Introduction

In the first of my “Conversations With CoR” series, I chat with Rob Francis (@RobJF24). Rob is one member of the team who runs the Official Neil Robertson Fan Group, long-time follower and a thoroughly decent chap.

We chat about how Rob got into snooker in the first place. We talk about his top player Neil Robertson, social media, watching one frame live at the 2020 World Championships, and former Qatari professional Ahmed Saif.

We had a lovely chat on Wednesday 27th January 2021 and our interview is underneath. Enjoy!

Best Beginnings

CoR: What do you think about Snooker Twitter in general?

Rob Francis: It’s different for me because I am on Twitter as myself rather than a brand, but I think Snooker Twitter network is great. I don’t know many of the communities on Twitter, but the snooker one is top drawer, I suppose.

CoR: Snooker Twitter is quite decent. There are very few I have seen face-to-face. Since I have a logo for a profile picture, I like to assume people expect me to have a massive red circle for a face!

Rob Francis: Yeah, that’s what I was expecting!

CoR: How did you get into snooker in the first place?

Rob Francis: I suppose it’s a two-halves thing. Snooker’s always been TV when I was younger and my earliest memories of it were noticing the match will overrun and I couldn’t watch The Simpsons!

It was at the 2003 World Championship final when I started to support Ken Doherty over Mark Williams. I don’t know why I supported him then, I just took a liking to him! I started watching the BBC events and got engaged more when Ronnie O’Sullivan had a more arrogant personality and everyone wanted to beat him. It was only during the 2009/2010 season where my obsession grew from a just a vague interest and I started watching Neil Robertson in the final.

I remember there was a bit of animosity between Robertson and Judd Trump in the 2012 Masters. I was cringing at the constant mention of ‘naughty snooker’ then anyways…

CoR: That’s just Dennis Taylor though…

Rob Francis: Yeah, I know! I love Judd to bits, but I felt that he did have a clique of people that followed him around in tournaments.

CoR: At the time he was thrust into stardom and there was an air of invincibility that he was expected to walk over everyone. I think everyone felt that.

Rob Francis: I don’t begrudge that. I loved Robertson’s response to that in a way. You can tell that he wanted to win that match on the table. I liked the way when during his post-match interview, he wasn’t pulling any punches towards Judd’s fans when they applauded his flukes. That’s the sort of thing that would niggle at me and I appreciated bringing that to light and he went on to win that tournament through awesome break-building. I’ve been a fan of that ever since really.

The Neil Robertson Fan Facebook Page

CoR: Have you met Neil yet?

Rob Francis: Yeah, I met him at a Comic-Con in Milton Keynes seven or eight years ago. There were a few movie stars but Robertson was there alongside Shaun Murphy and Mark Selby I think?

CoR: I understand Neil at the Comic-Con, but I can’t imagine Selby being there!

Rob Francis: He did look slightly uncomfortable surrounded by the nerds. And no, I wasn’t dressed up as a Wookie or anything else!

CoR: Ah, that would be INCREDIBLE.

Rob Francis: I’ll up the game next time.

CoR: Don’t you run a fan Facebook group as well?

Rob Francis: It was shortly after that actually! I found a group through Neil Robertson’s website, joined the group and became one of the admin a couple of years later.

CoR: What’s the community like? I don’t go on Facebook much.

Rob Francis: It’s very different compared to Twitter. I try and be impartial but you have to show some slant to it because it’s a fan group. You do get a few die-hard fans that take it to the extremes when he loses but you take these people with a pinch of salt. Neil and his fiancée are members of the group and they post occasionally. But we just follow the rule of not saying anything you wouldn’t say to their face. Facebook is far more casual than Twitter. It’s a pleasure to run, much like your blog is for you!

CoR: I love it! Facebook is more casual and Twitter has more passionate people but they are less forgiving. I’m just lucky I haven’t been in any scraps with anyone. The worst accusations I received were being called a ‘Ronnie-hater’ and taking like a politician. But that’s incredibly tame compared to what other people had on there.

Rob Francis: It doesn’t take a lot to be called a hater on there. It can be a tricky line to walk to say something without angering them.

Watching One Single Frame At the Crucible

CoR: What venues are you hoping to go to when the lockdown is over?

Rob Francis: I was planning to the Grand Prix at Cheltenham but that couldn’t happen. I want to go to the Masters to watch the later rounds and the Crucible again. The only time I went to the Crucible was to see just one frame with Ronnie and Kyren! I haven’t been to York because so I want to complete my personal Triple Crown.

