The Snooker Thread (Part 1)

Iā€™d like to see the final session return to a possible 13 frames with an 8pm start.

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did it start an hour earlier on the Sunday afternoon also?

What a guy is rightā€¦ Forum expert punter @Copper_pipe has 300 acres of land paid for and stocked on the activities of this fat cunt. *

  • Allegedly of courseā€¦

I didnā€™t see the first session but Iā€™m pretty sure coverage began at 2pm which meant play would have begun around 2:15?

Think it was a 7pm start for the coverage yesterday evening. As @GeoffreyBoycott stated yesterday, the Neil Robertson-Graeme Dott final of 2010 was the catalyst for the earlier start and the reduction to a possible 12 frames rather than 13. Traditionally the final session began at 8pm or just after.

But post-midnight finishes at the Crucible are wonderful. I felt slightly cheated that the Williams-Hawkins semi-final narrowly failed to pass the witching hour, superb match as it was.

Thereā€™s something really admirable in the British psyche that still appreciates slow burning sport. Thatā€™s something to be cherished in this culture of instant gratification. I believe I previously stated on this forum that snooker is the most cerebral sport of all. I still hold that view.

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Yes, final sessions used to start at 3pm and 8pm on both Sunday and Monday. That was changed after the 2010 go slow final and it was changed to 2pm and 7pm. There was an extra frame added onto the Sunday night session for the first time in the 2011 final as well.

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wonderful contributions gentlemen

Stunning shot by Williams here in the semi-final. Was it Shot Of The Championship?

2nd

Was listening to Andy Townsend on 5live last night. Said that his highest break is 128. A regular scorer of centuries apparently.

I was looking at the records last night. In terms of the Big Three, the Triple Crown of World, UK and Masters, Hendry has won 18 (7 Worlds, 5 UK, 6 Masters). Ronnie has won 18 as well (5 Worlds, 6 UK, 7 Masters). Steve Davis won 15 (6 Worlds, 6 UK, 3 Masters). Next up is Higgins (John) on 9, Selby 8, Reardon and Williams on 7.

Hendry won all 18 of the majors in an 11 season span from 1988-89 through to 1998-99. He did the triple crown twice in 1989/90 & 95/96 and in four other seasons he won two of the three, four more seasons he won one of the three and 1997/98 his only season in that 11 year span without one of the Big 3. Hendryā€™s World Championship win in 1999 was his last of the 18 and he was just 30. In the final 13 seasons of his career up to retirement in 2012, he didnā€™t win a single Major and made five final losing appearances out of 39. Hendry was effectively finished at 30.

Ronnieā€™s 18 have been won over a 25 season timespan from 1993/94 through to 2017/18. Heā€™s only ever won two majors in the same season once - In 2007/08 he won the UK and the World. Ronnie has won a major in 17 separate seasons. In terms of longevity, Ronnie holds an edge over Hendry.

There is an argument that great and all as Hendry was, the opposition he had to face in the 1990ā€™s in his pomp was a lot less daunting than what Ronnie had to contend with Higgins, Williams and Selby and when Oā€™Sullivan, Higgins and Williams fully emerged Hendry was eclipsed even though he was still only in his early 30ā€™s. Steve Davis was more or less past it as Hendry emerged. Davis had 13 of his 15 majors won before Hendry won his first at the Masters in 1989. Next major up, Davis beat Hendry 16-9 in the semi finals of the World Championship in 1989 on the way to his 14th. Hendry beat Jimmy White in 4 World Finals. Difficult to know where to pitch Jimmy in the hierarchy of greats. He did have to contend with both Davis and Hendry in their pomp, but Jimmy has only won two majors (so far) - Masters in 1984, UK in 1992.

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Iā€™ve no interest in debating this but I found this logic amusingly flawed.

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Too much information.

https://m.independent.ie/sport/other-sports/snooker/i-feel-like-sht-mark-williams-fulfils-promise-to-party-until-sunrise-following-third-snooker-world-championship-win-36885317.html

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Ultimately though in any Hendry v Oā€™Sullivan debate, you come back to how many times the big one has been won. Until such time as Ronnie gets up to 7, Hendry has the edge.

Sure the sun is up at 6 these days,

I got some shock when somebody told me today that Mark Williams and John Higgins played in tne world championship final, I thought theyā€™d been watching a classic match

Hendry got lazy. Interestingly the last maximum at the crucible was by Hendry and that was 6 years ago. After a while he couldnt bring himself to practice the 5 or 6 hours a day anymore. Once you turn 30 and start having kids the dynamic changes completely. Hendry credits his downfall with this allied to the fact that he became friends with some of the players. He had a rule where he wouldnt even use the practice tables in the crucible but when he broke that and started to socialise more it blunted his competitive streak.

Also the cue which he won his 7 world titles with was broken on his way back from some tournament in Asia in the early 2000s. He had it since he was 14. Had that not happened could have won 10.

That happened in September 2003. Iā€™m not saying it didnā€™t affect his game, but he was well into his descent by then.

Anybody who read Shoot or Match in the late 1980s would be familiar with Gary Linekerā€™s claim to have made a 132 break.

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if his snooker is like his scoring exploits, all the balls would have had to be hanging over the pockets.

Lineker used to play with Willie Thorne a good bit. Thorne confirmed he was good. Iā€™m gutted to hear someone like Townsend could get a century break.

I googled ā€œGary Lineker snookerā€ just now and found this.

I cannot believe I spent 32 years not knowing of its existence.

Cc: of @mickee321

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g18XB1LPGlM