"Snooker HotShots (147 Heaven)" presented by Ronnie O'Sullivan

sfleinen

sfleinen

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Folks:

This floated into my Inbox from YouTube, and is a very inspirational view:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=1s6Q9owb7lI

The sometimes irascible, sometimes tempestuous, very unpredictable, but always great Ronnie O'Sullivan is your host, as he walks you through the inspiring bits of history, such as the very first televised 147 (Steve Davis, 1982), the world's fastest 147 (Ronnie himself; 5 minutes, 20 seconds; 1997), 147 near-misses ("147 hell"), Ronnie's selection of 10 historic players he'd want playing for his life, and other interesting nuggets.

The video is just over an hour long, but well worth the time to view.

Click the link, sit back, and enjoy!
-Sean
 
I watched Ronnie's fastest 147 and I thought...what would the time be if he was using Kamui chalk? Nevertheless, 5 minutes and 20 seconds is about the time I finish a 9 ball game...good stuff, thanks for sharing.
 
Such a cool video. The Ken Doherty miss is heartbreaking. If you watch the progression of 147's in competitive play you can see evolving abilities of professionals in the break building department. Early maximums, the players are struggling to stay on the black. Nowadays, although there are missteps of course, the breaks are far more controlled.
 
Cameron Smith said:
Such a cool video. The Ken Doherty miss is heartbreaking. If you watch the progression of 147's in competitive play you can see evolving abilities of professionals in the break building department. Early maximums, the players are struggling to stay on the black. Nowadays, although there are missteps of course, the breaks are far more controlled.
Click to expand...

I could be wrong but I think the reason for that is that the players today practice a lot more, they seem more serious than players of the past. I think that has a lot to do with why Steve Davis dominated the 1980's. He was known for single-minded dedication to practice....the others well, I sense that most of them weren't so serious - Weirbunk, Stevens, Meo, Jimmy White, Higgins.
 
Bobby said:
I could be wrong but I think the reason for that is that the players today practice a lot more, they seem more serious than players of the past. I think that has a lot to do with why Steve Davis dominated the 1980's. He was known for single-minded dedication to practice....the others well, I sense that most of them weren't so serious - Weirbunk, Stevens, Meo, Jimmy White, Higgins.
Click to expand...

Most certainly they are more practice oriented. However that trend was already very prevalent in 90's and todays players are cut above that era as well. But that is certainly a factor.

Players are far more aggressive these days. But they also manage the pack of reds better. As recently as 2006 (I think) commentators were gushing over how Ronnie and Ding were making 50+ breaks in every frame. Nowadays, that's pretty common place. This is due in part to the more aggressive nature of the professional game (it's tough to make lots of big breaks against cagey players), but also their cue ball control is so good it's sometimes shocking when they get out of line. They manage clusters incredibly well too.

It's really the evolution of the game, Steve Davis got them all taking the game seriously as a sport. Stephen Hendry made snooker a more aggressive game and Ronnie O'Sullivan perfected break building tactics. Each time the rest of the players went back to the woodshed meet the challenge. The result is the list of players with 100 century breaks in professional competition is dominated by players from the last 8-10 years.

That's not to say 70's and 80's players suck. They played a much different version of snooker and I believe they were playing on slower cloths which makes it incredibly difficult to get a shot after going into the pack of reds.

So I think it's a bit of both I guess.
 
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Cameron Smith said:
Such a cool video. The Ken Doherty miss is heartbreaking. If you watch the progression of 147's in competitive play you can see evolving abilities of professionals in the break building department. Early maximums, the players are struggling to stay on the black. Nowadays, although there are missteps of course, the breaks are far more controlled.
Click to expand...

Thanks for chiming in, Cameron! Yes, I agree -- the "147 Hell" portion of the video has some heartbreaking moments, like Doherty's miss on the final black -- he really deserved a 147. Ronnie's miss on the final pink in the side (right in front of Hendry) was not unexpected, however -- Ronnie got too lackadaisical (perhaps too cocky?). Either way, that was a very costly miss -- on the tune of £167,000 (£147,000 maximum break prize + £20,000 high break prize).

Also, I agree that break building knowledge has definitely increased over the years. When "milestone" players like Steve Davis, Hendry, or O'Sullivan come along with radical new ways (aggressive tactics), the "book" is essentially rewritten, the tactics studied, and the knowledge becomes assimilated by the collective of up and coming players -- it becomes "the norm."

Very entertaining to watch all of this unfold!
-Sean
 
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