now this is unbelievable...

S

scorpionjohnny

Registered
Interview with Daryl Peach

7. Who, in your opinion, was the greatest ever to pick up a cue (snooker, pool, whatever)?

Snooker: Ronnie O'Sullivan

Pool: Efren Reyes

Overall: Efren because I saw him play Jimmy White and Ronnie O'Sullivan 6 years ago, at snooker best of 5 for £100 each if I remember rightly: he beat both of them with his pool cue, and he made 3 centuries!! Now that's special.

http://www.9ballpool.co.uk/interviews/daryl_peach_240604.html
 
Wow, great little article; many thanks. I guess Darryl Peach must not know any of those 10,000 (yes Colin, I know you were exaggerating) snooker players that Colin C. thinks are better than Efren. :) :)

I have always thought that any top pool player could be a top snooker player if they devoted a few years to it. There is nothing special or different about the players (just the equipment and the years they spend on it playing a specific game). JMO.
 
Williebetmore said:
I have always thought that any top pool player could be a top snooker player if they devoted a few years to it.
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Only if those few years were their first few years, and they never subsequently made the switch to pool. Otherwise they have missed the boat.

Boro Nut
 
Boro Nut said:
Only if those few years were their first few years, and they never subsequently made the switch to pool. Otherwise they have missed the boat.

Boro Nut
Click to expand...

Explain, please. Does this mean that if a person plays pool first that they are incapable of learning to play snooker? Does playing pool do something to your brain that makes the two mutually exclusive? Are snooker players so superior to pool players that it's impossible for a pool player to ever rise to the level of snooker players? Is pool where snooker rejects go? Please clarify and provide some sound reasoning.
 
Boro Nut said:
Only if those few years were their first few years, and they never subsequently made the switch to pool. Otherwise they have missed the boat.

Boro Nut
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Boroman,
I will agree that those players (in ANY sport) have a big advantage if they start when they are kids; BUT I disagree that that is the only way. There are cases in many sports of late-starters achieving great success. Just because no one has done it, doesn't mean it can't be done.

A friend who used to take lessons from a guy named Alex Higgins was told that when Steve Mizerak started fooling with snooker for the televised inter-disciplinary matches, that his potting was super. Within days of starting snooker (using his pool cue) he was running hundred breaks not infrequently. This was way past Steve's peak as a pool player. With a few years of intensive practice Alex thought Steve could have been one of the greatest snooker players ever (of course I only repeat this opinion second hand).

I think snooker devotees fool themselves into thinking that because the pocketing requires more precision that the players are more skillful - they are different, not more (or less) skillful than top pool players. Playing top level pool requires a level of precision FAR greater than the average player like us realizes - the top pool players have reached that level of precision, and are quit capable of learning any game that requires high precision if they want. JMO

P.S. - As I'm plowing through "From Rags to Rifleman" they are talking about playing 6-ball and 9-ball on regulation snooker tables with POOL BALLS. One of the players complains that the pockets are too loose..
 
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Efren, Jose Parica, and a number of other pros play for big $$ on the snooker table at Hard Times in Bellflower that's famous for being very tight pocketed. Years of playing (for thousands of bucks) against strong competition must make these champions pretty good on the big table. Even if they're not usually playing regular snooker on the table, I'm pretty sure these guys are shooting pretty good when the money gets big.

I don't know if they would be champions, but I'd bet guys like Johnny Archer, Strickland,Sigel,etc... would of done well at snooker if they spent as much time playing it as pool. They all have phenomenal hand-eye coordination.

I still don't think Efren would have much of a chance in a serious tournement against the likes of O'Sullivan, Hendry,etc... but I do believe that top pool pros can beat snooker players if the snooker players aren't on their game.
 
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