John Higgins In A Spin

Good for Higgins.

Higgins on Selby’s 4th:

“It was unbelievable seeing Mark win it for a fourth time. To win four titles out of the last eight years is incredible. That is an amazing achievement when you think that the standard has never been higher. Is he the best player ever to pick up a cue? You have to ask that question now. With the standard as tough as it is, for him to win four is fantastic. He is so hard to play over that amount of frames”

Was he drunk?!

SnookerEd25 wrote:

Prop wrote:Higgins on Selby’s 4th:

“It was unbelievable seeing Mark win it for a fourth time. To win four titles out of the last eight years is incredible. That is an amazing achievement when you think that the standard has never been higher. Is he the best player ever to pick up a cue? You have to ask that question now. With the standard as tough as it is, for him to win four is fantastic. He is so hard to play over that amount of frames”

Was he drunk?!

Probably. 'standard has never been higher' is an oft trotted out cliché, but for me it's just not true at the moment which is the main reason the likes of himself and Willo and several others who should be long gone from the upper echelons of the game at least, are still able to contend on a regular basis.

In fact, I believe it is the reason Selby has won four out of the last eight titles, due to the dip in standard. I think had his peak been in the first decade of the 21st century, he'd have likely won one - much like Peter Ebdon, the player he most resembles (style-wise)

Can’t argue with that, Ed. I’ve also wondered whether this played a small part in Hendry thinking “I’ll have a bit of that, while the competition isn’t so strong”. It must have been a factor in his decision.

It’s a bit of a funny one, gauging the standard. One metric off the top of my head - Crucible tons - seems to increase every year, yet at the same time I can’t help feeling that 15-25 years ago I witnessed snooker of a ‘finer quality’, for want of a better phrase. I suppose that’s easily explained with the dubious pocket cuts, but it’s not just Crucible centuries that are increasing. Most players are scoring more heavily in general now. But still, while I can’t put my finger on why, I agree that today’s snooker doesn’t seem quite as high quality as it once was.