Agreed wether, Ronnie is the best snooker player of all time, Beth isn’t the best footballer in her own family I assume.

Exactly, the BBC... you will like women's football.... NOT...

Let's be honest, SPOTY, especially in recent years has meant very little, but ultimately it's a popularity contest voted for by the public. Ronnie is very much a marmite character, but not the type of guy that the public would endear themselves to, unless there really was no-one else to vote for.

Women's football was always going to dominate. I was surprised that Ronnie didn't make top 3, but he won't be bothered.

I would have given it to Sinfield, I know he got a special award, but he would have won by a mile if on the final list...................

Ronnie is still the most popular player in snooker by a country mile and also for the more casual snooker viewer, they care more about Ronnie than snooker. That may not be correct, but there can be no doubt of Ronnie's appeal.

No one outside England (and most people even inside England) care about women's footy or know who she even is. So many SPOTY winners from the past are also nowhere near as popular as even a teenage Ronnie (for example the cyclists like Geraint Thomas).

I don't get it at all.

Well said Just True

I don't doubt that Ronnie is the most popular player to the snooker public, but I mean the general public who aren't interested in snooker.

I have no interest in women's footie either, but a lot of people who have little or no interest in sport will have followed the Euros and no doubted voted for Beth Mead, and obviously from the result, have no interest in Ronnie.

It's also difficult to quantify how popular Ronnie is, because let's face it, snooker isn't as popular any more.

Using your example of Geraint Thomas, I don't know if cycling is more popular than snooker, but if Ronnie was that popular, surely he would have finished top 3?

But as I said before SPOTY has little significance these days, just a waste of a couple of hrs tv time

It's an appauling programme, used to be worth watching years & years ago, now the beeb would much rather see Tabatha Farquarson Jeffries the local equestrian win than proper people who deserve it....

I think SPOTY was quite decent up until they gave Ryan Giggs the SPOTY almost like it was a lifetime achievement award in 2009. I really liked Giggs as a player but there seemed to be nothing specific he did in 2009 to merit the award over any other season where he was terrific for Man U.

After that, sports and achievements seem to be secondary in SPOTY and they seem to just pick the winner beforehand, make them favourite and everyone seems to vote for them.

AP McCoy, Cavendish, Geraint Thomas and now Beth have been terrible winners and have been or will be forgotten about soon after winning the award. Murray should really have only won once and the same with Hamilton. Salah and Stokes were fine as winners too.

It seems that a very specific type of viewer that still votes. Most don’t seem to have a clue about sport.

I only voted twice, both times for Ronnie in 2020 and 2022. Otherwise i have zero interest in the award and don’t watch it at all. Seems like most of the country do the same.

Merry Christmas everyone
The Masters thread is up
https://www.ja606.co.uk/articles/viewArticle/450485

Ronnie needs to reach the final to reach the players.... I think he's conserving himself for a real go at the one we all love, which is only 2 months away!

Come on, Judd!

Comfortable wins for Joe Perry and Shaun Murphy.

Comfortable wins for Ronnie and Robbo as well.

John Virgo has been commentating on BBC Wales btw. Shaun Murphy has been as well

John wins 4-0 vs Ursenbachef. 2 centuries and a 96, promising form

Williams wins 4-2. He was 2-0 down and should have been 3-0 down!

Willie used to do the Welsh!

Well played Ronnie 👏👏

Judd wins 4-0. Not a great performance from him. He made a great clearance in frame 2. He always starts tournaments off slowly.

All the big hitters through, Inc Selby & Allen

If you have Sky BBC 2 Wales is channel 980, you get the beeb then, Inc Doherty, Virgo, Dominic Dale is there too as he's Welsh of course 😂

Dale beats Robbo 4-0 Robbo will not be playing in the Players championship as he is still outside the top 16 on the 1 year list.

Wow what a result for Dale. Robbo was terrible.