WORLD CHAMPION Ronnie O’Sullivan is set to give up his title without a defence after it was announced today that he does not plan to compete in any World Snooker Tour events for the rest of the 2012/13 season.
World Snooker chairman Barry Hearn, quoted by the BBC, said: “I have spoken to Ronnie and he has decided to withdraw from any events he has entered, and he will not be playing for the rest of this season.
“He has some personal issues which he needs to resolve and we wish him all the best for the future.”
O’Sullivan, whose turbulent career has been punctuated by repeated threats he might quit snooker for good, announced after winning his fourth world title in May he intended to take a six-month break from the sport.
Although the 36-year-old returned to play in a low-profile Players Tour Championship event in September, he withdrew from last week’s International Championship in Chengdu, China, citing illness.
The gifted O’Sullivan remains modern snooker’s biggest crowd-pleaser and is one of the few present-day leading cuemen to have a wider following amongst the general British sporting public in an era which, while admired for overall levels of technical excellence, is criticised for lacking “characters”.
Bit Harsh on Rovers that. There fans are always really well behaved and never cause hassle for anyone .. ever
@Gary O’Rourke: the goalkeeper through the first bottle into the crowd Gary
@Shane Lad: threw
@Gary O’Rourke: love the sarcasm
@Shane Lad: I know he did Shane , I was at it. Rovers fans are very good in comparison to others …. like Say UCD for Example
@Gary O’Rourke: lol……. Sure they are.
@Gary O’Rourke: biggest crowds in the league brings more trouble. Tends to get highlighted more with rovers though. Not excusing idiots that throw bottles in anyway, but these things happen in a lot of grounds around the country.
@Kevin: Nonsense. It’s not the new fans and families Rovers have attracted since moving to Tallaght causing the problems. Rovers have always had a minority element of trouble makers that give ye a bad name no matter how much crowds have wavered over the years.
@Brian Murphy: so which bit is nonsense?
@Kevin: The bit where you draw a correlation with bigger crowds and trouble. The troublesome element has always been there.
@Brian Murphy: 100%