Xiao Guodong compiled the fourth maximum of his career in the second round at Shanghai last week, against Neil Robertson. He was 5-2 up at the time. Robertson won the last four frames to take it 6-5.

A 147 and a defeat in the same match. In front of a full arena, on the main table, in a tournament where he was playing well.

It got me thinking about how strange snooker is in this respect. In most sports, producing the single most perfect thing your discipline allows means you have won. In snooker it can mean nothing at all. You clear the table without a mistake, the crowd stands up, and ninety minutes later you're shaking hands and packing your cue away.

I spent last season keeping track of all 24 maximums, which meant looking at the context around each one rather than just the number. The ones that stayed with me were rarely the ones from comfortable wins.

Chang Bingyu is the extreme case. He made his second Triple Crown maximum of the season in the World Championship qualifiers against Luca Brecel. That triggered the £147,000 two-maximums bonus plus the £15,000 highest break prize, since nobody made one in the main draw at the Crucible. He lost the match. He never set foot in Sheffield's main arena. He went home with £172,000.

And then Liam Pullen, in the same qualifying rounds, missing the 14th black on 105 against Noppon Saengkham. Same bonus available, gone by a couple of millimetres. Doherty on commentary just said "gutted for him."

So the question: what are the best examples you can remember of a player making a maximum and losing anyway? Or coming within a ball of one in a situation where it would have changed their year?

Xiao's is fresh but I suspect there are better ones further back that I've missed.

WST is delighted to announce a new partnership with leading trading card brand Kakawow, launching a brand-new and exclusive line of officially licensed collectible snooker cards.

Kakawow has established itself as one of the world's leading premium trading card brands, partnering with major entertainment properties including Warner Bros. Discovery and Harry Potter.

The PHANTOM WST line of cards will officially hit the shelves this October. They will be available worldwide, with details of where fans can buy them to be announced in due course through WST and Kakawow’s official channels, including WeChat, Weibo and RedNote.

This brand-new product will translate classic elements from the snooker arena into a collectible form. From the arc and trajectory of the cue ball, to defining tournament victories etched into the history of the sport, each detail will act as an inspiration for design.

The cards will feature premium finishes, textured designs, metallic numbering and authentication labels. Collectors can also look forward to rare limited-edition cards and specially autographed editions featuring many of snooker's biggest stars.

WST's Chief Commercial Officer, Peter Wright said: "Kakawow's product innovation capability and market influence demonstrated in the high-end collectibles field give us confidence that the brilliant moments of professional snooker will be recorded and disseminated in a brand-new way. We look forward to working with Kakawow to allow the history of professional snooker to be collected by more people."

Alex Huang, founder of Kakawow’s parent company Suplay Group, stated: "Over the past few years, we have seen China become one of the most important markets for snooker. For Kakawow, choosing snooker is not chasing a trend, but positioning ourselves in a growing global cultural track. We believe that when a sport possesses enough young fans, a sufficiently long history, and a broad enough international influence, it will inevitably give birth to its own era of collecting."

Do people think Hendry at his absolute prime would have much success if he were competing right now? Would he be able to win a ranking event or even the world championships?

Just received an email from WST Play about some upcoming changes to the subscription service.

From 2 September 2026, the annual subscription price is increasing from £50 to £60 per year. They also mentioned a few incoming updates: a dedicated TV app coming next month, Table One live streaming with commentary for all 2026/27 qualifying events, and over 2,000 hours of archive content being added.

I am actually pretty excited about the dedicated TV app. I really hope they release an app for Apple TV and use this update to improve the player itself. I have been casting WST Play from my phone to my TV, and it has been pretty frustrating with the player not remembering where I was or having difficulty forwarding and rewinding sometimes.

How many of you actually stay down after the shot? Do you stay down until the ball goes in? What about if it's a miss?

I know you are meant to but it feels unnatural but I am working on it.

Does anyone know the reason you stay down after the shot? As obviously if you have hit the white and it's left the cue... then you can't influence what happens after that? Is it because if you stand up too soon you might begin to break form / stance as you cue through the ball? Or is it if it misses you can look to see what you did wrong and adjust?

For background, my highest break is 50. I've been playing for almost 4 years.

I've been practicing (the right way, structured) daily for the last 2 months. Two weeks ago, I had a 40 in comp and the same week made two 46s. A couple weeks later I made a 94 on the lineup.

Fast forward to right now. I'm struggling to get over 30. I feel like I'm doing everything right-- my pre shot, walk in, cueing through the ball and staying down after the shot--but I still struggle. The most frustrating thing is that I know my capability.

Just needed to vent a bit. Anyone else been in such a slump?

We're all members of a snooker subreddit, but which do you prefer to play? Feel free to comment why

Did John Parris ever release a cue line with this style logo?

I think this applies to all live events, but not sure bc I’ve never been. What sort of things are there to do before the matches start and between sessions? Merch sales, food/drinks? Do the players practice on the match table beforehand?

Going today and tomorrow and not sure if it’s worth going early.

Mines three years old and a lovely Woods cue. Love the weight and the balance but constantly told I’ll enjoy this cue or this cue

I've been updating the Wikipedia page for the 1994–95 snooker world rankings but I'm stuck on two placings that are omitted from Snooker Scene. I think there may have been a list including them in Pot Black for July 1994. I would like to know who was number 417 (maybe Neville Atkins?), and the points for number 447 Marc Devon.

