MC....What year did 9 on spot start?
- Thread starter Johnnyt
- Start date
Hardtobeat
Registered
Another question, is why? I have not seen this in a rule book.
Soft breaks and wired corner balls.
To answer the original question, I think it was 2007 - so more than long enough ago for everyone to have gotten used to it.
Never understood what the problem is with the soft break. If a ball is potted, is that not the aim??
It doesn't particularly bother me either, but having most of the balls in one half of the table can lead to (even more so than usual) somewhat boring games. I can see why they changed it up.
Plus, hitting the break hard is fun.
I figured it out with youtube videos, taking screenshots of each top-down view over the years.*
In theory the center of the spot is (normally) on the line between the 2nd diamonds.
So I just drew a line between those diamonds to see where it crossed the rack.
*couldn't find 2001 footage.
I'd say 1999 is when they first started racking high, and it kept creeping forward over the years
until finally finally the 9 is fully on the spot in 2004.
It's not very consistent... unless the camera is playing tricks the placement changes a little
every year and maybe from rack to rack. In fact in some footage it's hard to see the spot and
I half wonder if the ref isn't eyeballing it. Hard to be consistent if the rack placement varies.
1998 is the last year it was clearly racked normally, line passes right through the middle of the 1.
Then it's a ball high in 1999, 1.5 balls high in 2000, (2001?), 2002.
Around 2003 it's 2 balls high, front of the 9 touches the line. 2004 the 9 is definitely on the line.
In theory the center of the spot is (normally) on the line between the 2nd diamonds.
So I just drew a line between those diamonds to see where it crossed the rack.
*couldn't find 2001 footage.
I'd say 1999 is when they first started racking high, and it kept creeping forward over the years
until finally finally the 9 is fully on the spot in 2004.
It's not very consistent... unless the camera is playing tricks the placement changes a little
every year and maybe from rack to rack. In fact in some footage it's hard to see the spot and
I half wonder if the ref isn't eyeballing it. Hard to be consistent if the rack placement varies.
1998 is the last year it was clearly racked normally, line passes right through the middle of the 1.
Then it's a ball high in 1999, 1.5 balls high in 2000, (2001?), 2002.
Around 2003 it's 2 balls high, front of the 9 touches the line. 2004 the 9 is definitely on the line.
I figured it out with youtube videos, taking screenshots of each top-down view over the years.*
In theory the center of the spot is (normally) on the line between the 2nd diamonds.
So I just drew a line between those diamonds to see where it crossed the rack.
*couldn't find 2001 footage.
I'd say 1999 is when they first started racking high, and it kept creeping forward over the years
until finally finally the 9 is fully on the spot in 2004.
It's not very consistent... unless the camera is playing tricks the placement changes a little
every year and maybe from rack to rack. In fact in some footage it's hard to see the spot and
I half wonder if the ref isn't eyeballing it. Hard to be consistent if the rack placement varies.
1998 is the last year it was clearly racked normally, line passes right through the middle of the 1.
Then it's a ball high in 1999, 1.5 balls high in 2000, (2001?), 2002.
Around 2003 it's 2 balls high, front of the 9 touches the line. 2004 the 9 is definitely on the line.
On the subject of racking...
It's really interesting to me to watch some of the matches from the 90's, paying special attention to how poorly so many of the racks were. That had to be a major frustration for so many players. You would constantly see the 9 ball squirt straight in to one of the corner pockets. Then everyone would celebrate like this was a major accomplish. The sad thing was it was mainly due to poor racking and poor racks.
If the balls had been racked consistently we would have seen the soft break a long time ago. It wasn't until the Sardo rack came out that the players started paying close attention to the spread of the balls. It was only a matter of time before we saw a controlled soft break.
Pathetic Shark
Banned
Just as GB9 and virtually everywhere else in the UK. I presume all of Europe does too. After all, it just makes so much damn sense.
Thank you for the info. Johnnyt
There is more 9 ball played in Europe than in the U.S at this time. More 10 ball here in the U.S.
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A great deal has been said on what the problem is or seems to be to most people. Are you familiar with the commonly-perceived "problems"?