Proper etiquette for flagging slow play

F

FastManners

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
In a tournament recently, I noticed a player playing ridiculously slowly, at least a couple of minutes for a routine shot. This was consistent during the match.
At the end of this 2 and a half hour race to seven (it was probably closer to 3 hours and there were a total of 11 racks played in the match) the losing player congratulated the victor, but also mentioned to the victor that he should probably increase the pace of his game.
The victor of course said that it was a case of sour grapes and that he was just being a bad loser.

What should the loser have done? Bearing in mind that threats to be "put on the clock", were mentioned at the beginning of the tournament, but I have never seen it enforced.
 
Proper etiquette would just let the tournament director handle it. Tell the director, hey this guy is taking a long time in between shots and they will monitor it and tell the turtle.

You would not even get mentioned and you would have the edge afterwards because now he has to speed it up.

I have shot with a guy like that and I blame myself too because I was shooting cold and it went to case game. Took an hour to finish a race to 5. Unacceptable.

...but freaking almost 3 hours....
 
It was pretty insane.

Yes the TD should have been informed. I think his opponent was trying to not shark his opponent as the slow player is recognized as a decent guy.
I mentioned it to the TD after the match, as I was unbiased and did to want the whole tournament to be held up by a single player.
The TD agreed, but it would take his next opponent to mention something for him to act.

Almost 3 hours for a race to 7 has to be some sort of record. Especially as the slow player is perceived as being close to Open speed.
 
Generally in our local tournaments, if the opponent or the people running the brackets don't say anything, nothing happens.

If the opponent doesn't say anything, it may be that they don't want to be on the clock either, and are willing to put up with the slow play.

If the people running the brackets say something, generally it's late enough in the match that it doesn't make much difference, but they've noticed because that part of the bracket is falling behind.

Nobody likes to be on the clock, sure as anything, you'll get that tricky shot that you'd really like to take a little longer contemplating, and of course, you can't put just one of the players on the clock, it's all or nothing.

As far as mentioning something to your opponent, I would say no, not the thing to do. Just make a mental note that next time, a word to the TD might be in order before the match starts.
 
Race to 7

takes 40-45 minutes normally. I would have went to the TD by the 2nd or 3rd game if he was taking too long, and asked them to put him on the clock.
 
Snapshot9 said:
takes 40-45 minutes normally. I would have went to the TD by the 2nd or 3rd game if he was taking too long, and asked them to put him on the clock.
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40-45 minutes for a race to 7??? I like your tempo.....

Sooooo well in fact that you got action LOL....

Seriously tho the DCC 9ball is race to 7 and for the most part the hill/hill stuff was at it's worst around 2hours..... 3 hours is totally unacceptable....
Hill/Hill you have 13 games.... 10 minutes per game has it as 130minutes.... 10minutes per game for 9-ball, 10-ball or even 8-ball (this one marginally) is brutal to watch......

If an hour into a race to 7 and we have less than 7 on the wire combined and I am not the one slow playing/icing... I have no issue going to the director and pointing out the pace of play.......
 
Solution is very simple. Take twice as long to shoot. You will see how fast your opponent will start playing.
 
Guerra Cues said:
Solution is very simple. Take twice as long to shoot. You will see how fast your opponent will start playing.
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That's a race to the bottom. A slow one.

If I were king, the proper etiquette would be for the boring sod to be taken out into the car park and shot.
 
TheThaiger said:
That's a race to the bottom. A slow one.

If I were king, the proper etiquette would be for the boring sod to be taken out into the car park and shot.
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This is my personal preference. If it takes you that long to take a shot then it is surely the humane thing to do.
 
FastManners said:
In a tournament recently, I noticed a player playing ridiculously slowly, at least a couple of minutes for a routine shot. This was consistent during the match.
At the end of this 2 and a half hour race to seven (it was probably closer to 3 hours and there were a total of 11 racks played in the match) the losing player congratulated the victor, but also mentioned to the victor that he should probably increase the pace of his game.
The victor of course said that it was a case of sour grapes and that he was just being a bad loser.

What should the loser have done? Bearing in mind that threats to be "put on the clock", were mentioned at the beginning of the tournament, but I have never seen it enforced.
Click to expand...

This is completely the fault of the TD. The TD's job is not to just assign matches. It's to moniter them as well. The TD should have noticed that this one match was falling behind the others and should have sent someone or gone himself to time the time between shots. If play was too slow he should have then issued a warning followed by either disciplinary action or, if it's the policy, put the match on a shot clock.

