The original Moochers Market was in Wellington Street, Douglas.

The premises and next door had been a visitor exhibition, ‘Louis Tussaud’ waxworks operated by the Corkill family.

It was full of macabre depictions of the concentration camps, murderers and the like.

It was moved to the Crescent Cinema site on Douglas Promenade and somewhere I have a photo from a national daily newspaper of Mike Hooper and Ray Kniveton in one of his coaches travelling to the Crescent surrounded by wax figures.

The part that was vacated became the island’s only ever purpose-built under-18s disco ‘Allsorts’.

Eventually time moved on and the premises saw a new life as the Pot Black Snooker Centre operated by Peter Locke which he opened at Christmas 1979.    Prior to that peter and family had operated the Avondale Hotel on Palace Terrace.

Recently I shared a few memories of that time and of some of the characters who used to enjoy time in the snooker hall.

Che Fong and his wife Judy operated the Far East Chinese takeaway in Victoria Street and were lovely people who I think went on to live in the United States.

I often wonder how they are doing these days. Back then when he wasn’t preparing for a busy evening in the restaurant he would be practising his cue skills.

Sean Rolt and Paul Lake were among the many regulars in Pot Black as were Gary and Mark Clinton, Vic Rigby, Mel Quine, Jimmy Ross, Roy Cowley, Peter Reynolds, Chris Cooper, Willy Craig, Tony Wilson, Nigel Kermode, Paul Moffat, Bobby Bergquist, Lionel Kelly, Tommy Miller, Tony Edmonds and many more.

Looking at that list alone indicates some of the top names in Manx snooker from the time.    Peter shared a story with me from the early 1980s. He installed one of his snooker tables from Wellington Street in to the Palace Lido for an exhibition match between professionals Cliff Thorburn and John Spencer.

When you think about the weight of the snooker tables that’s some job!

They were in the island for the Sparks charity golf day, I’m sure many readers will remember those events and in particular Paul Gaskell who brought many sporting and entertainment personalities to the island and raised many thousands of pounds for good causes.    Cliff and John had agreed while they were in the island to entertain the guests with a snooker match.

The match went well - does anyone remember who won?

Mark Clinton acted as referee and Peter Locke on the scoreboard.

After the evening’s festivities were concluded they all retired to the Round Bar in the Palace Hotel for drinks.

For years the man most associated with the bar was Dennis - do you remember him? He was really part and parcel of the hotel.

Anyway Peter was stood with Cliff at the bar when Cliff struck up a conversation with a fan next to him.

A young lady Val Teare who used to work in the Avondale Hotel approached Peter and asked what he was doing there without his wife.

He told her about the snooker exhibition match but didn’t say who the players were.

She then said: ‘I love snooker and my favourite player is Cliff Thorburn.’

She was stood between Peter and Cliff but was unaware of his presence.

Peter reached around her back and tapped Cliff on the shoulder.

When he turned around Peter introduced him to Val.

The scream of excitement was something you had to be there to appreciate.

‘How did you do that?’ She exclaimed as Cliff was obviously amused at her reaction and started chatting to her.

Peter recalls what a happy young lady she was at the turn of events. It brought a smile to his face and will live long in his memory.    Who remembers that Pot Black entered a football team in the Isle of Man FA’s second division in 1982?

When Peter sold on the snooker club the new owners did not carry on the sponsorship so the name was changed from Pot Black to Douglas Royal.

The name Royal was in recognition and thanks to the theatre Royal pub for the catering they offered the players after their matches.

Douglas Royal are now in the first division.    Another snooker story Peter shared with me was Dennis Taylor and Graham Miles (the first finalists on TV’s Pot Black) came to the island in the late 1980s and stayed with his family at the Avondale.

Dennis actually met his present wife while he was on a night out with Peter and the lads from the snooker association at the King’s Club at the palace hotel. Thanks for those memories Peter.

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We live in a world where the internet revolution has changed many things in a positive way.

I never cease to be amazed at the manner in which information can be gathered but this comes with a health warning.

Avoiding the need to study for hours on end, Google can provide the answer to the most technical of questions but beware of fake news with no credibility in the wild west of the internet.

It is important to always fact check rather than taking the first answer which might suit a particular perspective.    I recently had experience of the lack of human regulation on my own social media.

I have long been a fan of Facebook when used for the purposes intended: ‘To give people the power to build community and bring the world closer together’.

My negative experience ‘hands up’ came about because I was tricked into providing some information for what I at the time understood to be a ‘friend’.    The next thing I knew my Facebook account had been stolen and another email address inserted which meant I had no control to get back the 16 years of memories and experiences I had shared.

Following this I received two emails from which I quote verbatim.

‘Hiya if you want your account back immediately you have to pay the sum of £1,000 that’s all and send your details so I can add to your account so you can have access immediately.

‘That’s all I want. If you don’t trust me, pay half and once you get into your account pay me the other half.

It was followed shortly by: ‘If you double cross me, I’m going to take it back and ask you for more money so don’t think about it. Have a nice day.’

Obviously both emails were ignored by me.    Since then I have sent numerous emails to various authorities and Facebook.

I recognise that there are millions of people to deal with so in the first instant my enquiries if indeed they reached Facebook were probably dealt with by robots or AI. 

However a number of people have contacted Facebook and reported the hacker but the report back is that no abuse can be detected despite me telling them someone continues to impersonate me.    Fortunately in my case no money has been taken and I have set up a new account, but I have been contacted by others who have had money taken from them.

The message is there are bad people out there who offer to assist. Take great care whilst enjoying the good things about social media.