SNOOKER WORLD CHAMPION

[Meat77]

By the way Huge, MLB is Major League Baseball

 

[Nashy]

I hate snooker. Give me 8 ball billiards anyday.

 

[Bannermania]

Did someone say Snooki?

 

[Nashy]

Hey Plumpkin!

 

[Black Philip]

 

[Huge]

Fair enough Coxy...snooker/billiards has been around for 2 centuries with pool a much later addition. Billiards kicked it off ( 2 whites,one plain,one with spot and a red ball) although you can trace it's origins to even before that with the French aristocracy. The colours used in snooker have their roots in the outdoor game of Croquet . The French loved bashing balls around on the lawn outside but were'nt fond of shitty weather so they brought an abbreviated game indoors and up on tables. They actually used to use the blunt(thick end) of the cue to push the balls around !!! If you look at most cues you'll see there's a chamfer on the thick end, this was never intended to be the makers badge but the actual surface that rested on the table so as to be stable when they pushed the balls around !

Eight/nine ball is a much simpler game with snooker pros easily transferring their skills and success to the top of the rung when the money started going into the game. No pool player could ever cut the mustard in top level snooker but the top in snooker find the transition so, so easy. That tells you all you need to know with snooker easily requiring much greater levels of skill. Pools a poor cousin but fun nevertheless especially with a few mates and some piss.


It's a sport all right and as you acknowledged it sure takes some skill and mental toughness and it's a complex sport too. Darts etc not nearly so much but nevertheless ,darts too would take some mastering.

 

[Coxy]

My definition of a sport probably just differs from the accepted definition. IMO a sport requires some level of physical strength and fitness that goes above and beyond your average person. While you have to be strong with concentration to play snooker etc, you don't have to be fit, or strong, or fast, or agile.

(FTR, as discussed previously, I also don't rate motorsport or horse racing or sailing or surfing as sports, because it depends on either a self-powered machine, an animal or luck with weather conditions to be successful as much as anything else).

But I digress.

I think the reason snooker->pool transitions are relatively easy while the opposite isn't true is that snooker is all about not the current shot, but the next one, and the next one. Good snooker players can see their next 3, 4, 5 shots in a row. I'll hit that red into that pocket, apply spin on the ball to bring it back so I can sink the black into that pocket, with the ball positioned for that red...etc.

So that lends itself very well to pool - I'll sink that one, then position the ball for that one etc etc.

However, a person who's just come through to play pool is more focussed on "I'll try and get that ball in, and if not, leave it on the pocket"...they're not so concerned with precision as leaving a ball in the way of the hole is as good as sinking it sometimes. The more advanced ones also try and position for the next ball, but given early in a game you have 8, then 7, then 6 options, that's not so difficult. In snooker it's pretty much "Sink a red and then try and get the black" to ensure maximum points. At worst you'd look at the pink or blue for 6 or 5 points respectively if you had to. Rarely would you bother positioning for yellow, brown or green.

 

[Huge]

Well you demonstrate you at least have the basics right. The reason why though snooker players transition so well is they play on 12x6 tables, twice the size of the regular pool table. For a snooker player there are no long shots in pool. At worst they are only mid-range and well within the normal range of shot they hit. Also, unlike pool the pockets are not buckets but are extremely demanding. A good snooker player is so far superior to a good pool player it is not funny. Chalk and cheese to be perfectly frank.

Were you to conduct a snooker/pool type competition with an equal amount of each and played over a good test, say best of 9 per match and had 100 contestants the top 40 places would be snooker players. Pool does not require anywhere the same level of skill (however there are different skills in pool which require mastery but not difficult to adapt to if you're top flight at snooker)

Pool players spend very little time in learning about the effects of spin on the white and it's attendant difficulty with regard to making the pot. A snooker player does not have the aim of leaving the ball hanging over the pocket, rather the opposite so he/she does not have the luxury of leaving it there should they miss. Even though I enjoy a good game of pool the evidence is plain for the world to see.

Top snooker players can and do walk in to the highest level of pool competition. It never happens the other way.

 

[Coxy]

Well you demonstrate you at least have the basics right.

[icon_lol1. And you wonder why you rub people up the wrong way on here sometimes. You acknowledge I'm correct, with an aromatic spray of condescension [icon_wink

 

[Huge]

Yeah, sorry about that. It was actually meant in a complimentary way but the subtleties of nuance in a voice are difficult to convey with written word. If I were submitting an essay then that would have been re-worded after proof reading. What I meant in plainer English would be along the lines of...at least you understand the basics of the game unlike the vast majority of people who will comment on Robbos win. You demonstrate an understanding that most do not hold. There , that's what I meant.

 

[Coxy]

In that case, thank you! :P

 

[Meat77]

Get a room...

 

[Flutterby]

Coxy - surfing is so too a sport

 

[Coxy]

Stay on topic!

 

[Flutterby]

You're the one that brought surfing into it :p

But yes, on topic - I love any Aussie World Champ, Go Robbo!!!

 

[Charmamba]

It still confuses me to not see a Bourbon or Rum in their hands between shots.

 

[Meat77]

And where are the cigarette burns on the tables they're playing on?