So how was it for you?
The snooker year is over and it's time to take stock. That was one proper rollercoaster ride. Actually, a carousel ride works rather better in this sport, doesn't it? For the most part, it was a pleasure to witness.
We kicked off with the Masters at Alexandra Palace. It's usually lucky for Shaun Murphy when the year ends in 5 and 2025 started with a spellbinding week of snooker from the Englishman to win the Masters. The World Snooker Tour deserves praise for the whole set-up of that event - it's not just special in snooker now, but across sport.
Soon after, we were served up a terrific German Masters final in Berlin, with Kyren Wilson edging out Barry Hawkins. Wilson won four ranking tournaments across the season, a fabulous return for a first-time world champion.
I finally made it to the Tempodrom and can now see why so many snooker people have raved about it. The crowds there are a delight - warm and enthusiastic - while the building is a feast for the eyes, both on the outside and the inside.
It was a long overdue delight to see the great John Higgins return to the winners' circle. Four years was a pretty mad wait for a tournament success when you consider some of the marvellous snooker he had produced in that fallow period.
Higgins won the World Open in Yushan and followed that up soon after with a superb comeback from 8-5 down to beat Mark Selby 10-8 and claim the prestigious Tour Championship in Manchester. The Scot said it was his best ever victory. I put that comment down partly to the emotion of the moment, but it certainly showed how much it meant to him.
Next it was to Sheffield for the World Championship. The Big Beast of our snooker lives. Champion Wilson didn't last long, beaten by Lei Peifan on day one. Mark Williams beat John Higgins 13-12 in a bonafide classic in the quarter-finals. I've rarely known a buzz at any snooker event like there was that lunchtime. All things considered, I'd still want the tournament to stay at the Crucible after 2027.
Ronnie O'Sullivan was miles off the pace really, yet he still had enough about him to reach the semi-finals, where he was thrashed by Zhao Xintong. Judd Trump looked bang on it, beating two dangerous customers in Murphy and Luca Brecel in successive matches. But Williams, that old snooker war horse, saw Trump off to reach the final at the age of 50.
Zhao turned out to be the dominant force throughout the final, fending off a late Williams rally to win 18-12. He was China's first world champion at the age of 28.
Zhao is an outstanding player and clearly performed with distinction on the sport's biggest stage. There's no question that the watching world will have been mesmerised by some of his play.
But I can't pretend this was the moment of unalloyed joy we all imagined it would be. Despite the best efforts of television to skirt around the issue, the truth is Zhao had recently returned from a ban for his involvement in the sport's biggest match-fixing scandal.
It's important to clarify that Zhao didn't fix a match himself - he accepted charges of being party to another player fixing matches and betting on matches himself - but the timing of his win could hardly be described as ideal.
Sporting Life's brilliant snooker writer Richard Mann talked of his own "sense of sadness" at the outcome when he handed out his Crucible awards in May.
Now, back to the positive. This current season has given us so many treats, I was moved to write a column last month to suggest it could be the best we've ever seen. Seriously, it's been an absolute boon.
O'Sullivan delivered a night of snooker that almost defied belief in August, firing in two maximum breaks in his semi-final win over Chris Wakelin at the sport's new fourth major in Saudi Arabia.
Williams became the oldest ever winner of a ranking event when he captured the Xi'an Grand Prix, before Jack Lisowski gave us one of those all too rare moments - one that united all of snooker.
Lisowski beat his great pal Trump to win the Northern Ireland Open and finally put his first ranking title on the board. It was a night full of emotion, with Lisowski successful only a matter of months after the sadness of losing his father.
Wu Yize also became a ranking event winner for the first time by claiming the International Championship title in Nanjing. We'll never have favourites in this game, but I have to say I'm a big fan of the 22-year-old.
The WST would do well to build the story of Chinese snooker around Wu. He looks the part, he plays the part. Higgins, who Wu beat in that final, likened him to the late Paul Hunter. We all nodded in agreement. It was the perfect assessment.
Mark Selby beat Judd Trump to win the Champion of Champions, and three weeks later we had deja vu all over again when those two big beasts met in the UK Championship final in York.
Selby raced into a 5-0 lead, but Trump clawed his way back. We had a thrilling conclusion, with Selby a 10-8 winner. He had sealed a tenth Triple Crown title, one more than Higgins.
I mentioned O'Sullivan's two maximums, but let us not forget the other 14 this season either. Frankly, snooker has gone 147 crazy in recent months. The record for a whole campaign is 15. That number has been beaten already, and it's only Christmas.
Meanwhile, there finally seems to be an acceptance in the sport now that overall, pockets have been too generous in recent times. Neil Robertson, to his credit, has been banging that drum since he told me two years ago for an interview on this website that pockets in China were "an absolute joke", while Sporting Life columnist Neal Foulds wrote recently that we "don’t want snooker to become another version of 9-ball pool".
At the UK Championship, they were far tighter and more appropriate. Let's hope we've turned the corner.
Many of the players are clearly not enamoured with the sport's authorities, that much is obvious. Indeed, they've set up their own body, the Professional Players Snooker Association. Its chairman, Higgins, said in the summer that it would give players a "stronger voice".
That voice has been pretty quiet so far though - Mark Allen, one of its members, says he's found the lack of progress "frustrating". Still, we'll watch that space with interest.
What else has happened? Well, we keep being told all is well in snooker's new land of milk and honey Saudi Arabia (naturally) but Higgins wasn't reading from the script when he revealed to me that there were no dressing rooms for players at the recent invitational event.
It's been a fine year for women's snooker. Bai Yulu defended her world title and has shown with her performances on the main tour that she has the capabilities of becoming the best female player of all time. The other women on tour - Reanne Evans, Onyee Ng and Mink Nutcharut - have also picked up notable victories and look more at home than ever.
Casual watchers could be forgiven for thinking the game is all about the old stagers, especially with all three members of the "Class of 92" still doing so well at 50. But despite some clear concerns over the dearth of young talent - especially in the UK - there are still some very promising players coming through. Poland's Michał Szubarczyk isn't even 15 yet and is already winning matches on tour.
It actually feels like we're in a pretty competitive and unpredictable period in the sport. Selby is the only multiple tournament winner so far this season, which began back in June. Opinion is divided as to how good a thing this is, but we're certainly never bored.
We'll keep watching won't we? Snooker is the show that never really ends. The Masters is coming again soon. Then back to Berlin, and so on. More magic moments to be enjoyed. We can never look away for long. The baize is always there, tempting us back. Just one more frame before bed.
Thank you sincerely for reading my snooker columns in 2025. I've loved writing each and every one of them. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all.