Snatch the Snooker Players Trivia Quiz

Answer:

Luca Brecel, aka the Belgian Bullet, turned professional at just 14 and won his first ranking championship final against England's Shaun Murphy in the China Championship of 2017. He was the first continental European World Snooker Championship winner, beating Mark Selby 18-15 in the 2023 final. Unfortunately, the notorious 'Curse of the Crucible' struck and he was knocked out by David Gilbert in the first round the following year.

'Interesting' Steve Davis won his first Snooker World Championship in 1981, against Doug Mountjoy (Wales), and was the first snooker player to win BBC Sports Personality of the Year, in 1988. He was also the first player to win the Triple Crown - the World Snooker Championship, the Masters and the UK Championship - in one season (1987-88), a rare feat. After retiring, he went into punditry. Outside snooker, he is a big fan of French prog rockers Magma and makes his own electronic music.

'Mink' Nutcharut Wongharuthai is a female snooker player from Thailand who has competed in both the World Snooker Tour and the Women's World Snooker Tour. She won her first IBSF World Under-21 Championship against compatriot Baipat Siripaporn in 2016, and her first World Women's Snooker Championship against Belgian Wendy Jans in 2022. She was the first female snooker player to achieve a maximum break, in 2019.

The great Ronnie 'Rocket' O'Sullivan is one of the most titled snooker players in the world, with over 40 ranking final titles. Together with John Higgins (Scotland) and Mark Williams (Wales), he is considered to be one of the "Class of '92". He won his first UK Championship against Stephen Hendry in 1993, and beat Higgins 18-15 in 2001 to win his first World Snooker Championship. O'Sullivan also broke the record for fastest maximum break in 1997, at five minutes and eight seconds.

Aussie Neil Robertson, 'the Thunder from Down Under', was the first non-European to win the World Snooker Championship, when he beat Scotland's Graeme Dott 18-13 in 2010. He is also one of the few players to have scored over 1000 century breaks in professional competitions. In the 2013-14 season, he became the first player to score 100 century breaks in a single season. Outside snooker, he plays Warhammer 40,000K.

Mark Selby, the 'Jester from Leicester', is one of England's top Triple Crown winners, along with Ronnie O'Sullivan and Steve Davis. He won his first UK Championship against Shaun Murphy in 2012, and his first World Snooker Championship against O'Sullivan in 2014. He also plays pool, specialising in blackball and Chinese eight-ball pool; he started playing at the age of eight, and met his wife Vikki Layton on the pool circuit.

Hossein Vafaei, the 'Prince of Persia', is an Iranian snooker player and one of my favourite players, so I had to put him in this quiz! He is the first professional snooker player to come from Iran, a country traditionally more known for football and martial arts, although snooker is becoming increasingly popular there. One of the younger players in this quiz, he made his debut at the Crucible in 2022, but was knocked out by Judd Trump in the first round. He won his first ranking title at the 2022 Snooker Shout-Out, beating Mark Williams 1-0.

Mark Williams, aka the 'Welsh Potting Machine', is one of Wales' most decorated players and the first player to win all three versions of the World Championship (the World Snooker Championship, Six-red World Championship and the World Seniors Championship). He won both his first UK Championship and his first World Snooker Championship against compatriot Matthew Stevens, in 1999 and 2000 respectively. As an aside, I was at a Manic Street Preachers gig in 2025 when Williams was playing Judd Trump in the World Championship semis, and when bassist Nicky Wire - a Welshman and snooker fan himself - announced that Williams had won, several people in the audience (me included) cheered.

Northamptonshire's Kyren Wilson, aka 'the Warrior', won his first World Snooker Championship in 2024, beating Wales' Jak Jones 18-14. The semi-finals of that particular tournament were notable due to all favourites and the biggest names being knocked out; Wilson beat David Gilbert 17-11 to get into the final, while Jones beat Stuart Bingham 17-12. Wilson's first ranking final win was against Judd Trump at the 2015 Shanghai Masters.

Zhao Xintong was the first Chinese World Snooker Championship winner, the first amateur winner, and the first Asian winner, beating Mark Williams 18-12 in the final. He was temporarily suspended due to being involved in a match-fixing scandal, and competed in the 2025 World Snooker Championship as an amateur (Zhao had not fixed any matches himself, but had placed bets on behalf of Yan Bingtao, one of the ringleaders). He also won the 2021 UK Championship 10-5 against Luca Brecel, and won the German Masters in 2022 against Yan Bingtao without conceding a single frame, the third player to do so after Steve Davis and Neil Robertson.

Jude Bellingham, Jack Grealish, Harry Kane, Romelu Lukaku, Kylian Mbappé are the footballers. Bellingham, Grealish and Kane are all English, Lukaku is a compatriot of Brecel, and Mbappé is French.