In the UK we are enjoying the May bank holiday weekend. In addition to the Premiership reaching the business end of the season and the Classics kicking off with Newmarket's 2000 and 1000 Guineas this period is in many persons eyes most associated with being the finish of the  Snooker World Championship.

Even if the weather is blue sky, barbecue cooking, shades on sunny many of us are unlikely to leave our front rooms for the duration of the weekend, with the only tan being received from the light of our plasma flat screens.

At Hyperion we have tried to summarise the top three things that makes snooker so brilliant:

1) The sounds. Is there anything better than the clunk of a well struck ball followed by the thwack of it striking the middle of the pocket? Likewise there is the ominous deadening hollow noise of a kick.

2) The colours. It must appeal to the toddler in us, but we love the proud blue, the poised pink, the nightclub serene black, the cheeky yellow. Forget watching Avatar on DVD, the crucible is where the visual extravaganza is.

3) The experience. Snooker manages to be both relaxing and exhilarating, simultaneously tranquil and edge of seat tense.

Bit before our time, but here is Higgins in '82: