Inside Snooker is always ready to help the greats of the game, and on Sunday that involved providing some research assistance for former world champion John Parrott. The 1991 Crucible king and huge horseracing fan was attempting to see if it was possible to fit in a day at Fakenham races in Norfolk and ticking off a new track, after a speaking engagement in Norwich, and before dashing back to the north-west to take part in the Paul Hunter Foundation golf day in Accrington. After consulting race fixture calendars, maps of Britain and AA route planners, Parrott departed duly reassured that it could be done.

Stephen Hendry is still enjoying his role as an ambassador for Chinese eight-ball pool, one that is certainly seeing him clock up the air miles with the regular travel from Scotland to the Far East over the past 18 months. “I think I have been to around 40 Chinese cities already,” said the seven-time world champion at the Masters. “And I am taking Chinese lessons now, although I’m not exactly fluent yet.” It is thought there are around 129 cities in China with a population as big or bigger than Birmingham, so the 45-year-old still has some way to go in his quest to promote that sport.

World Snooker has to be careful allocating complimentary player tickets, mindful of balancing the needs for raising revenue and also making the maximum number available to the public. But for the high-profile occasions every effort is made to ensure that the finalists, especially at venues with a larger capacity, get a reasonable number with the option to pay for more. That meant Mark Selby, with the vast majority of the rest of the crowd supporting Ronnie O’Sullivan, was at least able to secure an allocation of around 20 tickets for the travelling Leicester army in to Alexandra Palace on the Sunday, paying for more on top – with the Rocket getting the same for family and friends.

Jimmy White, himself a former Masters winner fully 30 years ago, has been loyally supporting friend Ronnie O’Sullivan in person at Alexandra Palace this year and passed up the chance to go and watch his beloved Chelsea at home to Manchester United on Sunday afternoon to be at the final, which clashed with the first eight frames being played in north London from around 1.15pm. White, who has attended with a variety of other celebrities in O’Sullivan’s camp over the week including Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood and artist Damien Hirst, was still holding out hope before the start of play that he might be able to catch the Premier League clash at 4pm on TV after the first session. “You never know, if he really gets on with it,” said a hopeful White. World No1 Neil Robertson, also a huge Chelsea fan and not involved, did manage to get late tickets for the match at Stamford Bridge.

A cosmopolitan audience on Saturday’s semi-finals day at the Masters reflected the growing influence of the rest of Europe within snooker, and not just the better known countries of Belgium, Germany, Poland and Bulgaria. Fans who had travelled from Finland, Austria, Sweden and Iceland approached MC Rob Walker and asked for a name-check in the arena. Those who had made the trip from Reykjavik were slightly startled when the sometime athletics and Olympics commentator began to regale them with tales of his stag do in the city, a 23-strong mission that involved tobogganing down glaciers.