China Championship 2017 – Day 4
https://ronnieo147.com/2017/08/19/china-championship-2017-day-4/
Quote :
Mark Williams MBE @markwil147 h3 hours ago
SHOT CLOCK NEEDED #ASAP
Personally, I don’t mind a reasonable shot clock, like the 30 seconds used in the Eleven30 format. I don’t think that any player needs more than that to see the shot and get ready to play it, except in rare occurrences where the situation is really complex, and time-outs are there for those cases. But, that said, rather than having a shot clock, what I would like to see is referees enforcing section 4 of the rules. Indeed taking unnecessary long time either for shot selection, or shot execution, is deemed ungentlemanly conduct by the rules. Of course the issue is that referees have to use their judgement and discretion to determine what is “unecessary long time” and it depends of a lot of factors: the difficulty of the shot, the situation on the table, the context of the match/tournament, the player natural pace … to list only a few. It’s not easy, but on the other hand a rule that’s never enforced doesn’t make sense in any sport: either it needs scrapping or rewriting, or it needs to be enforced, and I, personally, would love to see this one enforced. The problem is not the length of the match, sometimes it just gets very tactical and it takes time despite the players playing at a normal pace. But we do know that a lot of those marathons always feature the same players, and THAT can’t be pure chance. I think that most fans who regularly watch the sport know who the serial “offenders” are, and, no, NOT Mark Selby, not nowadays certainly. It may be that the players in object don’t do it on purpose, actually it’s probably a case of over-thinking more than deliberate ungentlemanly conduct. But even then, enforcing the rule would probably help them. Players who are over-thinking, and looking for problems, often get bogged down and play better when they play a bit faster and trust their instincts more. And, let’s be honest, it’s no fun for the paying public either. A good tactical battle is interesting and entertaining. Looking at a player contemplating the balls for a couple of minutes before every shot, and eventually taking the one everyone had seen with 10 seconds, is simply boring. I remember a first round match at the Crucible where a lot people left the arena, totally fed up (clue it involved Ricky Walden). People pay to be entertained, not get bored out of their skulls.
China Championship snooker: Ronnie O'Sullivan and Shaun Murphy power into last eight :
https://www.sportinglife.com/snooker/news/china-snooker:-day-four-round-up/98257