SELBY'S THE DADDY

SELBY'S THE DADDY

It’s been a pretty good few weeks for Mark Selby. His beloved Leicester City were promoted to the Premier League, he became world champion for the first time, regained the world no.1 spot and on Wednesday announced that he is to become a father for the first time.

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SELBY SETS BAR HIGH FOR FINAL PARTY

Mark Selby has some form when it comes to after-final parties – but his celebrations after clinching a first world title probably topped the lot.

Victory at the 2012 UK Championship sparked an infamous all-nighter at the sports bar opposite the Barbican, with the Leicester Jester running through the Frank Sinatra songbook.

To label Selby a karaoke king might be harsh – he is actually a decent singer, as some of the videos taken in the early hours of Tuesday morning after the 18-14 Crucible final win over Ronnie O’Sullivan will show once put on Youtube.

Around an hour and a half into the party at the Mercure hotel in Sheffield Selby did his own version of Snow Patrol’s Chasing Cars, putting the lead singer of the actual band to shame.

And as things got worse for the booked act but better for the audience, that was followed by further numbers in tandem with Iron Maiden’s Nicko McBrain on drums including The Monkees’ I’m A Believer, REM’s Losing my Religion and the Kings of Leon’s Sex on Fire.

Needless to say this all went down a storm with the assembled throng.

PARMAR STILL ON THE SCENE

Mukesh Parmar, the former manager of Mark Selby, was seen around the Dafabet World Championship this week and put in an appearance at the World Snooker party on the Wednesday night at Genting Casino – an evening for all connected with and working at the event, taking advantage of the morning off on the Thursday.

While Parmar’s relationship with Selby on the table was characterised by some considerable success, including wins at the UK Championship and the Masters before a split early in 2013, there were clearly tensions and problems behind the scenes with the three-time Masters champion deciding he would rather handle his own affairs, helped by wife Vikki.

At one time there was speculation Parmar could link up with Neil Robertson as a manager having done some work with him, though that did not come to pass with the world No1 now under a full management deal with Django Fung in the same stable as Judd Trump.

But Parmar, who still runs a snooker club in Leicestershire, indicated that he might dip his toe back in the water of player management if the “right opportunity” came along.