What is it that drives grown men out of their homes twice a week, every week, rain or shine?

No, it’s not the wives and kids. Well, OK, it may be. But for amateur snooker players chasing the biggest prize in the South of England, Chandler’s Ford SC on Thursday and Sunday nights is a three-line whip.

We may not be very good, but in the £2,500 Roll-Up, with its unique handicap system, based on golf’s, we don’t need to be very good. There are not many hobbies where you can actually make a profit.

Twice a week from September to September we battle away earning prize money on the night. All entry fees are returned in winnings. The club takes nothing. The top money winner over all 102 comps earns a £1,000 bonus. The next five share £1,500.

August can be tense. It certainly concentrates the mind if you are faced with a match that could cost you £500. Bear in mind that most of us are happy to record a 20 break.

Good friends off the table, in most cases, but on the green baize it is cut-throat. Best-of-three matches can last two hours. And we all have stories about 1.30am finishes.

Players have been known to miss family holidays during the summer and ‘The Great Carlo’ Cavagnetto once drove for two days across Europe from a holiday in Italy to arrive at the club for the final tournament.

The pressure is on West End printer Malcolm Harvey who leads this year’s race for the £1,000 bonus, with season’s winnings of £662, from Hiltingbury’s On Fire Arron McIntyre, £630, yours truly, £565, Calmore’s Scott McGaw £545, Romsey painter and decorator Nigel Spiers £505 and Carlo Cavagnetto £482.