At the weekend I watched the concluding frames of an intriguing snooker final between John Higgins and Mark Williams - with Higgins taking the deciding last frame.
I did wonder, though, when did commentators start referring to the pocket positions based on the 'TV screen view' - as opposed to the earlier 'view from the baulk end'? They now refer to what I used to call the 'bottom left' pocket as the 'top right', and so on.
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Because the two main TV cameras are situated at the black ball end of the table, so the terminology is reversed otherwise it would confuse viewers...:-)
Players generally talk about the pockets as viewed from the baulk-line/bottom cushion end.
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I caught a bit of the Hendry/White game a week or two back - and realised I had no real idea whether it was this year's match or one from 20 years ago.
Same commentators, same presentation, same tactics, same...
Snooker really needs a shot in the arm of some sort.
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Same game? What do you want, goals?
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Well, I'm not sure I any longer want:
Oh, and that's awkward cueing, isn't it John.
It is, Clive, and snooker can be the cruellest game.
Oh, and he's ended up perfectly on the black.
Followed by redblackredblackredblack more or less forever.
At least Alex Higgins was entertaining to watch. Even Steady Eddie Charlton had his moments, although word is they weren't actually at the snooker table.
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>>Snooker really needs a shot in the arm of some sort.>>
It has in the fact that the standard of modern players is far superior to those of earlier years.
Steve Davis was one of the front runners from 1980 onwards and it lead to six world champions during that decade, as well as runner-up twice, and he was ranked the world's Number One player for seven years.
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I've stopped watching that on my B&W since they stopped showing billiards!
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Well the players are way better technically, but there's less fizz about it all somehow.
I'd quite like to see a reinvention of the Pot Black format in some way, best of three. At least after a gazillion years they've got around to women's snooker, and mixed games. About time too.
And I'd like to see some of the weird variants, like Snooker Plus, the short lived version that I think had both an orange and purple ball too? Just for fun.
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Should have read Wikipedia before posting. Just discovered "Power Snooker". How could I have missed that?
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>> Should have read Wikipedia before posting. Just discovered "Power Snooker". How could I have missed
>> that?
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Missing it was the best thing you could have done. It was on TV recently, childish rubbish.
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>> Same commentators, same presentation, same tactics, same...
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>> Snooker really needs a shot in the arm of some sort.
If only it had the same players. Snooker is not an action packed sport, the appeal was always the high drama - it is hard to get that when you don't care for the players in some way.
They need some scriptwriters to start writing back stories for the players, and build up some kind of tension ahead of games.
Oh, the tension of the Hendry/White finals, because of the whole "best player never to have won the World Championship" and the obvious desperate ambition to do so.
Last edited by: SteelSpark on Thu 16 Dec 10 at 10:40
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>> so the terminology is reversed .....
Ah, but in the days of Pot Black I'm pretty sure this wasn't the case - so when did the 'switch' take place?
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Without doing any research I would guess about 15 years ago.
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Snooker - when did 'left' become 'right'? - Stuartli
