Live Snooker Match Featuring Jeremy Jones.

Cliff and Alain are indeed very good players! I actually rode in an elevator with Cliff once. Real Gentleman!
I never got your pm, but I actually made a couple of 70's in practice on Tuesday night. So I can hit the balls okay. But that's playing very loose, not worrying about an opponent who'd run the table on you. You should have seen Jeremy warm up, he didn't miss! Long shots, tugged under the cushion, just like his opening red. I thought my breakoff was pretty good. But when I kept him in his seat for thirty ought points before I leave myself too straight on the black along the top cushion in the first frame, he knew he's got a game on his hands.

Anyway, I don't want to turn this into a p!ssing contest.

Let me leave you with some immortal words from Ego:"the average piece of junk is more meaningful than our criticism designating it so"
Or in my words: get yourself a webcam and start broadcasting, spreading the snooker gospel.
 
drsnooker said:
Cliff and Alain are indeed very good players! I actually rode in an elevator with Cliff once. Real Gentleman!
I never got your pm, but I actually made a couple of 70's in practice on Tuesday night. So I can hit the balls okay. But that's playing very loose, not worrying about an opponent who'd run the table on you. You should have seen Jeremy warm up, he didn't miss! Long shots, tugged under the cushion, just like his opening red. I thought my breakoff was pretty good. But when I kept him in his seat for thirty ought points before I leave myself too straight on the black along the top cushion in the first frame, he knew he's got a game on his hands.

Anyway, I don't want to turn this into a p!ssing contest.

Let me leave you with some immortal words from Ego:"the average piece of junk is more meaningful than our criticism designating it so"
Or in my words: get yourself a webcam and start broadcasting, spreading the snooker gospel.

I sent rep with a message that was the pm. Next time I go for snooker I will try to video. Happy shooting.
 
Just like mnorwood says, people who think they are better should simply step up and play. After all, there isn't any money to lose...it's just that many people will see your true level during live broadcast...not very simple, isn't it?
About giving up the 5 in 9ball to Jeremy...wow, that person is probably from some other universe...
 
predator said:
Just like mnorwood says, people who think they are better should simply step up and play. After all, there isn't any money to lose...it's just that many people will see your true level during live broadcast...not very simple, isn't it?
About giving up the 5 in 9ball to Jeremy...wow, that person is probably from some other universe...

Not sure if anyone said they would give Jeremy the 5, mnorwood might be trying to prove a point. If they did, they must be strong to give that up to someone with a U.S. Open under their belt..
 
drsnooker said:
Cliff and Alain are indeed very good players! I actually rode in an elevator with Cliff once. Real Gentleman!
I never got your pm, but I actually made a couple of 70's in practice on Tuesday night. So I can hit the balls okay.
I think we can safely say you're better than okay. I look forward to hearing of your exploits at the US championships.

But that's playing very loose, not worrying about an opponent who'd run the table on you.
Absolutely. Just look what happens to so many debutants at the crucible. They may have gone through the qualifiers like a dose of salts, but suddenly freeze once the tv lights are trained on them. Surprising that. They're really really hot.

Boro Nut
 
I've got the frames in avi format now. Considering redoing the commentary. However, I think mnorwood is doing the same thing and he already has a youtube channel with tons of followers, so I think I'm just gonna let him take care of it. Especially, since he deserves a ton of credit for getting Jeremy to come out and play and getting the broadcast organized. He has already shown that he knows the game very well, so I think his added commentary will be fabulous.

I can't wait to play in the US championships. It will be my first snooker tourney, so I'm a bit nervous about it. I think it'll be fun though. I got my registration package yesterday! Now I'm asking some friends in the area for advice on hotels. $180 a night starts adding up if you need to be there for 5 nights....
I was hoping it'd be LA this year. I have a friend who lives three miles away from the Embassy club with a couch I can crash on.

P.S. 147 posts!!!!!!
 
