Episodes

Darren Appleton’s rise was anything but gradual. In Part 2 of this Legends of the Cue interview, “Dynamite” recalls winning the first professional tournament he entered, developing one of pool’s most admired cue deliveries and making the career-defining decision to leave English 8-ball behind for American pool. Appleton explains why his compact stroke, timing and cue-ball control were developed through observation rather than formal coaching. He remembers studying Jimmy White, Ronnie O’Sulliv...

Before Darren “Dynamite” Appleton became a multiple world champion and BCA Hall of Famer, he was a fiercely competitive kid growing up on a council estate in Pontefract, West Yorkshire. In Part 1 of this five-part Legends of the Cue interview, Appleton takes Mike Gonzalez, Allison Fisher and Mark Wilson back to the beginning of a remarkable cue sports journey. Darren explains how a childhood shaped by working-class values, football, boxing and family competition forged the mentality that late...

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...

The final chapter of Jorgen Sandman’s Legends of the Cue interview brings together the personal and the historic: a lifetime of service to pool, a near-death experience, a renewed commitment to the WPA, and a simple answer to how he wants to be remembered—“as another pool player, with a dream.” Jorgen continues the Olympic conversation by explaining why pool may deserve the first true chance if billiards sports are admitted to the Games. He points to pool’s global reach, the possibility of ch...

Can pool become an Olympic sport? In this fifth episode of Legends of the Cue, Jorgen Sandman offers one of the clearest explanations you will hear of where billiards sports stand in the Olympic movement, what still has to happen, and why the dream remains alive. The episode begins with the continental structure of the WPA and why organizations like the EPBF, Asian federations, BCA, African associations, and Pan-American bodies became essential to pool’s global survival. Jorgen explains why t...

Pool fans know eight-ball, nine-ball, ten-ball, and straight pool. But behind the games themselves is a complex world of federations, Olympic recognition, acronyms, politics, and diplomacy. In this fourth episode of Legends of the Cue, Jorgen Sandman becomes the ideal guide through the “alphabet soup” of international cue sports governance. Jorgen explains how carom, snooker, and pool first came together under one umbrella, eventually forming the World Confederation of Billiards Sports, or WC...

In this powerful third episode of Legends of the Cue, Jorgen Sandman pulls back the curtain on the creation of the World Pool-Billiard Association, the importance of American participation, and the youth development systems that helped Europe and Asia catch up to—and eventually surpass—the United States in world pool. Jorgen recounts the late-1980s conversations that led European leaders to look beyond their own borders and imagine a true global structure for pool. He explains why the WPA could...

Before Jorgen Sandman became one of the most influential administrators in world pool, he was first a student, teacher, pool room operator, promoter, and believer in the power of simply getting started. In this second episode of Legends of the Cue, Jorgen explains how “learning by doing” became the motto that guided his journey from young instructor to international leader in billiards sports. The conversation begins with the games that shaped Swedish pool in its early years, especially straigh...

Jorgen Sandman’s extraordinary life in cue sports begins far from the bright lights of world championships and Olympic committees. In this opening episode of Legends of the Cue, Jorgen takes us back to Sundsvall, Sweden, where a childhood shaped by ice hockey, discipline, outdoor play, and multi-sport development laid the foundation for a lifetime in pool, billiards, coaching, and sports leadership. Jorgen recalls learning to skate before he could walk, being taught fundamentals before being al...

In the final chapter of our conversation on Legends of the Cue, Jeanette “The Black Widow” Lee reflects on legacy, recognition, and what it all means after a life spent chasing excellence in pool. This episode shifts from the climb to the view from the top, as Jeanette shares her reaction to receiving the sport’s highest honors: induction into the WPBA and the Billiard Congress of America Halls of Fame. She talks about what that moment meant to her personally, how she viewed the road that got h...

In this penultimate episode of her Legends of the Cue interview, Jeanette Lee shares the stories that transformed her from champion pool player into one of the most famous figures in cue sports history. The conversation begins with her unforgettable trip to the Philippines to play Efren Reyes, a match that became far more than a contest. Jeanette talks about meeting her idol on his home turf, seeing firsthand the conditions that shaped one of the greatest players of all time, and realizing just ...

In this episode of Legends of the Cue, Jeanette “The Black Widow” Lee opens up about one of the defining rivalries in women’s pool history: her battle with Hall of Famer Allison Fisher. With both legends on the show together, the conversation becomes a fascinating look back at an era when the women’s game was thriving, ESPN was broadcasting pool to a national audience, and rivalries helped elevate the sport to new heights. Jeanette and Allison reflect on their contrasting styles, competitive pe...

In this sixth episode of our interview, Hall of Fame pool legend Jeanette “The Black Widow” Lee takes us inside one of the most important turning points of her career: the moment she arrived on the professional scene and changed women’s pool forever. Jeanette reflects on the early years of the WPBA, the tensions she felt as a rising star, and the unforgettable “Yertle the Turtle” story that revealed just how unwelcome she sometimes felt among her peers. But if the reception was cold, her game w...

In the fifth installment of our conversation with Jeanette Lee, the legend begins to take shape. This is the chapter where the player becomes the persona, and Jeanette explains how “The Black Widow” was born — not as a carefully engineered brand at first, but as an image, an impression, and eventually an identity that captured the imagination of fans far beyond the pool world. Her reaction to the nickname is as funny as it is revealing, and the story behind it is pure Jeanette: skeptical, sharp,...

Part 4 is where talent meets discipline. Jeanette takes us inside the all-consuming years when pool became her life and improvement became an obsession. She talks about the players, rooms, and routines that shaped her game, including the influence of Gene Nagy, whose relentless straight-pool sessions helped sharpen her ability, discipline, and mental toughness. Day after day, Jeanette showed up and put in the work. Open to close, then more of the same. This was not glamour. This was the grind. ...

In Part 3, the story turns toward the game that changed Jeanette Lee’s life forever. After a difficult and unsettled youth, Jeanette discovers pool and is instantly captivated. What begins as fascination quickly becomes obsession. She describes walking into the poolroom, seeing the game in a new way, and feeling something click deep inside. For the first time, she had found something that demanded everything she had — and gave something back. Jeanette shares what it was like in those early days...

Part 2 of our visit with Jeanette Lee dives deeper into the turbulent teenage years that helped forge her identity. As Jeanette tells it, this was a time of rebellion, running away, surviving on instinct, and trying to make sense of a life that often felt chaotic and painful. She shares stories of taking jobs while still a child, lying about her age to get by, drifting between homes, and learning early that if a door was locked, she would figure out another way in. It is a portrait of a young wo...

In Part 1 of our conversation with Hall of Fame champion Jeanette “The Black Widow” Lee, we begin where all great life stories begin: at the very start. Jeanette takes us back to her childhood in Brooklyn, where she grew up as a Korean girl in a predominantly Black neighborhood, trying to find where she fit in while navigating racism, loneliness, and the feeling of always being different. She shares vivid memories of Korean school, family expectations, church, discipline, and the cultural values...

In Part 2 of the Legends of the Cue 100th Episode Special, Mike Gonzalez, Allison Fisher, and Mark Wilson continue their celebration of the podcast’s first 100 episodes by focusing on what makes cue sports history so powerful: the stories, the storytellers, and the legacy they leave behind. The hosts reflect on some of the best storytellers to appear on the show, from Billy Incardona’s unforgettable road stories to Mitch Laurance’s journey through acting, broadcasting, and pool, and Mary Kennis...