Snooker Professional Episodes

Allison Fisher shares a personal announcement: her Parkinson’s disease diagnosis and her decision to retire from competitive pool. In this special episode of Legends of the Cue, Allison joins fellow host Mike Gonzalez for an honest, emotional conversation about change, family, and her enduring love for the game. Diagnosed in July 2025, Allison opens up about the symptoms that led her to seek answers, the shock of receiving the news, and the private challenges behind her absence from tournamen...

Why do they call Chris Melling “The Magician”? Part Four of our Legends of the Cue conversation provides the answer. We begin with perhaps the most famous rack of Melling’s career: his extraordinary World Pool Series clearance against Mika Immonen. Chris takes us inside the combination-carom, the severe swerve shot and the unforgettable four-rail bank that helped turn the clearance into one of pool’s most widely viewed highlights. He explains what he saw, what he intended and why the shots th...

Some of Chris Melling’s greatest victories came during the most painful period of his life. Part Three of our Legends of the Cue conversation explores the remarkable intersection of loss, resilience and championship performance that helped define Chris Melling’s career. Chris begins by discussing the difficult choice between professional snooker and pool. He believed he possessed the ability to reach snooker’s upper ranks, but pool provided the exhibitions, tournament income and financial sta...

Chris Melling had the talent. Now he had to prove he could beat the best. In Part Two of our Legends of the Cue conversation, Chris takes us inside his rise from promising young professional to one of the greatest English eight-ball players of his generation—and shares plenty of unforgettable stories from life on the road along the way. We begin with Chris’s longtime friendship with Darren Appleton. The two future champions traveled, practiced and competed together as young players, and Chris...

Long before Chris Melling became known around the pool world as “The Magician,” he was a working-class kid from Keighley, West Yorkshire, who found both a refuge and a calling in a local snooker club. In Part One of our Legends of the Cue conversation with one of the most naturally gifted and versatile cueists of his generation, Chris takes us back to the very beginning. He recalls playing on a tiny pool table as a three-year-old, spending Saturday afternoons in the pub with his father, and t...

The sixth and final part of our Legends of the Cue interview with Alan “Angles” McManus looks forward as much as it looks back. After tracing Alan’s journey from Glasgow schoolboy to Masters champion, Crucible semi-finalist, commentator, and podcaster, this closing episode turns to the future of snooker, the growth of cue sports, and the enduring connection between snooker and pool. Alan shares his views on the modern professional game, the extraordinary standard of today’s players, and the i...

In Part 5 of our Legends of the Cue conversation with Alan McManus, we follow his transition from the professional arena to the commentary box, the television studio, and the world of podcasting. After more than three decades as a professional snooker player, Alan retired in 2021 and moved more fully into broadcasting. In this episode, he reflects on how the balance gradually shifted from competing to commentating, what he learned from being around television production, and why explaining th...

Part 4 of our Alan McManus series brings us to the championship heart of his career: the 1994 Masters at Wembley, the famous final against Stephen Hendry, and the long arc of a professional snooker life lived at the highest level. Alan takes Mike Gonzalez, Allison Fisher, and Mark Wilson inside one of the most memorable wins of his career: defeating Hendry 9–8 in the Masters final. He reflects on what finals felt like, why some players seemed naturally built for them, and how different the at...

Part 3 of our Legends of the Cue series with Alan “Angles” McManus explores the influences, techniques, rivalries, and self-awareness that helped define his rise in professional snooker. Alan looks back on Steve Davis as the model player of his youth: the standard-bearer whose technique, discipline, and professionalism changed what young snooker players believed was possible. As a boy, Alan even staged imaginary tournaments at home, pretending to be Davis, Jimmy White, and other stars while s...

In Part 2 of our Legends of the Cue interview with Alan McManus, the conversation moves from Glasgow snooker halls to New York pool rooms, from schoolboy promise to professional ambition, and from natural ability to the hard-earned craft of safety play. Alan begins with a fascinating cue-sports crossover discussion, asking Allison Fisher about the open bridge, snooker technique, and how her move to American pool may have influenced the way pool players approached fundamentals. That opens the ...

In Part 1 of our extended Legends of the Cue conversation with Scottish snooker great Alan “Angles” McManus, we begin where every cue-sports life story should begin: at the first table, with the first cue, and with the first signs that something special might be happening. Alan joins Mike Gonzalez, Mark Wilson, and Allison Fisher for a warm and thoughtful opening chapter that traces his early years in Glasgow, his first memories of cue sports, and the childhood moments that helped shape one o...

In the final installment of our five-part conversation with snooker great Shaun Murphy, the story turns deeply personal, powerfully honest, and wonderfully reflective. This is the chapter where victories, setbacks, self-doubt, and resilience all come into sharper focus as Shaun looks back on what it meant to validate that unforgettable first world title — and what it has cost, and taught, him to keep chasing greatness ever since. Shaun speaks candidly about the pressure of avoiding the “one-hit...

