in a Final . The logic for that was you couldn't have tens of thousands from North London going to Birmingham or Manchester and back .But this was turned on it's head 2 years later when they allowed the all Sheffield Semi to be played at Wembley too. So i'd say by the time United pulled out in 2000 it was already past it (what a farce that was , the England WC Bid that United going to Brazil was supposedly going to help had absolutely zero hope, and it would have been easy to reschedule a 3rd round tie anyway) .

Football generally is of course so much bigger .In the 80s when it got to June (unless there was a WC/Euros) Football Stories would disappear from the back and inside pages of the Tabloids , and these pages would be given over to Cricket and maybe Athletics .Nowadays even if nothing is happening in football they just make up ridculous transfer stories , just anything as long as it is football.

Athletics has certainly plummeted in interest/coverage levels .ITV used to show the Friday Night Grand Prixs in the 1980s at peak time. Just unimagineable now .I'd include though also the Major Events like Olympic and World/Euro Championship .I know they still get shown on the BBC but i'd guess the viweing figures are 25% of what they were .Personally i do not watch them at all and i never hear anyone (other than a few here) talk about them .In the 1980s i would just watch the whole thing, some of my best memories of Sport on TV are the 100M up to 1500M races of the 80s, loved Daley in the Decathlon too . Maybe the decline in interest (for myself and generally in Britain) was due to there only ever really being the interest in the first place because the British Athletes were so good in so many events at that time .

The last one i watched comphrensively was the 1987 World Championships .The Seoul Olympics in 1988 i didn't bother with as it was on at 5am or something and i used to get in about midnight and have to get up at 8. Another thing that turned me off though was the Ben Johnson Scandal: From that point on it seemed to me that the races were really just provisional in determining the champions. To know the real result you had to wait for the tests, and not usually the next day either , you could only be sure if the right guy got the gold if he didn't fail a test in the next 4/5 years.

I disagree that Rugby Union domestically is very succesful .I think there is still a huge gulf between interest in the 6 Nations/WC and the Heineken Cup (even bigger to the domestic league) .RU generally though is much more popular .I date it to the Will Carling Era as IMO the lack of interest prior to that in the English dominated UK media was due to England being sh1t.

Snooker has declined yes .Probably because it's 80s peak was due to it's being a colour TV friendly sport at exactly the point when the number of people with Colour TVs and only 4 channels to watch was at it's height.

County Cricket is another .Could not say for 100% if it is still played.

Cheltenham is certainly hugely bigger .Until the late 80s or maybe 90s you would know nothing about it if you did not follow racing , now it is unavoidable . It has become more of a social event i'd say. IMO it ruins the jumps season; top class horses just running  once or twice beforehand, every race  - even in Octoner - is analyzed only in as far as it affects Cheltenham Prospects .And now it is fkd up quality wise by all the extra egg and spoon races added to drag it out to 4 days.

Heavyweight Boxing is dire because of the lack of quality for so long. I still think Haye/Klitshcko will be a major event as they are a level up from the plodders of the last 10 years . Boxing generally is much less a part of the average guy's sporting interest though:Any UK fighter going for a World Title in the 1980s would quickly become a household name .Now you have Carl Froch, a genuine World Champ who has been in some incredible fights, and i doubt more than 20% of people will have heard of him . Also you have the upcoming DeGale v Groves fight, one of the best all British Fights anyone can remember, but how many Chit Chatters have heard of either? You would have heard of Eubank/Watson and Benn in 1990 .Also in 1985 you had Kaylor v Christie which had Epic coverage (just a domestic level fight) and knocked football off the back pages.

I think Boxing moving to Sky was a big factor in the decline .They maybe cover it better than the BBC/ITV used to . But a great many people got into Boxing because it was free on their TV . I think the same of Horse Racing's decline .Moving from Channel 4 to ITV meant people who might get into the Sport by seeing racing on World Of Sport while waiting for the football scores never got into it. ATR and RUK are all very well but no one is going to pay a subscription for a sport that they know nothing about , so they will attract zero new fans , and just cater for the old.

wow longest post ever

just kept thinking of things to add [smiley:crazy] , interesting subject UTI

Back in the 70's World Of Sport showed probably 20 minutes of the previous weeks Tour De France Highlights before On The Ball.

I think tv's interest really started to grow when English speaking riders started to come to the fore , Lemond , Roche & Kelly.
From then on it has grown from highlights of every stage to masses of live coverage on Eurosport & ITV4 these days.

Don't know how popular Speedway is these days but I haven't watched it since it dropped the World final in place of umpteen rounds to decide the champion , yet another idea to generate revenue & lots of tv coverage but losing the drama & spectacle of 5 rides deciding the champion.

