Paul Zoon, Roydyn Bishop, Robin McEnnulty and Terry Adams are the Launceston RSL Green Snooker team that has been together for more than 20 years. Picture: PAUL SCAMBLER

YOU have to have a strong love for a sport to commit to it long-term, and Launceston RSL Club snooker player Roydyn Bishop is a fine example.

Bishop has been playing since first picking up a cue at the Lycium Club in St John Street, Launceston, at the age of 16 in 1962, and played his first competitive match for the Railway Institute in 1967. 

He has also represented the Working Men's Club, the Tatts club and the CTA club. 

In the 43 years since, it is estimated that Bishop, who is still a regular on the interclub snooker circuit, has played more than 1000 matches. 

But what drew him to snooker? 

"An inability to play football," he said with a laugh. 

"It's just a game that I started playing when I started working. I love all sports, but was OK at some, but not at others. 

"It's a peculiar game snooker, it takes a fair bit of self-control and it can certainly be character-building at times. 

"But I just like it. I'm not one to sit and analyse things, you just like something or you don't." 

Bishop, who was won six Northern championships and two Tasmanian championships, said that it was the people he had met in snooker that was most enjoyable. 

"The people before me, such as Ron Atkins stands out, he's a three-time Australian winner and runner-up for the world title in 1980 and I played against him a fair bit in the '70s," he said. 

"But I've also got a lot of admiration for the older players that I learnt from such as Ted Pickett, but there's been a lot of good players of Tasmania, including Robert Higgins, Jammie Giannaros, John Hanson, who's no longer with us."

Bishop said that it was an achievement to have played the sport for such a long period, and he wasn't about to put a use-by-date on his snooker career.