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It will be on youtube by the weekend. Would any canadian players be willing to hop a flight to houston? If Canada is indeed brimming with snooker talent, lets see it.
 
mnorwood said:
It will be on youtube by the weekend. Would any canadian players be willing to hop a flight to houston? If Canada is indeed brimming with snooker talent, lets see it.

Get into contact with srs314 about that, or perhaps you guys would be willing to go to Canada. As far as I am aware none of our top players post here, so they would be most likely unaware of such a challenge.

Snooker is not as big as it was years ago, but our players can still play. Here is the high break list from last years Canadian Championship, keeping in mind they are playing best of 7 matches.

Tom Finstad 141 106
Claude Bernatchez 139
Alain Robidoux 123 109 103 102
Jeff Kennedy 118
Kirk Stevens 110

I don't think these guys will feel they have anything to prove.
 
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mnorwood said:
It will be on youtube by the weekend. Would any canadian players be willing to hop a flight to houston? If Canada is indeed brimming with snooker talent, lets see it.

I don't think it would be hard to find someone willing to play snooker. It might be hard getting them there playing for nothing. I think coming to Canada would be better. Better tables etc. I think if you post $$, date etc you will have interest. I would have to make a few calls letting them know a challenge is out there, but I'm sure a match can be arranged
 
I think you guys did well given the circumstances and I enjoyed the match. I could see from your solid technique that you were both capable of playing better, but that didn't detract from the game.

As a long time player, the only thing I thought was that you didn't make use of the middle pockets enough and maybe hit the ball a little too hard when it didn't need it. Altho that might have been the jerky feed, and the fact that Jeremy was playing with a pool cue that no doubt had a tip the size of a cat's paw. Looking forward to next time guys...

And good luck to drsnooker in the US Championships.

Steven
 
Well it's the weekend and they're still not on Youtube. Get your finger out. You can't use your addiction to AZBilliards forums as an excuse because I am reliably informed by Punter that they were down for 1½ days.

Actually, strike that last bit. Let's just say a little dickybird told me. I don't want to be accused of painting a false picture of Punter.

Boro Nut
 
mnorwood was having some technical difficulties. He's a mac and I'm a PC. Haha! I was out of town all weekend so I couldn't hand over the converted files. But for those of you desperate enough you can still see the entire match in the archives on justin.tv/forcefollow

<UPDATE> He just came over and now has the files. But not the codec. So now he's gotta go find it on the internets.
 
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You have to realize snooker in Canada is a more popular game and played at a higher level than in the U.S. To see someone play that many games and run only 30 isn't good (I could do it). I sent drsnooker a pm(rep). before your post. I wanted to find out how he played off T.V.

Canada has an ex world snooker champion and the first player to make 147 on tv. Another that was ranked top 9 in the world and others that won pro events in the UK. They run 100's often and would pound anyone only getting 30's. Sorry for popping your bubble.

I didn't know Steve Davis was Canadian?
 
That's funny raybo. Steve's Lada classic 147 was in 1982 while Cliff's was in '83.
But his point was that north America includes Canada and they do have (or at least had) some world class snooker players.

Criticizing is always easy, when we're the ones out there trying to promote the sport by playing live. We weren't inviting comments from people that think that Ronnie would beat either Jeremy or I. The US snooker championship only get a few dozen entries, so if these endeavors get a few more people to try the sport and like it and come out and play, that's wonderful. All the bad apples in the world can't ruin it for me. I love this game!
 
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Criticizing is always easy, when we're the ones out there trying to promote the sport by playing live. We weren't inviting comments from people that think that Ronnie would beat either Jeremy or I. The US snooker championship only get a few dozen entries, so if these endeavors get a few more people to try the sport and like it and come out and play, that's wonderful. All the bad apples in the world can't ruin it for me. I love this game!
I'm only halfway through but I think you did okay under the circumstances, and it's very enjoyable. I've seen better down the club, but mostly I've seen far worse. Fair enough there were plenty of pots missed that I'm sure you would have got normally, but for me the most telling thing so far is Jeremy's tactical naivety. You seemed to have that edge on him in that respect all the way through. Has he played much at all before or is he a complete novice?

