Ronnie O'Sullivan

If there's one thing that proves I'm British it's my love of snooker. One of the many hardships of living in America is the lack of snooker coverage. Soon enough my beloved World Championships will be coming round and I'll miss the extended sets, and of course, the Masters at The Crucible. Very rarely does a wonder strike in the Premier league make the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. Very rarely does a mighty six straight over the bowlers arm deposit something more than a grin. But I say with pride that a perfect cannon shot off the black to open the reds by one of world's greats sends a shiver down my spine and a tear to my eye. The master of this is Ronnie O'Sullivan. Seldom is the word 'genius' employed appropriately, but in this instance, anything other would be an insult. He's been one of the best players in the world for over fifteen years and he made his first maximum break at age 15. I once heard an interesting piece of trivia that he does 100 push-ups a day. He's also the member of his local running club and frequently runs up to 150 miles per week. Somewhat strange then for a man who's peers are pale through to the bone having spent hour after hour in darkened snooker halls. He's no stranger to controversy after walking out of his World Championship quarter-final match with Stephen Hendrie, offering a Chinese journalist oral sex, checking into The Priory for drug and alcohol addiction, and being fined for ungentlemanly conduct following a match where he was deemed to have embarrassed his opponent by winning the final frame with only his left hand. He is the only player in the world who can use both his hands to equal effect; he's regularly achieved maximum breaks with his left after unveiling his ability in 2004. When he won the 2008 World Championship his 6-month old son crawled onto the table and someone from the crowd understandably shouted out: "Give him the cue!" With a talent like Ronnie's, and his unarguable genius, who could blame him. I urge anyone and everyone to watch this footage of him breaking his own world record for the fastest ever maximum. Further, in his latest interview with the BBC's Inside Sport (bullion, by the way), he provides an enlightening insight into how he sees the game: "Really big pockets [...] I see every part of the table as a help. Even the knuckles." He strikes me as quite an insecure person. He's been known to change his mind between interviews and struggle with questioning. His father has been in prison since Ronnie was a teenager for being convicted of murder, but, if anything, Ronnie claims it's helped him. Ronnie appears quite embarrassed much of the time, not necessarily humble or modest, but unsure of himself as a person outside of the snooker arena. He says he likes the trophies, not the money, he wants the physical trophies. Unlike myself, he doesn't enjoy beating people, or annoying them, or humbling them, he merely likes to win for his own sake, as if he needed any more proof that he's the greatest snooker player to have ever lived, and likely, ever to live. And he's still only 33.