GET WELL SOON, CHRIS

FOR the latter part of the Betfred World Championships the table-fitting team at the Bristol-based World Snooker Services have had to do without one of their most experienced and popular members in Chris Barnes.

And Inside Snooker would like to join colleagues, friends and everyone else in the sport in wishing Chris a speedy recovery from a nasty injury suffered in the course of his professional duties at the Crucible this year.

While de-rigging and setting up the one-table on Wednesday night Chris saw his little finger become badly crushed by one of the very heavy slate slabs that form part of the unit.

He was rushed to A&E in an ambulance, and medical staff have assessed him continually hoping to save the tip of his finger, with surgery on the agenda in the next couple of days.

As with the other table-fitters Chris spends the year travelling around the world as a key member of an often unsung team, without whose efforts none of the tournaments we watch would be possible.

Chris and his wife are also expecting a baby imminently, so could do with knowing everyone is thinking about them at this time while those in the snooker world look forward to seeing him back on the circuit as soon as possible.

And even with far more important things to focus on we are sure Chris might still have one eye on his beloved Bristol Rovers this weekend as they bid to regain Football League status via the Conference play-offs.

'WHERE'S MICHAELA?' FAN RAISES TABOO SUBJECT

There was an awkward moment during the exhibition match between Stephen Hendry and Ken Doherty, laid on for fans after early finishes on the Monday night of the second week in the matches featuring Ronnie O’Sullivan and Matthew Stevens, and Neil Robertson and Ali Carter.

Near the start someone shouted out from the crowd “Where’s Michaela?”, an obvious reference to the former leading and popular tour referee who resigned earlier this year for reasons that have still not been fully explained, but is believed to have involved an initial dispute over an unpaid bonus that was argued to be discretionary by her former employers World Snooker.

These exhibitions, this one refereed by Marcel Eckardt, are normally wise-cracking affairs, but the moment very briefly triggered an uncomfortable silence even from MC Dennis Taylor with leading World Snooker figures in the audience. Until the Scot decides to tell her side, people will be left guessing to some extent as to the precise nature of the split. It could be that she will sell her story for big money exclusively to a Scottish newspaper, or there may even be further developments in the pipeline. Equally there may be some confidentiality agreement in place and what is clear is that it is almost a taboo subject, and the circumstances surrounding Tabb's departure are a cause for awkwardness for officials.

Whichever is the case, Tabb has been a miss at this year’s World Championship, and did a huge amount promoting snooker in her time refereeing on the main tour, as well as serving as an inspiration to many of the women referees now coming through.

A RIGHT ROYAL OCCASION FOR THE MERCURE

The Mercure hotel was as ever at this year’s Betfred World Championship the place where many of the players, managers, sponsors and media stayed  - and the bar a favourite watering hole for plenty more besides, with the snooker family congregating in the evenings to talk over the day’s events and catch up with old friends.

But it wasn’t just the snooker crowd staying there this year, with FA Cup semi-finalists Reading, who only lost to Arsenal at Wembley to a terrible blunder from keeper Adam Federici, rolling up on the second Monday. The Royals were in the area to play Rotherham on the Tuesday night in a game crucial to the Championship survival hopes of the Yorkshire club.

DOTT TAKES SOUNDBITE HONOURS

Graeme Dott is a pretty regular contributor in any ‘quote of the tournament’ competition. The feisty Scot and former world champion only has to feel strongly on a subject and the soundbites just seem to spill out. The Crucible this year was no exception. When Dott was asked about his excellent record at the venue and in the longer-distance matches, he insisted he was “a Grand National horse being asked to run seven-furlong races for most of the season”, a reference to the plethora of best-of-seven contests since the New Year.

And asked about Anthony McGill, Dott said: “Anthony just loves snooker, I mean really loves it, completely and utterly, he lives and breathes it.

“Give him another 10 years and he’ll probably be like everyone else and hate it – but he’s not like that now, no battle scars and he’s like a kid in a sweetshop.”

NO SIGN OF NICK CLEGG AT CRUCIBLE SO FAR...

Nick Clegg, now of course the Deputy Prime Minister and MP for Sheffield Hallam, came to the Crucible in the build-up to the 2010 General Election and gave what was widely acknowledged to be a cringe-worthy speech full of weak snooker-based puns about reds, blues and yellows. There were even some boos, and that was when he still fairly popular, and before the whole reneging on the tuition fees pledge.

Clegg was, it is understood, invited once again this year but early responses indicated he would not be coming to the Sheffield theatre again before this General Election. Wicked rumour-mongers were left speculating that this might be for fear of a far rougher ride in the tiny arena with no hiding place from a public with a long memory, and Clegg not guaranteed to hold his seat. All Liberal Democrat spokespeople asked to comment on the real reasons felt unable to do so.

ROBERTSON DEDICATION HITS NEW HEIGHTS

Neil Robertson insisted in the press conference following his first-round 10-2 win over Jamie Jones that he was for the first time in his career “regularly leaving the club after Joe Perry and practising as hard as I ever have for the World Championship”.

Perry, who also uses Cambridge as a training base, is usually only too ready to poke some fun at his friend and rival, and dismiss some of the Australian’s wilder claims – but he admitted in the corridor that on this occasion it was all true, and the 2010 champion had been focus and dedication personified ahead of the tournament after an early exit in Beijing.