Snooker - Ronnie O'Sullivan: Smoking ban has killed game in UK

The five-time champion, who last month berated the English Open venue in Crawley as a ‘hellhole’, before saying he could smell urine in the interview area, thinks that the culture of the game has died since it was outlawed to smoke inside in 2007.

He told WestEndExtra: “The smoking ban killed off the clubs. It killed off snooker culture. There might have 100 clubs in London at one point but now there is just maybe five or six proper ones left.

“King’s Cross - that used to be a proper club, but now it’s got music and changed a lot.”

O'Sullivan also lamented that a members' club in Dean Street, where he used to play, has now closed.

“It’s shut down now. We took two mirrors from there when it closed, they’re still at my mum’s place. If I go down there [Soho] people still say hello Ronnie, ask how my dad’s doing.

"It’s definitely cleaned up around there now, I’m not sure if the kind of characters are there anymore.”