I think the overlying trend here is that there are more sporting events that are less popular now than more popular.

All at the expence of prem football?

I'd say

There used to be a lot of sports popular because they were on tv...when there was relatively little sport on tv. When the major sports realised they'd be even more popular if they let people watch on tv, these have been crowded out. One of the reasons the F.A. cup final used to be a big deal is because it was almost the ONLY live football you could see on TV! I can remember even England qualifying games not being shown.

Love it or loathe it, Sky has at least meant a lot of sports can be followed that the BBC never got close to covering fully - golf, US Football etc.

It's probably misplaced nostalgia but I liked it all the way it used to be.  Always prefer BBC coverage of an event (though they often left the cricket for racing etc) their actual comms (and of course lack of adverts) were miles better than sky.  Of course sky covers much more, barely a major sports event you cannot see now.  I even hanker for the amateur days of rugby and bill mclaren commentating and brian johnstone and john motson (though he's still around) and minority sports that only  became big because of tv like snooker and darts.

Naked Female Jelly Wresting doesn't get the exposure it deserves.

Yes LiveTV was a sad loss.

I remember the announcers between tv shows would give you the football scores! That would sound really odd now!

The Premiership has eclipsed everything else courtesy of the Sky hype machine, and the press realising they could join in by selling it to the docile masses as the be all and end all. Personally speaking, I find this has killed my interest in the sport. Talking points for talking points sake blown up out of all proportion, the sleazy goings-on of the players, the latest Fergie/Wenger bleat about refs and their precious players being called away on int'l duty, transfer speculation... the coverage is endless and f*cking boring. Just look at last w/e as a prime example - pages and pages given over to that skip rat Rooney swearing into a tv camera. Why are people so caught up in this sh*t?
The Prem is a massively over-hyped sporting product that isn't that good, and has been hugely damaging to clubs' finances, and young English players unable to get a game due to the influx of foreign players, but most people are unable to think for themselves and see the bigger picture so just lap up all the coverage.
And returning to the OP, the coverage of the Premiership has damaged other sports. England won a test series in Australia for the first time in 24 years at the start of the year but the average man in the street wouldn't appreciate the significance of this sporting achievement, and wouldn't have even followed the series because all he cares about is football.
No doubt we'll have a situation this summer when a cricket test series between England and India to decide the world no1 test nation is evenly poised, but Sky will be churning out pre-season football friendly scores and transfer updates, and the back pages will be full of football stories.

Totally agree with that rant johnnyrant.  Only thing is I blame the fans as much as the footballers/sky/moneymen tbh.  The fans fund the whole operation.

THROWING THE DWARF
in these politically correct days
throwing a vertically challenged person
does NOT have the same ring to it.

I agree what you say about football Johnny but I don't think cricket is the best comparison. The cricket that is on Sky gets the same endless coverage (albeit not as much as football) on Sky Sports News when its something Sky want to promote. The best example would be other things that Sky doesn't have the rights to.

Things like the Tour De France or big boxing fights that they don't have on their channels get treated as if they didn't even happen.

It has a lot to do with Sky Sports News. On a continous loop in most pubs and what most football fans will watch but it is more advertising for Sky products than news.

That was one of the unfortunate things about Setanta News as they covered everything sports related not just things they had the rights to.

sparkmaster -
I remember the announcers between tv shows would give you the football scores! That would sound really odd now!

The results programs always used to give all the horse racing results too. Fond memories of my old man sitting in his chair moaning and exclaiming "bugger, and I looked at that one!"

Australian Open tennis.

It used to be the only one of the four slams that many of the top players never bothered to turn up for as it was too far too travel, or some excuse. Explains how John Lloyd was able to get to the final.

Nowadays it's equally as important as the other 3 and no top player would ever miss it unless genuinely injured, their sponsors wouldn't allow either.

The Indoor League with Fred Truman.

Bar Billards
Arm Wrestling
Shove Ha'penny
Table football

"I'll see thee"

Just want to point out that though snooker has declined in popularity, its nothing to do with players - back in the day Griffiths and Thorburn were notorious for being boring, slow players and they were - no-ones as bad as them now - he got affectionately nicknamed 'the grinder' - now nobody would watch him

I disagree, fathermaguire.

I liked watching snooker when there were the characters of old, jimmy white, steve davies, alex higgins, ray reardon etc etc, but when stephen hendry and the like came on the scene it got very boring.  I watch the occasional match if ronnie o'sullivan is playing, although I personally do not care for him - he rarely smiles and when he does it is false usually.

TV snooker really lost its appeal once people ditched their black and white televisions sets.

FA Cup semi-final moved to mid-week.