No, there was a different. Peach won it in 2007, but everybody was doing that bird break. I remember Bustamante doing it as well as all the other players that year. It was kind of funny to see such a weak break, kind of like the break you'd do at a carnival on a gaffe table.
Not sure, but this break does sometimes leave a "touching ball" situation, in which case the breaker usually gets the worst of it.
There have always been tinkering with the rules...how else do things get improved?
Snooker has one flaw in its rules. If you pot a red on a foul, the red stays down and your opponent gets 4 points. It should be 8 points. This doesn't impact the game often enough for it to be a major flaw. There are no other flaws. The miss rule is open to interpretation and is therefore not a well thought out rule, but this is a different issue and is a akin to the referee judging "push" shots in pool.
Right, it's a relatively easy four railer to the top cushion.
The below copied from Ronnie's wiki page just to refresh recent memory:
#2? So there's obviously room for improvement.
The other point that came up is the lag break keeps the black in play. So rather than creating more scrappy frames, it may actually reduce them.#2? So there's obviously room for improvement.
At recent events he has been fiddling with things. He changed the way he stepped into the shot for a tournament or two but he's back to his old way. And he did try the soft break. And not practicing. He also is still working on his mental approach. He seems to have abandoned the Australian accent, fortunately.
As for the main topic, Hendry pointed out in commentary that he was really against the lag break when it reappeared -- it was previously used at times by Alex Higgins, Cliff Thorburn and even Steve Davis -- but it seems to not be a big issue because within a few shots normal service is resumed. In his match with Selby today, Mark Allen was punished for a pretty good break off by Selby potting a long red which resulted in a single-visit win. I think the players will now be noticing all the times that happens to them and they will be tempted to try the "MW" break off.
And ten minutes ago, Yan Bingtao played a pretty good standard break off against Shaun Murphy but left the cue ball eight inches off the rail. Murphy potted the long red and got a 144 and the lead for high break so far in the Championship.
Have you ever seen that done in straight pool, Bob?
I've seen it, but an opening break that results in all fifteen balls in the stack ending up together doesn't win the opening safety battle as the back-scratch response will always be available.
I've manipulated the rack to make it happen. It's impossible if the back row is tight. I've never seen it in the wild.
Hard to argue the results, but we always attempted to park the CB behind the green/yellow. Better served to leave a couple out of the cluster and force the opponent into a very return difficult safety.
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