Snooker

[PsychoSerenity]

Not sure how many people watch it, but it's a fascinating game. It's nice to see big breaks but more than that, the strategy of the safety battles, and the positional play that sometimes seams to defy physics with the amount of spin they get on the ball to curve and bounce around the angles to line up for the next shot.

I've just seen Ronnie make his way into the quarter-finals of this year's world championship. He didn't play at his usual best in the first two sessions, so it was very close in the third. Every pot, every position, absolutely crucial. So tense. He made it happen though.

[pErvinalia]

I love snooker.

[laklak]

Me too. I've got a set of snooker balls for the pool table, I love it when people see the set up table and say "what the hell is that?" Problem is the rail height is set for 8 ball, and the snooker balls are smaller. I need to get a set of snooker rails made someday.

[MiM]

I almost newer watch sports, but I have been caught in front of the telly , with a game of snooker on.

Darned difficult if you try to play on a full size table, though.

[Hermit]

The BBC's snooker series Pot Black with Ted Lowe as commentator fascinated me for a while. Whispering Ted was also good for the occasional laugh: "and for those of you who are watching in black and white, the pink is next to the green."

[cronus]

Makes a nice peaceful fish tank effect on the telly with the volume turned down and some light easy listening music on rather than the clatter of balls. Couldn't actively follow it. I'd have to be brain dead to find anything actually interesting in snooker itself.

[PsychoSerenity]

Darned difficult if you try to play on a full size table, though.

I've only actually had one game on a full size table. I can hardly hit a ball ten feet away let alone pot it into the tiny (at least compared with the American-style Eight-ball) pockets. But I won the game because my friend had little concept of safety play and so kept fouling or leaving me with much easy shots. The game I've had most practice at is British-style pool, which is alright to play in a pub, but it's very boring really. I'd love to have a chance to play snooker on a half size table.

Makes a nice peaceful fish tank effect on the telly with the volume turned down and some light easy listening music on rather than the clatter of balls. Couldn't actively follow it. I'd have to be brain dead to find anything actually interesting in snooker itself.

I can only assume you're largely missing the intricacies of the game, which I think most people probably do. It's like watching a chess match - if you don't understand what the players are doing it doesn't look like anything interesting is happening.

[cronus]

Darned difficult if you try to play on a full size table, though.

I've only actually had one game on a full size table. I can hardly hit a ball ten feet away let alone pot it into the tiny (at least compared with the American-style Eight-ball) pockets. But I won the game because my friend had little concept of safety play and so kept fouling or leaving me with much easy shots. The game I've had most practice at is British-style pool, which is alright to play in a pub, but it's very boring really. I'd love to have a chance to play snooker on a half size table.

Makes a nice peaceful fish tank effect on the telly with the volume turned down and some light easy listening music on rather than the clatter of balls. Couldn't actively follow it. I'd have to be brain dead to find anything actually interesting in snooker itself.

I can only assume you're largely missing the intricacies of the game, which I think most people probably do. It's like watching a chess match - if you don't understand what the players are doing it doesn't look like anything interesting is happening.

...up there with droughts but chess is maybe over hyping what's happening a wee stretch.

[JacksSmirkingRevenge]

I used to play pool for a pub team and found that a couple of frames of snooker was the perfect warmup before turning up for a pool match.
Pool tables are like toys in comparison to snooker tables and it becomes piss easy to pot balls on that scale.

[laklak]

Yer right there jack. Takes a fuckload more skill to play snooker, even works on the same table. My home table is pretty decent, slate bed 8x4 foot, regulation pool size. After a couple of games of snooker I'll switch to 8 ball and kick ass.

[HomerJay]

Snooker - A good baulk spoiled.

BTW I met Ray Reardon once.

[klr]

Watching it now ...

For all the good snooker commentators on BBC, the best of all (IMHO) is 1986 World Champion Joe Johnson, who work for Eurosport. But then Eurosport show snooker pretty much all year round.

[Xamonas Chegwé]

Snooker - A good baulk spoiled.

BTW I met Ray Reardon once.

I worked in a casino in Derby in the 80s. They held the Dulux Masters there one year and I dealt roulette to half the field! No Dracula though - mostly the younger kids in the comp.

[JimC]

Billiards is the game for intelligent people...