Magpie Monday - Snooker Loopy

"Snooker Loopy, nuts are we, me and him and them and me.
We'll show you what we can do, with a load of balls & a snooker cue!
Pot the reds and screw back, for the yellow, green, brown, blue, pink and black.
Snooker Loopy, nuts are we, we're all snooker loopy!"

And I didn't even need to look that up!

Snooker is probably the biggest obsession in my life.  No probably about it, it is.  Fact.  I've spent too much money, and too many hours sitting in darkened theatres watching men in tight trousers bend over a table in the name of sport, that I really shouldn't admit it in public.  And this week, as I haven't had any luck whatsoever in new finds, I'm sharing some of my favourites instead.

These 6 are about a quarter of my collection of "classic" snooker books of the late 70's - late 80's, including my most recent find in the top centre (Many of the others are inaccessible due to bookcase "issues").  I'm pretty sure these are all charity shop/boot sale finds, but I do pick them up on eBay as well from time to time, though they're a bit more expensive there.  It's amazing how popular & mainstream snooker was in that era, even Marks & Spencer published a snooker book!  I can't see them publishing a football book now, though I'm happy to be proved wrong.

But the real reason I'm sharing these books today is to show just what sort of treasures you can find.  The bottom centre book of this collection is one of my very favourites.  Not because of the content, but what's just inside.

Signed by the late Ted Lowe, a man I was never lucky enough to meet, though he was still commentating when I first started going to live matches. 

6 times world champion Ray Reardon, one of the nicest players I've met (and without bragging, I've met a LOT)  A genuinely lovely, lovely guy.

And 4 times world champion, albeit from a very different era, the late John Pulman - helpfully with an arrow pointing him out!

I don't know who James was, or how the signatures were obtained (the date is just after the end of the 1981 world championship), it's all just part of the mystery.

Maybe next week I'll have some new finds for you, maybe...

See what the other magpies have found

"It's only a game so put up a real good fight,
I'm gonna be snookering you tonight.
I'm famed for my aim so you'd better believe I'm right,
I'm gonna be snookering you, snookering you tonight. BIG BREAK!"

(sorry)