Snooker player Jack Lisowski, a former cancer patient from Gloucestershire, said the new unit would have made his life "so much more bearable".

BBC: Teenage cancer centre in Bristol appeals for further ?1m

On May 2nd the News of the World, a British Sunday tabloid, published an account of a sting operation in which John Higgins, the world's top-ranked snooker player, and his agent Patrick Mooney, appeared to agree to accept bribes in return for losing specific frames in future contests.

ECONOMIST: Corruption in sport

Nevertheless, snooker fans on the Five Live message boards were in little doubt about Ding's potential, both as a player and as a symbol of snooker's new generation.

BBC: SPORT | Other Sport... | Snooker | Could Ding be snooker's saviour?

Still only 25, Williams is known around the snooker circuit as "Sprog" and became only the fourth player in history to win three ranking titles in one season when he scooped the Irish Open, Welsh Open and Thailand Masters in 1998-99.

BBC: Mark Williams