Interesting stuff,
Earl said “x”, Jayson said “y”, the ref said “z” the head ref said “a”, then Earl didn’t say “b”, blah blah blah, yadda yadda.
(I don’t know or “support “ either of these guys by the way, (and it’s unlikely that I’ll be playing either of them in the near future before you ask)).
But I’ve seen a few of the videos and a few things sprang to mind,
a. Jayson Shaw, his post decision behaviour could have been better, no doubt about it and I’m not defending it, BUT there’s usually no smoke without fire, if I were playing for big money and the guy I’m playing can’t seem to abide by the accepted standards, I call (again?) on what seems to be a fairly fundamental part of a call shot game, to then be over-ruled by someone who wasn’t watching, err the chances are that I (like most people I feel) wouldn’t have been overly pleased either.
b. Earl Strickland, what’s going on there? Clearly the guy can play, absolutely no doubt about it, I’ve seen the videos, but unfortunately in the same videos where he’s working magic with a cue, almost invariably he’s doing other stuff he shouldn’t, another thread I read here said Johnny Archer recently played Earl but it was ok as Johnny knows how to deal with him?? So the expectation is now that players on top of playing at a world-class level should now have to “deal with” the vagaries of their opponent doing essentially what ever they feel like?? Imagine if S.V.B or Mika Immonen showed up to a competition and did the stuff Earl does, everyone would be mortified, yet Earl seems to get away with it??
c. The ref, ok someone pointed out in a thread that it’s a thankless task being the ref, I wouldn’t doubt that, and it would seem reasonable if you are staging a big money tournament to ensure that the ref’s are compensated for it, BUT if I had to ref a money match between 2 “flammable” characters such as these, I think I’d want to keep a close eye on what was going on, just for purposes of protecting my own @ss in case of what kicked off kicking off…
Anyway what happened, happened and no amount of pontificating rules or bleating about etiquette on forums is going to change it, it’s there in glorious techni-colour video for all to see.
Stepping back from the detail of this situation, there are perhaps other thoughts to consider;
These guys are talented with a cue, they didn’t proffer themselves as models of good etiquette / behaviour, they’re sports people, that’s why they’re on the video in the 1st place, world champions in pretty much any discipline won’t always be popular with everybody, such is life…
Maybe right now, the state Pool/billiards is in, it needs players “acting up” and controversy to get “bums on seats”, to catch the public's interest, to keep the competitions running and to make money? (just look at the amount of cheap & nasty “reality tv” that’s around at the moment).
If (as everyone hopes) Pool/billiards gets more coverage / exposure / more mainstream TV time, and therefore more money, someone needs to decide if players “acting up” will actually help Pool/billiards towards that goal or hinder it???
regards,
