Beard Liberation Front
3rd May
Crucible 2021: Selby leads in final session as he heeds BLF guidance on Beard Power
The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said that Mark Selby is in a strong position to win the 2021 World Snooker Championship after he heeded Beard Liberation Front guidance on the importance of beard power.
The BLF had warned that snooker risked becoming one of the least diverse of sports as the World Snooker Championship in Sheffield saw two clean shaven contestants in Shaun Murphy and Mark Selby qualify for the final.
However Selby relented and started growing a beard. Murphy remains robustly clean shaven.
The last winner with a beard was Judd Trump in 2019 and his victory represented the first time a winner had worn a beard in the final.
The campaigners say that there remains a significant residual element of pogonophobia in top level snooker. Mark Williams was criticised for being ‘untidy’ before he unwisely shaved his trademark beard while beaten semi-finalist Stuart Bingham was referred to as ‘The Bald One’
The BLF says that a beard in top level snooker can be positioned to promote air currents that help players to pocket balls through aerodynamic influence.
BLF organiser Keith Flett said, Judd Trump’s victory was the peak of a long march of beard power through snooker. Those sports that were overwhelming clean shaven until quite recently such as golf have become hirsute, while its quite unusual to see a football player without a beard these days. Despite Selby’s late conversion to a beard power approach there is much work to be done in terms of diversity in snooker and outdated attitudes on appearance and style.
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