For instance there was one shot in the first frame where he nominated blue as a free ball after you snookered him on the green, and he seemed to play it as a sort of pushout leaving you the straight green into the middle. He didn't seem to know what his options were. It's the sort of thing where in a friendly game you'd explain it to him, reset the balls, and let him have another go. He also seemed to take those long pots with the red fairly close to the pocket far too lightly as well. They may look like you could knock them in with your cap, but are much harder than they seem along the cushion, as I'm sure you know, and what you never do is leave the white right among them all unless you are certain you are going to pot it.

His cue action seems too loose to be consistent at snooker too, especially on the power shots it's all over the place. He only seems to have two points of contact instead of four and it shows. But kudos to him for trying, and he still did remarkably well with some shots considering he was using a pool cue. The talent is definitely there.

PS - I'm sure it's probably an optical effect of the lens distortion, but the black spot and pyramid do seem an awful long way above the top cushion. It's definitely marked out properly isn't it?

Boro Nut
 
Jeremy is a very aggressive player and in warm up he couldn't miss. Long shots along the cushion, whatever. It was definitely intimidating to watch him warm up. He does play regularly up at Boogies for a dollar a ball with liability. But safety doesn't really play a role in those games.
Not sure if there is a free ball in American rules snooker. I explained it to him before the game and again after the ref called it, but he clearly has never used it. After he shot it, he realized what he should have done though, so when he has time to play the rematch, he surely will have learned that, and also probably to play safe a little more often.

It's a cheap webcam so it distorts everything a little bit. The green some times looks like the blue and the pink looks like the yellow. Without spending a lot more money for a real camera this is probably as good as it's gonna get.

MNorwood said he'll be posting it on youtube tomorrow.
 
Drsnooker I am not critisizing you at all, just trying to make a funny. Jason I guess you are talking about Kirk Stevens at the Masters which was one of snooker's greatest moments. I remember watching that match live as a 12 year old. I think it is great that you are playing and putting it out there for us to see. I am still considering playing at the Nationals because if I win that means I will have won National titles in 2 different countries. It is next to impossible for me to practice and prepare though and I don't want to go to make up the numbers. My snooker playing days ended in 1997 when I moved from Northern Ireland to Philly. If any of you guys are going to be at Valley Forge let me know and we can meet up and play some snooker as there is a table (not very good) 15 minutes from the venue. Not a challenge, just some freindly games. My game is a long way away from my Ireland days.
 
Well I've watched the whole thing now Ernst and I'd have to say it was probably local town league 'B' division stuff, but I enjoyed it. You look in desperate need of some real competition to push you on. Maybe you should take a holiday in the UK. You would love it.

Do you have a snooker background or are you self taught? If so you've done remarkably well. You've certainly got the fundamentals down, but only playing regularly with a group of players better than you will drag you up to their standard and they'll point out flaws and nuances you're not aware of.

Your table looks very slow to me. The cushions don't seem too bad but the balls screech to a halt and seem to stop miles short of where I'm expecting them to. I know you brush it, but do you have a flat iron? The difference is like chalk and cheese. If you've never played on a newly ironed napped cloth then you're in for a treat. It's a thing of beauty and should speed it up a bit. It's also a lot more difficult to adjust to a fast table if you're used to a slow one, as it demands so much more finesse, and you might come a cropper in competition if you haven't been exposed to them before. But once you are used to fast tables they are amazing. You only need to nurse the balls around, and you really begin to appreciate it's not how hard you hit them that matters, it's how well.

And don't listen to Ray's protestations. You could do a lot worse than invite him down to stretch you. You'll stagnate playing against the same people you know you can beat. Your whole shot selection will end up being only what you need to beat them and will be a fatal flaw in your game. You learn from bitter experience exactly how much discretion is the better part of valour when every mistake is being mercilessly punished.

Boro Nut
 
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