Snooker continues to grow in terms of tournaments and prize money under Barry Hearn, but in a year full of incident it was marred by match-fixing headlines with Stephen Lee banned for 12 years after the biggest controversy to ever hit the sport.
Aussie back on top
A fine end to the year for Neil Robertson as he claimed the UK Championship to become just the eighth player, and the first overseas star, to complete the 'Triple Crown' of the UK, the World Championship and Masters titles in their careers.
Robertson beat World No 2 Mark Selby in York to settle the argument over who the best in the world was, for now anyway, and the Aussie left-hander will be the man to watch in 2014 for the rest of the season.
Robertson also won the China Open in March and the Wuxi Classic in June, and he is targeting more of the big trophies starting with the Masters and then, of course, the World Championship at the Crucible.
Golden Nugget
He may be 56, but six-time world champion Steve Davis is still plugging away on the main snooker Tour, although he is down at 58 in the rankings and struggling to make regular ranking events.
The Nugget can still mix it in the senior ranks though, as he showed in October by claiming his first World Seniors Championship, his 81st professional title and the tidy sum of £18,000 first prize when beating Nigel Bond in the final.
Davis also got the chance to exact some revenge on Dennis Taylor for that famous 1985 Crucible final win as he beat his old nemesis 2-0 in the first round in Portsmouth en route to lifting the crown.
