Every format put some players at a disadvantage. Short formats aren't confortable for players who need a few frames to settle. Long formats aren't confortable for players who tend to lack stamina OR aren't of the "steady mechanical type" (that's BTW why Selby hasn't won more of them Sonny
). Shot clock favours a certain set of skilss and, yes it does suit Ronnie, but I can't see why we couldn't have one or two out of some 30 tournaments under that format, whatever the other circumstances. Variety would only bring more fairness.
Now... the rules explicitely state that taking unduly long time over a shot is gamemanship and should be punished. That's crystal clear innit? It IS gamemanship, not a legit tactic to put off your opponent when your snooker isn't up the marks. Now the problem with the rules is that there are no guidelines for the refs and in practical real situation it's very, very rarely applied. The refs don't feel at ease to do so for various reasons: they are afraid to misjudge the difficulty of a shot or the importance of the occasion, they have no idea of the player natural pace or they are afraid to upset the authorities or a top player ... Unless someone comes with a practical, applicable answer to the problem I think that a shot-clock as Phil Yates proposed it would be fine.
Phil proposed a 35 seconds shot clock. That's really plenty of times. And he also proposed a ample provision of timeouts. I don't think that would put anyone at a disadvantage, not even Rory McLeod or Fergal O'Brien (who BTW is slow but certainly not negative). What it would do though is stop the cheats. By cheats I mean the players who deliberately play on the fact that the refs won't be punishing them when they should by the rules.
Let's name some names...
Peter Ebdon in the recent World Open against Ronnie had, at some point, well in the match, an
average shot time of 47 seconds. Now will anyone explain to me how this is justifiable? The slowest players on the tour have average shot times around 25 seconds, pushing the boat 30 in a difficult match ...
Mark Selby, who is by no means a slow player - he topped the PL table the very first year he played in it and went to the final - was taking just below one minute per shot - metronomically - against Ali Carter in the WC 2007 Quarters towards the end of the match. Even for absolutely straightforward shots. He was playing on Ali's fatigue, that's all.
Now this is clearly not acceptable by the rules of snooker.
The day such conducts will be punished I will not ask for shot-clock anymore in ranking events, except for the odd one and for the sake of variety. Until then, I am.