This is what Mark posted on social media.

Django Fung is delighted to welcome Mark and declared:

“Thanks Mark. Two great gents and champions, can’t wait to work together.
Grove has secured a full image right for both Mark and Neil with a new formed company Showboya. Django has been managing Neil for many years and he also admires Mark, a great Champion. This is a great opportunity to work together for many years to come.”

Ding won the UK Championship last December, crediting Django Fung’s help for his return to form and to the winning circle.

About joining the Grove Ding said:

” I am very happy to join Grove and work with Django. We proved that we work well together and had instant success in the UK last year. Django understands my game, he works with lots of top players and he has the experience to help me to structure the practice and have a right mind set in the next few years”

Django Fung is delighted and said:

“I know Ding for many years and I always admire his game. I guess it is due to timing that we haven’t worked together before this. I saw him not really enjoying his game a few months ago in china and I reached out to him. He came down to do a few days practicing and I explained to him how I see his game and how it would work best for him. And it works. He is a very talented player and a great champion, he picks things up sp quickly, it is unreal. I am hoping he can maximise his full potential by practicing correctly and understanding pressure a bit better.”

UK Championship: Ding Junhui never stopped believing he would win again
By Shamoon Hafez – BBC Sport at the York Barbican

China’s Ding Junhui said he never stopped believing he would win again after ending his title drought by lifting his third UK Championship.
Ding outclassed Stephen Maguire 10-6 in York, finishing the final in stunning fashion with back-to-back centuries.
It was the 32-year-old’s first ranking win since 2017 and came 10 years after he won his last UK title.
“You have to keep believing. People stopped believing in me, but if I lose then nobody can help me,” he said.
A resurgent Ding ended his trophy drought with his fourth victory at a Triple Crown event, having also won the Masters in 2011, and the 14th ranking title of his career.
“I am so proud. I have been waiting a long time and looking to the date when I can lift this trophy again,” he added.
“This is a big one, the third time I have won it and it means everything.
“It has been an amazing week and I have played fantastic snooker, believed in myself and trusted myself and my head has been clean, strong and happy.
“The past two seasons people have not trusted me and thoughts were coming to me, ’should I be able to win again?’
“It is definitely the best snooker I have played in my career. I cannot go over this level and the whole week it has been like this.”

‘I am very dangerous’

Ding won five ranking titles in 2013-14 and became world number one the following season but has been knocked out in the first round of three events this term.
However, he knocked out defending champion Ronnie O’Sullivan en route to the final and did not look back once he went 4-0 ahead against Maguire.
Asked if he was fed up of seeing others winning, Ding told BBC Sport: “I was OK. If I lost then I would go to my family and watch somebody else pick the trophy up. I was imagining that it was me lifting it up. I don’t care who was winning, in my mind it was me that was there. I have routines, like practising for two or three hours, but if you lose that then you don’t know what you are doing. In 2013 and 2014 I had great seasons but this time I really felt I was handling the match and the win is an unbelievable feeling. I am very dangerous.”
Beaten finalist Maguire, who made three centuries, added: “I just tried to go hell for leather but it is difficult when he is in a scoring mood. The way he finished it off, I take my hat off to him. At 8-6 I wanted to be in the balls and felt I could have cleared up but he made two hundreds and it is a tough school out there.”

Ding pays tribute to new coach

Just six weeks ago, Ding started working with coach Django Fung based at the Grove Snooker Academy in Romford and paid tribute to his compatriot for turning his form around.
Fung, who also manages world number one Judd Trump and others, said Ding’s game was “all over the place” and had to explain that all players had “bad days” and to not let it affect him.Ding’s mental fragility has often been questioned. He remains one of the greatest players never to win the World Championship, but says he has found a new inner strength to help him cope.

“We have been friends for many years and he helps my game,” he said. “He sees my game differently, where I am good and where I am bad. We have been working well. He makes my practice simple and it is totally different now. I was doing nothing before, there was no concentration. Normally I don’t speak much, when I lose I feel bad and don’t want to talk, I keep it bottled inside and have done that from a young age. Django understands me, knows me and can help me. You can see what is happening now.”

Ding’s career

Ding Junhui highlights:

source BBC

Wenbo said “I had many success with Grove in the past, got to the final of the UK and win his first tournament after that. I lost focus last year and I believe that with the coaching and back up I have with Grove in the coming years I can start winning again. I like the coaching and facilities used in Grove and Django understands my needs more than anyone”

Django Fung was very happy to welcome him back and said: ” Wenbo is a great talent, works hard and he is a great asset to the team. We will work hard in the mental side and i hope Wenbo will compete at the very top level again. “

About his move to Grove, Ali said:

I’m delighted to sign a full management contract with Django Fung owner of grove leisure. We have been friends for many years and it particular when I went through my toughest ever battle with cancer. We have lots in common and in turn we spoke and both agreed we could both as value to each other if we teamed up.

I’m excited about our future partnership and together I’m sure we can take my career to the next level. I feel reinvigorated and it’s just the change I need.

Django Fung added:

know Ali for many year, he is from Essex and he used to come down to my club in Romford to play. We always get on well and its because of Ali that I have taken up flying. He introduced me to learn from a very good flying school.

We got on so well and its logical that i should manage Ali. We are delighted to have Ali in our academy. Ali is a successful top 16 player, a tournament winner, his experience and presence will be very valuable to Grove and specially to our younger players.

Personally, I’m thrilled to be part of Ali successful career and looking forward to be working with Ali and helping him to achieve whatever he wants to achieve.

Welcome Ali!

