Yeah, as far as I know I don't think Melling ever cracked the top 100 in the snooker rankings, I don't even remember him ever even qualifying for a pro event!
Snooker draws Huge Numbers
- Thread starter Fast Lenny
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Yeah, as far as I know I don't think Melling ever cracked the top 100 in the snooker rankings, I don't even remember him ever even qualifying for a pro event!
I wouldn't rate Melling at snooker, I played him once in a pro am when I was 15 and won 2-0. I received 10 start but it wouldn't have made any difference to the outcome... Don't know where he's got that statement from.
Laura Norder
Registered
Laura Norder
Registered
So if he'd have won 2-1 would you have agreed with him?
No, just making a point that me (a pretty poor player at the time) beat him at snooker pretty easily and he's saying snooker is the easiest game. I hardly think he is qualified to say such a thing as he has never and could never play snooker to the very highest level.
Laura Norder
Registered
Cool....I've just got to clarify that the quote I read was not that Snooker was the easiest game to play or master but the easiest game of the three to figure out a path to victory in.
It was his opinion though and he's entitled to that regardless of standard, just as you and I are. I would argue though that if a panel of 50 people were gathered to debate this...Chris would be on it.
I guess you're right, didn't really think of it like that. I just thought it was a little strange as he had no real success at snooker and seems to doing fairly well now in pool, it just doesn't really make sense to say snooker was easier.
I don't think it's possible to determine which cue sport is more difficult than the other, they are both harder and easier in different ways
I can add one place to their list. Storm Lake, Iowa has a place with snooker tables.
I'm a little late to this thread but wanted to point out that Billiards Digest had a great article regarding this in last months issue. It had many of the points listed in this thread and was well written.
It's also been a topic that has been over 20 years in the works!!! The following links are scans from the January 1988 Pool & Billiard magazine (from a collection that I purchased on AZ), a very well put together article that helped me learn a lot more about the game.
http://i244.photobucket.com/albums/gg18/emfalz/Snooker%20Article/Cover.jpg
http://i244.photobucket.com/albums/gg18/emfalz/Snooker%20Article/pg22.jpg
http://i244.photobucket.com/albums/gg18/emfalz/Snooker%20Article/pg23.jpg
http://i244.photobucket.com/albums/gg18/emfalz/Snooker%20Article/pg26.jpg
http://i244.photobucket.com/albums/gg18/emfalz/Snooker%20Article/pg27.jpg
http://i244.photobucket.com/albums/gg18/emfalz/Snooker%20Article/pg28.jpg
I guess if someone hasn't figured out how to make pool more popular like snooker since then, they never will.
Eric
It's also been a topic that has been over 20 years in the works!!! The following links are scans from the January 1988 Pool & Billiard magazine (from a collection that I purchased on AZ), a very well put together article that helped me learn a lot more about the game.
http://i244.photobucket.com/albums/gg18/emfalz/Snooker%20Article/Cover.jpg
http://i244.photobucket.com/albums/gg18/emfalz/Snooker%20Article/pg22.jpg
http://i244.photobucket.com/albums/gg18/emfalz/Snooker%20Article/pg23.jpg
http://i244.photobucket.com/albums/gg18/emfalz/Snooker%20Article/pg26.jpg
http://i244.photobucket.com/albums/gg18/emfalz/Snooker%20Article/pg27.jpg
http://i244.photobucket.com/albums/gg18/emfalz/Snooker%20Article/pg28.jpg
I guess if someone hasn't figured out how to make pool more popular like snooker since then, they never will.
Eric
Here is the first page of an article from the Billiards Digest of October 1984. The full article is available in Robert Byrne's "Advanced Technique in Pool and Billiards," a book which belongs in every player's library.
View attachment BD-1984 001.pdf
(There may be some typos as I ran the page through OCR to make the file smaller.)
View attachment BD-1984 001.pdf
(There may be some typos as I ran the page through OCR to make the file smaller.)
Robert Byrne's typically excellent article was written during snooker's peak. He could not have known about the difficulties the game was about to experience.
Perhaps there are some lessons for pool.
Snooker was always a cheap way of filling the TV airwaves during off-peak viewing hours. But as the broadcasters discovered, it also got very good viewing figures. Encouraged by this, they started broadcasting more, even encroaching into the prime evening slots. Potential sponsors were attracted by the numbers and the prize money started climbing, encouraging even more TV coverage. It seemed like a virtuous circle.
From memory, the total annual prize money in the mid 80's got to about $6m; and in one year Steve Davis was in the top 2 or 3 individuals in terms of UK TV exposure.
Regrettably, the whole thing was built on sand. The problem was that at the time the marketing analysis in the UK was quite basic: potential sponsors only saw the raw viewing numbers (which looked great). What they did not have available to them was a demographic / economic breakdown. If they had, they would have realised that the viewing audience was commercially much less valuable than they had thought. For example a very high percentage was made up of the retired and others with limited disposable income available for discretionary spending.