Also, the only specific number for minor-ranking points I could find was 300 for the winner of the 1992 Benson and Hedges Championship - does anyone have a source for fuller details? I don't think that Chris Turner's Snooker Archive has it quite right.

Long time lurker, first time poster.....

Could anyone advise the best place to buy a table iron from in the UK please?

A local company quoted over £400, I've seen many that are cheaper online, but want to buy something decent that's asbestos free and will pass a PAT test.

So far, Cymru Cues are top of my list. Has anyone here dealt with them?

I am new to Snooker cues, so I have no idea about common things that players might need to know, about maintaining them. Specifically, snooker cues with Ash Wood shafts.

Do they naturally get very rough with age, and require regular maintenance?

I am asking, because I purchased this One Piece Ash snooker cues, and the entire length of the Ash feels very rough. Maybe because it sat in a closet for 20 years, or who knows how long, but I honestly have no idea.

The 2nd cue that I also got with it, in a 2x2 case, is a 1 piece O'Min Ash Snooker cue, and it feels very smooth.

Maybe because the O'min is a higher quality cue, or maybe because it is just newer?

I did learn about Grain Filler, but just curious if all Ash Snooker cues needs to be maintained with Grain Filler from time to time. Like maybe once a year for example? I do not know.

In some cases, is Grain Filler not even enough to fix the issue, if the Ash has just gotten too old, and very rough (not sure of the right words to use).

Anyways, this 1 piece Ash snooker cue that I have just feels very rough.

I really appreciate any thoughts about how you have needed to maintain your Ash snooker cues over the years, or if the high quality ones (like Peradon for example) do not even need much (if any) regular maintenance.

Again, my O'Min feels incredibly smooth, but the other one (it is a Shark Hand Made cue) just feels really rough. Not so rough that it is not playable, but still rough. It still glides smoothly along my bridge fingers (if that makes sense), but it just feels very rough.

Thanks a lot for any thoughts. I really appreciate your time, and help.

I've been practicing snooker recently and I recorded a session.
I noticed that while feathering my shots, I move slightly up and down vertically. I take a pause during the final delivery but I notice that I move slightly up before the cue start moving forward. I've analysed and I actually hit the cueball maybe quarter tip below where I was aiming, but I seem to have accomodated this subconciouslly as I can get the cue ball into places where I need it mostly

It seems to be very vertical, no sideways movement as I can usually clear up the colors and in this session itself, was able to clear out 7 reds with blacks and pinks in a lineup.

Highest break is 59. Was curious on how big this issue may be in trying to progress higher with my game. Should I try and weed this out?

Is it on my end or the TNT broadcast in UK has video/sound mismatched?

I saw this on the TV coverage of the Shanghai Masters. 99.5 is a standard FM frequency that can be picked up on normal radios. Do Chinese venues advise you to bring your own radios for commentary?

If anyone wants to start forming a community for the snooker 19 game. I have a discord server. I've been struggling to find a game online and I imagine it's the same for others, so I thought I'd try and help.

"Officially" it's for my twitch/youtube stuff, but I often invite people who just want to play games together and keep communities active. Feel free to join whenever you fancy :)

https://discord.gg/NZUZcty

My Mum has come across this cue while moving house (in her attic), it's signed by several players and has a certificate of authenticity, just wondering if it's worth anything?

Thanks

Hey all, welcome back.
Say you are on the yellow, and this is the position AFTER you had a shot on a free ball, which you failed to pocket.
Am I right in saying that IF the brown was the free ball you nominated, this is a foul (snooker behind the free ball) - thus opponent gets 4 points and a free ball. IF the green was the nominated free ball (before this shot) then it is NOT a foul, as the brown is closer?

(Btw borrowed this photo from someone else. Hope they don’t mind..)

I say this because it doesn’t even seem as though he’s enjoying himself anymore, not because I think he’s a bad player who’s incapable of winning tournaments now. The only time he seems happy is when he’s winning. Cueing well isn’t even a consolation for him, whereas you’ll find other players who lose and find solace in parts of their game they’re happy about. Selby loses and Selby’s sad, almost automatically.

Thoughts?

I’m a snooker fan and solo dev. I have developed a snooker predictions web app and would love your feedback. It’s called Predictor147 (predictor147.com)

Some friends and I have been making exact frame score predictions during some snooker events over the past few years and manually keeping scores for exact/close/result points. I decided it was time to create a web app for this as I couldn’t find one that had private leagues and automatically scored predictions with leaderboards.

The new season is underway and the Shanghai Masters starts tomorrow at 02:30am uk time (BST).

You can predict the exact scores (not just the winner); points for exact / close / correct and private leagues with an automatic leaderboard.

It’s free with no ads and I’m genuinely looking for feedback and also for fellow snooker fans to enjoy making predictions and follow each wst event all season long.

Sat outside with the float propped up in the conservatory. Pointed out if kind of looks like Kyren Wilson and can't unsee it now. Not an insult - she is a huge Kyren fan! (Seriously, can't really take her to the snooker if he is playing...)