Ronnie O'Sullivan/9-Ball

[Island Drive]

I find it kinda surprising, yet NOT but how often have we heard about the middle east and the Pinoy's dominating (or even trying) the Snooker scene, I wonder why none (could be wrong) want 'to play' with the "UK".:thumbup:
The $Money's$ Good.

 

[jay helfert]

I find it kinda surprising, yet NOT but how often have we heard about the middle east and the Pinoy's dominating (or even trying) the Snooker scene, I wonder why none (could be wrong) want 'to play' with the "UK".:thumbup:
The $Money's$ Good.

As good as they play, they would have NO chance against the top Brits. Now if you put some 6x12's in Manila and let these kids play on them for a few years, no telling what might happen. Manalo was a fairly competitive player at one time. Did you know that?

 

[Cameron Smith]

Just as we ask what makes the phillipino's so dominant in pool you can have the same discussion of the brits and snooker.

Currently there are two non-Uk players, Marco Fu of Hong Kong (learned to play snooker in Canada) and Ding Junhui of China, in the top sixteen this season. This the largest amount of foreign players in the top sixteen since the 80's when 3 Canadians held high rankings (Bill Werbuniuk, Kirk Stevens and of course Cliff Thorburn).

It's also not that easy to get on the main tour. Not just anyone can turn up and play as there is a lengthy qualifying system in place. There are many players in the UK knocking in century breaks on a regular basis and I bet any of them would give the phillipino pool players a tough game on the snooker table.

Finally in regards to money, the prize funds are VERY top heavy. Here is the breakdown for the World Championships

Winner: ?250,000
Runner-up: ?125,000
Semi-finalists: ?52,000
Quarter-finalists: ?22,000
Last 16 (round 2): ?14,000
Last 32 (round 1): ?10,600

Everyone else coming through the qualifying rounds gets nothing. But on the otherhand if you are in the top sixteen, which automatically qualifies you for the last 32 in every ranking tournament, you can go through an entire season without winning a single frame and still come out quite well monitarily.

 

[cmbwsu]

Snooker players amaze me. It is a shame that there aren't that many tables in the US anymore. I can't count the amount of halls that "use to" have them. Sad really.

I enjoy watching snooker. Got some good matches coming up too:

Mon. 16th Feb. to Sun. 22nd Feb. Snooker - Welsh Open
Sun. 15th Mar. to Sat. 21st Mar. Snooker - China Open
Sat. 18th Apr. to Mon. 04th May Snooker - Snooker World Championship

They will be live streamed: http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=128077

 

[Scaramouche]

I finally got a big Sharp and hooked it up to my computer to watch the Snooker Masters last week.

The problem is that you have to find working web feeds, since they are not always on.

The best, at least last week

BBC2
http://atdhe.net/watchtv.php?b=2

http://zh-cn.justin.tv/mordane2

One of the oddities, probably in August
The Northern Ireland Trophy - commentary in Gaelic
Northern Ireland television
http://www.tg4.tv/default.aspx

Calendar of major events
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_sports/snooker/calendar/default.stm

Also see this thread
http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=126797

 

[laser2507]

Ronnie actually came down to practise 9ball in my club, in South East London.

Its funny though with snooker, I once played a huy for money at 9ball and snooker, he was a good snooker player, so we figured we would win 1 each, me at 9ball and him at snooker.

I beat him 9-1 at 9ball then he gave me a 30 start at snooker, I got my highest break of 82 and won - with my Balabushka

 

[metallicane]

I had a blast watching O'Sullivan last year in the World Snooker Championships. It happened to coincide with my trip to Rome and I was able to watch him on the tube each night. My wife wasn't all that thrilled, but it was great for me. I finally started to understand the game too.