The result was that sponsors were attracted by the numbers, came in but only stayed for 2 or 3 years. After this time, their own analysis showed that they were not getting value for their marketing spend and they tended to pull out. In the early years, that was not a problem: there were plenty more companies who would step in to sponsor tournaments in what was a boom sport.
The exception to this were the tobacco and alcohol sponsors. Because of restrictions on their ability to advertise, they had a lot of advertising dollars desperate for a home, and as a result snooker managed to retain them as long term sponsors.
But then it all started to go wrong.
Sponsorship faced a double whammy - The regulators clamped down on tobacco and alcohol sponsorship; and around the same time, more sophisticated marketing analysis crossed over from the US to the UK, putting a more realistic value to the audience figures.
In fact, both of these were predictable. I remember voicing my concerns to a snooker pro I knew a couple of years before things started to go wrong. But snooker was run in a very amateurish way at that time (a frustrated Hearn had been forced to walk away from the game, and there was no-one else remotely of his caliber). As a result, the governing body had done nothing strategically to position the game so as to withstand this downturn
What I had not predicted was the TV execs also abandoning the game. Perhaps they saw it as a sinking ship; or perhaps its just that they have to make changes to justify their existence. But for whatever reason, just as the sponsors were either being forced out or losing interest, the TV coverage started being reduced.
A year or two back, many predicted that snooker was in a terminal decline. While I always thought that view was overstated, I could not see much prospect of an upturn. But I did not see the return of Barry Hearn coming (I think that I posted in this forum a year or so ago my considered opinion that there was no way that Hearn would ever return to snooker :embarrassed2
. What will happen to the game in the future is of course unknown; but if anyone can bring it back to its former fortunes, I think Barry Hearn is the guy to do it.I wonder if Mr Hearn could be persuaded to take an interest in pool? So far he has only dabbled - but the Mosconi Cup is hardly a failure.
TheThaiger
Banned
Great post Siz. The lesson any game needs to learn is...make it interesting to watch. Pool is just too boring to watch.
Perhaps. Another take is just to accept it for what it is, principally a participation sport rather than a spectator sport.
I should have said in my previous post: When snooker was going through its rapid expansion phase, the body governing UK pool (only a version of 8-ball played) tried everything it could to climb onto the bandwagon: changing the rules, changing solids/stripes to reds/yellows, making tournaments invitation -only. But it was no good. TV was just not interested (even with the limited number of channels in the UK at the time).
But I suppose 8-ball, or any other form of pool where players have to stop an think, is doomed to fail (since thinking does not make good TV) The US TV execs have known this for quite a while, hence the relative popularity of 9/10 ball on.
snooker is really an amazing game, I don't play snooker, but I watch snooker too much because its so fun to watch. I dunno but imo i never get bored watching snooker, luck is so little in there....the problem with pool is the luck in the break, its killing pool thats my opinion, the most important shot in pool is a luck shot "The break" thats just ridiculous tbh.
I love pool very much don't get me wrong, pool is my main game, but the break is killing it, and another thing yesterday I was watching 1p tournament on TAR, and really i was yawning all over. I also love 1p, but i was yawning watching it, I never do that watching snooker, why? I just can't figure it out... maybe its just the way it is.
P.S. I'm not a good writer, and not very good with English, I'm sure if someone who's very good with words who also understand what I mean, can put this better than I did and it will make more sense.
I love pool very much don't get me wrong, pool is my main game, but the break is killing it, and another thing yesterday I was watching 1p tournament on TAR, and really i was yawning all over. I also love 1p, but i was yawning watching it, I never do that watching snooker, why? I just can't figure it out... maybe its just the way it is.
P.S. I'm not a good writer, and not very good with English, I'm sure if someone who's very good with words who also understand what I mean, can put this better than I did and it will make more sense.
I think we need a Pot Black like program in the US for pool. Pot Black brought snooker to many homes in the UK was on for years, so kids grew up watching that stuff. It was a cool TV show to watch even if you didn't know what was going on because it was one of the early shows broadcasted in color (or colour for you select few).
Imagine trying to watch snooker in black and white.
Imagine trying to watch snooker in black and white.
TheThaiger
Banned
I think we need a Pot Black like program in the US for pool. Pot Black brought snooker to many homes in the UK was on for years, so kids grew up watching that stuff. It was a cool TV show to watch even if you didn't know what was going on because it was one of the early shows broadcasted in color (or colour for you select few).
Imagine trying to watch snooker in black and white.
I did, for many years! "and for those of you watching in black and white, the cueball is behind the yellow".
ps 'select'? Chosen.
TheThaiger
Banned
Your english is better than most english people.
TheThaiger
Banned
The pool governing bodies in the UK appear disjointed at best, outright hostile to each other at worst. I'm far from an expert on them, so may be out of line with that, but the sooner there's a single, unified authority the better. They could start by getting rid of the ridiculous two shot rule in marbles. Rules for any game are important; not least to provide structure and form. The rules in UK 8 ball are a total farce.