In Part 4 of our five-part conversation with snooker great Shaun Murphy, the story reaches one of its most dramatic and defining chapters: the 2005 World Championship. Shaun takes us inside the moment his career—and his life—changed forever, from the brink of walking away from the game to lifting the sport’s biggest trophy just weeks later. It is an extraordinary account of doubt, resilience, timing, and belief, made even more powerful by the role his mother played in convincing him to take one ...

In Part 3 of our five-part conversation with snooker great Shaun Murphy, the story moves into the years when talent had to become a profession and ambition had to survive reality. Shaun reflects on the early certainty that snooker was never simply a dream, but the only plan. There was no fallback, no second option, and no diluted ambition. From the time he made his first century as a boy, he believed this would be his life. This episode explores the difficult transition from gifted junior to ha...

In Part 2 of our five-part conversation with snooker great Shaun Murphy, the story moves from raw ability to the disciplined framework that helped shape one of the game’s true champions. This episode offers a revealing look at the system behind Shaun’s early development, as he reflects on the rigorous, highly structured approach created by his father — a man with no background in cue sports, but a remarkable instinct for preparation, accountability, and performance. Monthly goals, honest self-as...

In this first installment of our five-part conversation with Shaun Murphy, the snooker great takes us back to the beginning and opens up about the difficult early years that shaped both the man and the champion. Long before becoming a World Champion and one of snooker’s elite Triple Crown winners, Shaun was a young boy whose family life changed dramatically after financial collapse turned comfort into uncertainty almost overnight. What followed was hardship, hustle, and a growing realization tha...

In the inspiring finale of our six-part “Legends of the Cue” series with Kelly Fisher, MBE, we catch up with one of cue sports’ most decorated champions at the height of her enduring career. Still collecting titles more than three decades after first bursting onto the scene, Kelly reflects on what continues to drive her competitive fire — and when she might finally hang up the cue (spoiler: not anytime soon!). Joined by fellow Hall of Famer Allison Fisher and hosts Mike Gonzalez and Mark Wilson...

In Part 5 of Legends of the Cue, Kelly Fisher, MBE, opens up about some of the most defining — and deeply personal — chapters of her remarkable journey through the world of professional cue sports. From the thrill of championship glory to life-altering challenges off the table, this episode reveals the resilience, humor, and heart that have shaped one of the game’s great champions. Kelly and her longtime friend and rival, Allison Fisher, revisit the drama of Kelly’s multiple Tournament of Champ...

In this fourth installment of our Legends of the Cue conversation with Hall of Famer Kelly Fisher, MBE, we follow Kelly’s remarkable leap of faith—leaving behind the world of English snooker to chase a new dream across the Atlantic. With just £400 between her and partner Val, she arrived in America in 2004 armed with little more than determination and a borrowed cue. Within days, she was learning the rules of nine-ball on the fly—and astonishing everyone by finishing runner-up in her very first ...

In this third installment of Legends of the Cue, hosts Mike Gonzalez, Allison Fisher and Mark Wilson continue their captivating conversation with Pool and Snooker Hall of Famer Kelly Fisher, MBE, diving into the fascinating — and often funny — years that bridged her snooker stardom and her bold leap into the world of professional pool. Kelly reflects with trademark honesty and humor on her early dominance in women’s snooker — recounting her world titles, the quirky English billiards events that...

In Part 2 of our six-part Legends of the Cue conversation with Pool and Snooker Hall of Famer Kelly Fisher, MBE, we journey through her teenage years as one of England’s most gifted young cueists. With the same grit that would one day define her career, Kelly recalls her early training under coach Lionel Payne, the punishing drills that shaped her stroke, and the discipline that separated her from her peers. From the long blues and line-up routines to her relentless pursuit of perfection, listen...

In Part 1 of our six-part conversation with cue-sports legend Kelly Fisher, MBE, we trace the roots of one of the most accomplished and respected players in the history of women’s pool and snooker. Co-hosts Allison Fisher, MBE and Mark Wilson join Mike Gonzalez to uncover Kelly’s remarkable beginnings in South Elmsall, England — a working-class town where her parents ran a local pub with a snooker table in the back room that would unknowingly launch a Hall of Fame career. Kelly shares how her l...

In the final episode of our five-part deep dive with the incomparable Allison Fisher—aka the “Duchess of Doom”—we reflect on the later chapters of a legendary career that has shaped the world of cue sports. From navigating personal challenges and global pandemics to rediscovering her competitive edge, Allison shares how she’s balanced motherhood, health, and the evolving demands of the game while remaining a fierce and respected competitor. We hear candid reflections on the emotional toll of lo...

In the fourth installment of our exclusive five-part conversation with Hall of Fame legend Allison Fisher, the “Duchess of Doom” takes us deeper into the pivotal chapter of her remarkable journey—from reigning queen of women’s snooker in the UK to chasing a new challenge across the Atlantic in the world of professional pool. With candor and clarity, Allison shares the emotional and professional crossroads that led her to leave behind a dominating career in snooker to test her skills against the...