“Have I seen you before?”
Django Fung has, but it was over a year ago and only brief. There’s no way…”In Romford,” he recalls, “with Carroll and the full-back who’s gone back to Arsenal… Jenkinson.”
Very impressive.
Perhaps, though, it shouldn’t really come as a surprise that the accountant, multi-business owner and snooker manager to the stars also happens to be a stickler for details.
Fung’s stable, Grove, has Judd Trump and Neil Robertson as its stellar clients, while the talented Oliver Lines and Luca Brecel are also on the books.

‘Ronnie lived down the road’

It is because of a now former client, however, that the Hong Kong-born businessman – who bought the Grove snooker club in Romford in the mid-2000s because he was playing “three or four times a week” – ended up in this line of work.
“Ronnie O’Sullivan lived in Chigwell, which is down the road,” says Fung, speaking in the press room at the Betway UK Championship.
“He heard about the club, that it’s good, and one Sunday afternoon talked to the managers and said: ‘I want a match practice table here.’
“I got to know Ronnie, and then I did his accounts for a couple of years.
“After that, he said: ‘Why don’t you just manage me as well?’”

‘I only do full image rights, exclusive management’

That was almost a decade ago, and Fung has been representing players ever since.
“There’s a difference between agents and managers,” he clarifies in response to a question that failed to distinguish between the two.
“There are a lot of agents about. Basically, you’re just getting sponsorship deals one-off, or maybe one-off exhibitions.
“I only do full image rights, exclusive management.”
Which entails?
“I only work with people that I like,” he says. “We trust each other, so I take care of the financial stuff, properties, legal…”

‘I treat all of them equal’

Fung acknowledges the presence of a nearby World Snooker employee and smiles.
“If they actually run into problems with [the game’s governing body], we have to go to disciplinary and all that, you know?
“We give advice on everything. And if there’s something I don’t know, I make sure I find someone that does.”
Not long after our conversation, Fung’s client Lines achieved the most significant win of his career so far, defeating Grove Trump in the second round of the UK Championship.
So what does the manager do when two of his players face each other?
“I stay away,” he says. “I stay away because there’s good news and bad news, and I treat all of them equal.
“The work and advice is done and, on the day, the best man wins.”

‘From then on he had a second phase of his career’

When asked for his favourite memories of working with Trump and Robertson, Fung references their triumphs at this tournament, in 2011, 2013 and 2015 respectively.
The highlight of his career, though, is not directly related to the sport’s Triple Crown events.
“Getting Ronnie to see Steve Peters,” he says.
“It took me three years to convince him. Eventually, he listened, and from then on he had a second phase of his career.
“He won two more World titles, got an OBE – it gave him a different life.
“It just shows you that, for such a talented guy, with the right people around you giving you the right advice, you can kick on to do something even better.”

‘You’ve got to apply the game properly’

According to Fung, there are three attributes – in addition to financial help – that a player must have to reach the top of the game.
“First of all, you have the ability,” he says.
“You’ve got to have a will to win.
“And also a good head – you’ve got to apply the game properly.”
Fung was “never” going to make it as a snooker player, although he does know how to hold a cue.
“I’m alright,” he says, laughing. “I make 90 breaks.
“The best bit of snooker I’ve had was playing Steve Davis off level in one frame.”
What happened?
“I beat him.”

‘I should be spending one tenth of the time on snooker’

That’s a story Fung will presumably never tire of telling, and it is obvious from spending 15 minutes in his company that he is not in this for the money.
“In terms of turnover, I should be spending one tenth of the time on snooker,” he says.
“But I’m spending about half and half at the moment.
“You want to be with the players as much as possible, to see how they perform and react to different situations.”
As well as managing his other business interests, Fung attends “50 to 60 per cent” of tournaments, including “two or three” in China.
It sounds like a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week job.
“It is,” he says. “But I think if you’re a manager, your phone’s always on. And they know that.
“Whatever they need, I’m there.”

Django Fung declared:

I’m delighted to have Luca as part of the grove team. I worked with him on and off in the last few years and we are pleased that he has now fully committed to grove. He is a great young European talent and we will work hard to fulfil Luca’s potential.

Luca answered:

I’m very happy to finally have signed with Django and I’m really looking forward to working with him and practising at the Grove ! Django is the right person i need to make the final step towards de Top 16 of the world.

Neil is a great Champion, a great professional and one of the nicest person in the snooker circuit. I am very looking forward to working with Neil again

Neil said:

I’m very excited to be working with Grovesnooker again. I know Django very well and he has great experience managing top players.

Neil World Champion 2010

Neil Robertson (born 11 February 1982 in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia) is an Australian professional snooker player and the current World No 1. Robertson is the only Australian to have won a ranking event, in fact he has won 8 of them up to now, including the World Championship in 2010. He also won the Masters in 2012.

The wording on the front page, “fabrica de jucători de snooker” means “snooker player factory” and the headline inside reads “Chinese snooker player factory”, although of course we have English players too!

To see a much bigger (readable) version click on the image below.

What better way to improve your skils than by playing on world Championship-grade STAR tables in comfortable surroundings with top quality coaching and regular games with some of the world’s very best snooker players?

The Grove Academy is situated less than a mile from the M25/A12 junction (J28) and within easy reach of the centre of London, just 35 minutes away by train.

We regularly host several top international playersincluding Liu Song, Liu Chuang, Li Hang, Zhang Anda, Mei Wixen and Chen Zhe. Regular UK professionals to the club include Ronnie O’Sullivan, Jack Lisowski , Judd Trump, Stuart Bingham, Matthew Selt and and Mark King.

Contact us for enquiries about availability and rates for the 2011/12 season.

Click here to see more photographs of the facilities.