About

How It Started

It all started with a simple idea:

“Wouldn’t it be great to show the world the fantastic snooker players we have here in Hull—and give them a platform to shine?”

That sparked many conversations between Gordon and Ian. How could we make it happen? Would anyone care? Would people actually tune in to YouTube to watch our lads play?

We didn’t have the answers. What we did have was enthusiasm, a belief in our players and just enough stubbornness to say, “Let’s do it anyway.”

Ian had everything planned out. Well, in his head, at least.

Ideas were thrown about, some were thrown out, and others survived long enough to become part of the setup. Slowly, the Clarence match table began its journey towards a worldwide audience.

There was, however, one fairly important question:

“Who’s going to keep the scores updated for everyone watching?”

Neither Gordon nor Ian could sit at a computer entering every point during every match. Whatever we built needed to work alongside the games, without someone having to operate it all evening.

Teaching a Camera to Read the Table

The first answer was simple: point a camera at the scoreboard. As long as the players remembered to move their markers, viewers could follow the score. It was a start—but Ian thought we could take it further.

What if a computer could read the scoreboard for itself?

That meant learning unfamiliar technology, experimenting and finding out whether the idea was even possible. Two weeks—and quite a few frustrating nights—later, there was a working prototype.

A camera watched the scoreboard. A small program, aptly named ScoreboardReader, detected the positions of the markers on each player’s scoring strip and translated them into scores for the broadcast. Move a marker, and the score beneath the table picture on YouTube would update.

Of course, we’re simplifying that a tad. The nights Ian spent pulling his hair out would need a page of their own.

Game On!

For Ian, this was the toughest challenge of the entire project. Existing scoring software could put scores on a broadcast, but the options he found still needed someone tapping them into an iPad or another device throughout the match. We needed something that fitted the way our club actually worked.

Getting there took research, patience and plenty of trial and error. That simple score display you see on screen has rather more behind it than you might imagine.

Finding an Audience

Our YouTube channel launched on 6 May 2026, with precisely zero views and no guarantee that anyone would watch.

By 10 September 2026, it had reached 33,749 views.

For two people who started by asking, “Will anyone watch our lads?”, that means a great deal.

The match table has become enormously popular, and the players are at the heart of it. Our league players and everyone else who steps up to play are giving viewers a chance to see the talent, competition and character we have here at the Clarence.

Behind each broadcast, we’re still learning, adjusting and working through the things that don’t quite go to plan. There are hours of preparation and problem-solving that viewers never see. We hope the results make playing on the match table—and watching from home—something people look forward to.

What’s Next

And we have more planned.

We want to keep improving the picture quality, aiming as close as we reasonably can to the standard you’d expect from BBC or ITV snooker coverage. There may also be a few short wonder-shot clips heading to TikTok—because some shots deserve another look.

Live commentary is also in development. We’re working on a way for commentators to follow the match from their own homes, add their commentary remotely and bring those voices into the YouTube broadcast.

There’s still work to do, but that has never stopped us before.

Thank You

To our members, league players, everyone who takes a turn on the match table, and everyone watching and supporting the channel: thank you. You’ve helped turn an idea into something that keeps growing.

We wanted to give Hull’s players a stage. You’re giving people a reason to watch.