The TD's job is to protect the players by staying alert and aware. It doesn't matter whether or not the slow player is a nice person and isn't doing it intentionally. This kind of thing hurts an entire tournament and puts a number of matches way behind schedule and can delay the tournament for hours. That can lead to the tournament going much later than expected and cause inconvenience to the players and the room owner.

It's unfortunate when a slow play issue winds up resting in the hands of the opponent, who has done nothing wrong, to do something about it. I react in different ways when it happens to me, depending on how I feel at the time. Sometimes I will stop the game and alert the TD. I'm sorry if it hurts my opponent's feelings but it's unfair to play so slow and that player doesn't belong in a tournament until he learns to play at a more reasonable pace.
 
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I heard in the canadian championship a match race to 7 in 9 ball took like 4+ hours. lol
 
Usually you would take the issue to the TD. Some folks try this tactic to get you upset or to mentally get you out of your game. I have no issues with a guy/gal taking a little longer on a particular shot or situation, but to play slow on every shot is totally unacceptable. Couple of years ago in Vegas my team was playing a match and when we started pulling ahead, the other team really really slowed down play to try and throw us off our game. Went to the Ref and told him they were playing slow. His response was if I put them on the clock, you are on the clock as well. I told him to come on down and lets get it over. Also told him the next match was going to be delayed by a couple of hours at the pace we were going. He watched the other team slow play for a little bit, agreed they were God awful slow, and put the match on the shot clock. No regrets at all. I have no issues immediately taking slow play to the TD or ref and being put on a shot clock. Seen it happen more than once in the Pro tourneys as well.
 
FranCrimi said:
it's unfair to play so slow and that player doesn't belong in a tournament until he learns to play at a more reasonable pace.
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I agree with Fran here. Many venues simply cannot afford to allow a tournament to go longer than it's scheduled for. I don't think shot-clocks are the answer though. To put one in place, the tournament would need to employ a larger staff which cuts directly into the prize fund. What's more, it penalizes both players in all situations, including situations that warrant extra time.

I think it's a tricky thing to address but if you have a player that is obviously playing too slow, they should be warned that continuation of excessive slow play could result in penalties up to and including elimination from the tournament. If a guy takes five minutes to size up a three shot sequence of hangers, he should just get kicked out of the event.
 
If you were watching Edwin's match, then yes, Eric was unacceptably slow. 3 minutes for a straight-in on the side pocket. What was worse is that each time Edwin shot toward him, Eric would twitch and dance around, shuffle his feet, move his chair, anything and everything to try to shark him.

There was a warning at the start of the match when Eric just vanished, and it was mentioned again near the end of it. One of the refs also had words with him.
 
I haven't had it happen during a tournament...but have had it happen during a league match. The guy was consistently taking on avg 5 minutes for every shot...didn't matter if it was hard or easy. After a few games, not only was my team members grumbling, but so were his team members.

I finally decided enough was enough and gave him a pre-shot clock warning. He threw his cue down and advanced on me. Both teams got in the middle, because it was obvious this guy was coming to take me out. It was so bad that the co-captain walked off her team in disgust of his actions.

I found out about 6 months later that this same guy got into a disagreement with another player at a different location. He grabbed up a CB, put it in a sock and damn near beat his opponent to death! He is now doing time at the state prison.

I have found that, sadly, at most tournaments, the TD does very little in actually policing the games being played...so if you're counting on a TD to address the issue on his own...it's not likely to happen. It is up to the player being excessively delayed to say something to the TD while it is taking place...doesn't do much good after the fact.
 
ridewiththewind said:
I found out about 6 months later that this same guy got into a disagreement with another player at a different location. He grabbed up a CB, put it in a sock and damn near beat his opponent to death! He is now doing time at the state prison.
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I think I know who you are talking about...........but I heard he beat the guy half to death with a cueball because of a cheating girlfriend.......would like to hear the whole story. Guy was a pretty good pool player but damn did he have a temper, lol
 
Ghosst said:
If you were watching Edwin's match, then yes, Eric was unacceptably slow. 3 minutes for a straight-in on the side pocket. What was worse is that each time Edwin shot toward him, Eric would twitch and dance around, shuffle his feet, move his chair, anything and everything to try to shark him.

There was a warning at the start of the match when Eric just vanished, and it was mentioned again near the end of it. One of the refs also had words with him.
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I saw this match, and Eric was weird! I remember (first or second rack) Edwin was on the 8 in the corner facing Eric. Eric sat there somewhat still, but just as Edwin was cocking back to pull the trigger, he waved his cue. His antics were way out of line!
dave
 
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