A golden period for snooker - but are UK clubs returning from doldrums?

The Rileys chain, once also synonymous with providing equipment for the highest level of the sport, was perhaps the most recognisable face of snooker clubs across the UK at one time.

However it now operates just 15 clubs, an alarming drop-off from the 165 during its peak years.

Yet that downturn has been far from unusual across the UK's major cities and towns.

Simply trying to organise a few frames with friends has become challenging for those that play recreationally, while searching phrases like 'snooker club closed down' online highlights the depth of club closures impacting communities.

Famed establishments like the Willie Thorne Snooker Centre in Leicester, who took in and helped develop the skills of a young Mark Selby, are among those to have fallen by the wayside in the past 15 years.

High rent and operating costs, reduced junior engagement, the coronavirus pandemic and the long-term impact of things like the smoking ban - and government legislation on the size of jackpots from gambling machines - all took their toll.

That was backed up by Sport England figures that showed the number of over-16s playing at least once a week dropped from 112,600 to just 47,700 between 2005 and 2014.

Speaking to BBC Sport Jason Ferguson, chairman of the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA), said: "If you turn the clock back to the 1980s, it was boom time in snooker in the UK and there was a club on every street corner.

"But actually it reached a huge saturation point where it had to contract. There was no question of it. You need large buildings, you need huge amounts of space to get around tables and there's a limited amount of money you can charge for use of a snooker table.

"So we're getting pushed out of the towns and city centre prime locations and we're pushed into industrial units and that type of thing. We've also lost clubs to planning applications. The thing for snooker clubs is, if you've got a city centre location and it's prime, what happens?

"Well, a planning application goes in for flats, apartments, whatever else, and the snooker clubs' leases get terminated, those clubs don't get replaced and that is a real challenge."