Backers For An American Invasion.

mnorwood

mnorwood

Moon
Silver Member
If you go over to the snooker forum you will see a post by John Schmidt where he describes his success with playing snooker for only a few weeks.

Based on that performance I see no reason why John can't make a splash over in England.

Is there anyone on this board or anyone who is associated with anyone who could back John in an attempt to break into professional snooker?

I think the investment would pay off and make for intriguing television.

What say you?
 
If he wants to compete on the Snooker Main Tour he will have to qualify.

This is done by either winning the Ponti's Amateur League (8 tournaments) or by winning the World Amateur Snooker Championships.

Last year, Kurt Maflin, an Englishman living in Norway, playing for the same team as me, won both and made it to the Main Tour. www.147.no

After one season he will have to qualify again, he wasn't good enough this year. And this is a guy who made centuries almost before he could read. The lever on the Main Tour is HIGH...
 
Roy Steffensen said:
If he wants to compete on the Snooker Main Tour he will have to qualify.

This is done by either winning the Ponti's Amateur League (8 tournaments) or by winning the World Amateur Snooker Championships.

Last year, Kurt Maflin, an Englishman living in Norway, playing for the same team as me, won both and made it to the Main Tour. www.147.no

After one season he will have to qualify again, he wasn't good enough this year. And this is a guy who made centuries almost before he could read. The lever on the Main Tour is HIGH...
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I agre with Roy, you can't just walk on or buy your way intop Pro Snooker. You have to aquire a Pro-ticket. Also this is a very hard sport and these guys have been playing since they were 7 or 8.
 
mnorwood said:
... Is there anyone on this board or anyone who is associated with anyone who could back John in an attempt to break into professional snooker? ... What say you?
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I think he should prove himself in competition by winning the US National Championship first. That would be Memorial Day weekend in San Gabriel, California (May 23-25). If he can play in competition to the same level as in his practice, I think he is a shoo-in. Also, he almost certainly doesn't know the rules yet -- competition should help with that.
 
Not snooker but just referring to "American Invasion". We at BMPAP will more than welcome an American Team participation in our Philippine Professional Billiard(9-Ball Pool actually) League. Maybe Diamond Billiard or some other US companies can sponsor such a team to compete in this thrice a week 3 month season Pro Pool league. It'll have live local Philippines network TV coverage and live webstreaming coverage for the rest of the world to view free on our first season.
 
the thing is snooker is a completely different game. a world class pool player like john will be okay at it with minimal practice but to be competitive at it he'd need to devote serious hours. and you can only do that if you have the passion for it. at a guess, i would say he doesn't have a passion for it and his heart is in pool.

so this just wouldn't work probably.
 
mnorwood said:
If you go over to the snooker forum you will see a post by John Schmidt where he describes his success with playing snooker for only a few weeks.

Based on that performance I see no reason why John can't make a splash over in England.

Is there anyone on this board or anyone who is associated with anyone who could back John in an attempt to break into professional snooker?

I think the investment would pay off and make for intriguing television.

What say you?
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It's not just about running centuries and making lots of balls. Every guy on the main tour can do that, often too. Hell, there are lots of guys outside of the main tour running centuries daily.
 
mnorwood said:
If you go over to the snooker forum you will see a post by John Schmidt where he describes his success with playing snooker for only a few weeks.

Based on that performance I see no reason why John can't make a splash over in England.

Is there anyone on this board or anyone who is associated with anyone who could back John in an attempt to break into professional snooker?

I think the investment would pay off and make for intriguing television.

What say you?
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I think it's a great idea. How much are you putting up?
 
crappoolguy said:
I'd like to see some vids of John playing snooker to see if his shot choice and general thinking is the same as the common snooker brain. BTW, I just saw this video. What a century! http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=vxQ9V32GZtU
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oh pleez!...how hard was that? every time he hit a ball it fell in a hole!:D

hijack>>>I have a serious question for you snooker buffs. Are there any snooker pros that don't shoot with their chin on the cue? There are many styles in pool, 3c billiards etc, but only one typical snooker style?
 
Gerry said:
oh pleez!...how hard was that? every time he hit a ball it fell in a hole!:D

hijack>>>I have a serious question for you snooker buffs. Are there any snooker pros that don't shoot with their chin on the cue? There are many styles in pool, 3c billiards etc, but only one typical snooker style?
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EVERYONE has there chin on the cue. And I think there are only two standard feet positions.
 
He might have to get used to the equipment they have to use over there on tour. I think they have to use the brass ferrules. I'm not sure, but I think there are other equipment standards too.
 
equipment standards

ABall said:
He might have to get used to the equipment they have to use over there on tour. I think they have to use the brass ferrules. I'm not sure, but I think there are other equipment standards too.
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They do not have to have a brass ferrule.You could use a pool cue if you wanted. But most people choose to use a cue with an ash shaft and about a 3/4 length breakpoint. They also like the cue to be balanced back heavy compared to what most people like to use as a cue in the US.
However, in allot of pubs in UK and NZ, the pool cue and snooker cue are one in the same. You turn up with a US made cue and you get the reaction
where did you get the sledge hammer from?. The shafts are usually 10 mm or thinner.Not 12 to 14 like you see here. Anyway, I use a snooker style cue to play pool and I like it.It all comes down to what you were brought up on.
The tables are all 12 by 6. That is allot more cloth when you are used to 8by 4.I think at the top level snooker is just as difficult as any other table game. The top people make all the shots look really easy and effort less.
To succeed you really have to have the fire in the belly ,as well as the x factor that allows you to make the judgment to read the table and game you can play to run it out.The people with this ability can run rack after rack on a good day. And will still run a rack or two on a bad day.
I wish the man all the best in his endeavor. Just do it.
 
Bob Jewett said:
I think he should prove himself in competition by winning the US National Championship first. That would be Memorial Day weekend in San Gabriel, California (May 23-25). If he can play in competition to the same level as in his practice, I think he is a shoo-in. Also, he almost certainly doesn't know the rules yet -- competition should help with that.
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Along those lines, there are excellent snooker tournaments here in Canada that could serve as tests / warmups. If John can win or place very high in these events then he might be able to compete in the top tour.

Dave
 
Well, if you watch any snooker, you always hear about 125,000 pounds or 75,000 pounds for a maximum break. The prize money just for running balls not even winning is always huge. Thats a crapload of greenbacks. And a crapload of motivation. Whats the high run prize for straight pool tourney's here? $3,500? John rains hundreds of balls in straight pool.....for pennies. I'm not saying snooker is a walk in the park, but I'm fairly confident in his pattern play to run a 147 with practice and a good coach. Then he can get rich and focus on straight pool more.
 
mnorwood said:
If you go over to the snooker forum you will see a post by John Schmidt where he describes his success with playing snooker for only a few weeks.

Based on that performance I see no reason why John can't make a splash over in England.

Is there anyone on this board or anyone who is associated with anyone who could back John in an attempt to break into professional snooker?

I think the investment would pay off and make for intriguing television.

What say you?
Click to expand...

I think John knows the score, and said it perfectly himself in the other thread:

john schmidt said:
now by no means do i think im world class at snooker, just saying with a couple weeks of playing everyday for a few hours i was running 70-100 points every other frame or so.in closing i think snooker is super hard .but if you think if i played it my whole life i could not have played pro snooker you are kidding yourself.
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He's not competitive at the top level, and he probably never could be, taking up the game so late in life. But he's proven he does have world class ability with a cue in another discipline (straight pool and 9-ball), and that with minimal snooker practice he can play that game quite well, and I think he's probably right that if he had applied his talents to snooker his whole life he would be a successful pro.

-Andrew
 
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