CoR: Oh, you were there for that 2020 final?

Rob Francis: Well, we managed to get tickets to the Crucible on that unforgetful day of two semi-final deciders. As we were driving up we heard about the previous session and we hoped if Kyren scored one more frame, then we would be in for the night.

CoR: Were there any exhibitions afterwards? I went there and Dennis Taylor did some exhibitions since both of my matches finished early.

Rob Francis: There was no exhibition after the match or anything. But even with the sparse crowd, it felt special, even just the one frame. It was worth it.

CoR: You must be a good fan to travel up to Sheffield for just one frame of snooker…

Rob Francis: Haha! I travelled up with a friend and his girlfriend and she hadn’t seen a live snooker match before! At least she can say she saw the last frame of a World Championship final though. My friend is a big Selby fan and at the time he looked in good contention to get to the final.

CoR: … and your mate faced the disappointment of not seeing Selby in the final!

Rob Francis: That was amazing! The manner of how Selby lost that was unbelievable – you cannot make that up! It was utterly crazy.

CoR: It was! I was completely glued to the Wilson vs. McGill deciding frame and I don’t think anyone can believe what they were seeing, it was the maddest frame I’ve ever seen! I remember saying, “please don’t let there be another fluke, please don’t let there be another fluke,” and then I saw that final green…

Rob Francis: I don’t think that day could ever be replicated. I wanted Ronnie to make a comeback just to add that extra spice to the semis and his rivalry with Selby.

CoR: That match elevated their rivalry to a completely new level. Everyone was either elated or angry online. But during the lockdown, you do have that constant interaction to keep you busy. That, as well as the attention on the World Championship, kept some people’s spirits up to some extent.

Rob Francis: I was thinking about that. The network and online communities are vital during this time. If this happened twenty years ago then it would’ve been a completely different sort of isolation.

Robertson & Saif

CoR: Who do you reckon will be the players to watch for the rest of this season?

Rob Francis: It’s really difficult to make predictions in snooker…

CoR: Do you think Robertson will win another World title?

Rob Francis: I knew that question was coming!

CoR: Sorry!

Rob Francis: Whenever anyone talks about Neil Robertson, it’s always about winning more than one World title! I think he will. He’s got a few years left and there haven’t been as enough youngsters coming through.

But many players could win it. I find the snooker obsession with underachieving a bit annoying. There’s only a certain number of World Championships every year and everyone points to the likes of Murphy, Ding, Trump and Robertson as underachievers based on World titles alone! You never hear about who has overachieved. Robertson has definitely got one more in him as he’s been among the favourites every single year. But he’s only been in one semi over the past decade.

CoR: Yeah, that was 2014! During that time I kept hearing about how he struts around like a peacock when he’s in full flow! Think he’s the only one that has that swagger.

I feel the same way about Judd. I hear constantly that he’s underachieved and that he’s cocky or went out a lot when he was much younger, but he hasn’t done anything scandalous back then. In the next five years, I can only see him, Ding, Yan and Kyren battle it out followed by McGill or Lisowski…

Rob Francis: Don’t you think Selby and Robertson won’t be about in five years?

CoR: Well, Robertson and Selby certainly. I would be surprised if Ronnie lasts at least another 5 years. But most of the attention will be on Trump. I do hope Kyren will win the World Championship though.

One thing I do want to talk to you about your great interest in Ahmed Saif!

Rob Francis: I remember when Clive Everton once referred to him as “Saif by name but not by nature.”

CoR: Oh god!

Rob Francis: This is probably around the time where I got into snooker more and more. Saif did well to qualify onto the tour. But he was a small fish in a massive pond. He really struggled. His face was a delight when he got his first win over a professional player against Anthony Hamilton in the 2015 Welsh Open! I guess I just took a shine to him.

CoR: It’s amazing when you get into any sport you eventually learn od the lesser-known names!

Rob Francis: I suppose. When you get obsessed, you get more knowledgable about the players away from the spotlight!

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Acknowledgments

Many thanks go to Rob for taking his time out to chat with me.

I take no credit for the photos used in this interview. World Snooker Tour, Sky Sports, Exposed and Eurosport are the owners of some of the photographic material.

All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of content is expressly prohibited without the written consent of the author (Cluster of Reds Snooker Blog).