why are the british the best in the world?

TATE said:
I for one am in favor of keeping Britain a separate country. They kind of remind me of a colder, less ricey Puerto Rico. Notice how they kind of copied our system of government, LOL? Such a darling little country. They try to find other places, like Australia and Bermuda, and make adorable Island clones of themselves, complete with that cute American-like government. I went to Britain to meet English people but all I would find were people from other continents. I wanted to try authentic British food but apparently it's very unpopular there.

Anyway, let's keep Britain British.
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A separate country to what? :confused:
 
voiceofreason said:
The rules were largely written by Ross McInnes with the assistance of Michaela Tabb plus others of course. I had some input and I was also at the very very first meeting between elements of the WPA (in the detail Gre Landers of EPBF and others) and UK pool - way back in 2004.

Wow. Time flies!
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I'm still not keen on two shots. Have you ever tried chinese or american 8 ball rules on an english table? Not sure why they wouldn't work...
 
Ron Swanson said:
I'm still not keen on two shots. Have you ever tried chinese or american 8 ball rules on an english table? Not sure why they wouldn't work...
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I'm interested in the answer to this.
...the first time I heard of the 'two shots' I thought 'bar rules' :eek:
 
Ron Swanson said:
Bar rules? You have no idea. English pool is a basket case beyond compare.
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You are quite right
Nutty rules like
-2 shots for when your opponent fouls including when you are on black
Not only that you have choice of taking the cue ball and shooting from kitchen
"2 shots" is also misnomer . If you pot your ball on your first shot, then you no longer have 2 shots. I.e. the 2 shots do not carry forward
Also on your 1st shot you can hit any ball including your opponent's
-no cushion needed after contact. Probably to let you snooker your opponent more easily :)
-no call pocket. So you can slop the black in anyway you want.
-deliberate foul not allowed. If I am not mistaken , deliberate foul can result in loss of game. Eg. If you tactically want to give your opponent 2 shots and deliberately pot cue ball, it is loss of game . But if you "accidentally" pot cue ball, it is not lose of game
But how would you determine intent ? Whether it is deliberate or accidental foul? Deliberate foul is nonsensical concept . A foul is a foul regardless of whether it is deliberate or accidental and should not result in loss of game
:grin:
 
To sort of answer the original question, I think it's because the game forces the players to develop good fundamentals and because of the TV history of the game, there has been enough money in it to motivate more players to do the hard work it takes to become better.

But UKers are not the best at all aspects of cue sports.
 
Ron Swanson said:
I'm still not keen on two shots. Have you ever tried chinese or american 8 ball rules on an english table? Not sure why they wouldn't work...
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WPA "American" 8 ball rules work just fine on an English pool table. 7 footer though - waste of time on a 6 footer.
 
Ron Swanson said:
Anyone watching the snooker world championships, the only pro cue sport game there is, cannot fail to notice the greatest players are all british. Sure, robertson is incredible, but he flatters to deceive a bit and, besides, aussies are virtually british anyway. Ding looks the same as ever - a monster until he hits a brit. The chinese invasion has stalled. The euros consistently fall short. Corey deuell battles with 8 year olds.

The breakthrough player at this this year's championships was anthony mcgill, a scotsman. Even yesterday's nearly man, matthew stevens, showed moments of class, enough to make his welshness forgivable at any rate. The final 4 are all english. Murphy and trump are SHEER class, playing well beyond what mere pool players could ever dream of.

So why are the british the greatest cueists? What do they have that the rest of the world lacks?
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A self-aggrandizing attitude to try and live up to perhaps? I suppose that could provide some motivation to excel.

(guessing the OP is British?)

KMRUNOUT
 
Ron Swanson said:
I include all cue sports, it's just snooker is the pinnacle and everyone would be playing it if they were good enough. But, as you mention it, daz is pretty much the best in the world at american pool, despite virtually no one in britain playing it. It would be akin to shane going to britain and monstering english 8 ball, and that ain't ever going to happen.
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Just played 3 cushion billiards for a couple of hours with a champion player. I can't imagine why anyone would put snooker above this game? These comparisons are laughable anyway. Different games, different skill sets. "Oh Mr Snooker champ could convert to that game and dominate if they wanted to." HAHA! I want to see it. It has *NEVER* happened, yet people are sure it will. I would love to see how Snooker players fair at 3 cushion billiards. Has anyone ever successfully made that transition at a world class level? I mean, if snooker players are so great, they why wouldn't the lesser ones that can't really do well enough on the pro tour simply migrate to pool and rob all those helpless hacks playing pool? When that happens, then and only then can an argument be made that snooker is superior to anything.

KMRUNOUT
 
Ron Swanson said:
It's interesting, if someone on an english based football site posed the question "why are the brasilians the best in the world", pretty much everyone would a) immediately accept the premise given the stats and b) wonder what we could do to emulate them.

You know, the precise opposite of the reaction on azb.
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What is interesting is that you believe the comparison is accurate. There are stats to support the claim about Brasil in soccer. There are not any stats to support your claim. Maybe *within* the world of snooker alone you can make your claim about British superiority based on stats, but as soon as you try and include all cue sports, your claim falls completely apart. Sad, but your attempt at making an analogy kind of undermines your credibility. Kind of exactly what I see all over AZB.

KMRUNOUT
 
spartan said:
You are quite right
Nutty rules like
-2 shots for when your opponent fouls including when you are on black
Not only that you have choice of taking the cue ball and shooting from kitchen
"2 shots" is also misnomer . If you pot your ball on your first shot, then you no longer have 2 shots. I.e. the 2 shots do not carry forward
Also on your 1st shot you can hit any ball including your opponent's
-no cushion needed after contact. Probably to let you snooker your opponent more easily :)
-no call pocket. So you can slop the black in anyway you want.
-deliberate foul not allowed. If I am not mistaken , deliberate foul can result in loss of game. Eg. If you tactically want to give your opponent 2 shots and deliberately pot cue ball, it is loss of game . But if you "accidentally" pot cue ball, it is not lose of game
But how would you determine intent ? Whether it is deliberate or accidental foul? Deliberate foul is nonsensical concept . A foul is a foul regardless of whether it is deliberate or accidental and should not result in loss of game
:grin:
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Don't know what rules you are reading but thats a bit of bollox if I ever saw it!
 
KMRUNOUT said:
Just played 3 cushion billiards for a couple of hours with a champion player. I can't imagine why anyone would put snooker above this game? These comparisons are laughable anyway. Different games, different skill sets. "Oh Mr Snooker champ could convert to that game and dominate if they wanted to." HAHA! I want to see it. It has *NEVER* happened, yet people are sure it will. I would love to see how Snooker players fair at 3 cushion billiards. Has anyone ever successfully made that transition at a world class level? I mean, if snooker players are so great, they why wouldn't the lesser ones that can't really do well enough on the pro tour simply migrate to pool and rob all those helpless hacks playing pool? When that happens, then and only then can an argument be made that snooker is superior to anything.

KMRUNOUT
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Hmmm, but then surely the 3 cushion players would be migrating to snooker to clean up where the money is?
 
Well Ron hos only partially accomplished his goal. Over 5,000 views based on a ridiculous, unsupported premise. As I mentioned, facts are stubborn things. I don't blame him. The boards are boring lately and any stimulus is welcome.
 
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