The manager of the city's only round-the-clock snooker centre has hit back at rumours of the club's demise saying: 'We're very much alive and kicking.'

The manager of the city's only round-the-clock snooker centre has hit back at rumours of the club's demise saying: 'We're very much alive and kicking.'

John Healy, who runs Clarke's in Barker Street, said: 'There seems to be some confusion and there are a lot of rumours going around the city as to whether it is Clarke's or the Canary Cue Club, which closed before Christmas, that is shut. It's causing a lot of harm to our business.'

He said Norwich's first snooker club had been going 83 years, had been on its current Barker Street site since the 1970s and: 'We are still alive and kicking.'

The club has 19 snooker tables, three pool tables and is open 24 hours a day all year round, apart from Christmas Day and Boxing Day. To contact call 622427.