ATWSC Group E: Fred Davis v Cliff Thorburn

Fred Davis v Cliff Thorburn (Best of 20 frames)
Group: E
Date: November 22
Match: One of six
Match day: One of three
Venue: The Hexagon, Reading, United Kingdom

Vote for which of the two players you think was greater. Vote honestly, and leave your bias out of it. Don’t vote for a player just because you like them, don’t vote against a player just because you dislike them.

Consider the table conditions to be whatever conditions would have the least impact on the result.

You can use your own personal criteria for measuring greatness once it’s free of any bias towards/against (delete as applicable) players you like/dislike (delete as applicable).

I voted for Fred Davis

Bump ongoing match

Bump

Should be close, tactical and thrilling for the conoisseur (casual fans will switch off in their droves)

Not sure which way to go on this one

Will consult the oracle (cuetracker) & vote later...

Fred is in a different league. You need to study his career from the early 30's. He was well and truly a pioneer of snooker. He could also adapt his game to suit any situation whether it be playing conditions or his opponent. Fantastic in defense but really fluent in a break as well. It should be remembered that his peak years were cut short in the mid-50's by the depression of the professional game. Between 1948 and 56 he was an absolute master. Lucky to see his televised 103 in 1960 recently. Took just under six minutes as well - Cliff could never do that.

k

This is a much tougher call than the stats suggest. I think Cliff circa 1977-1988 would have been a good close match against a 1950s Fred. While I have to go for Fred, I wanted deep down to vote for Cliff just to represent the likely closeness of the match that probably would have taken place.

It's matches like this where its going to be difficult to get a vote which ideally matches the quality-power of the two players; where the option is obvious but the score would likely be very close in reality.

LDS wrote:This is a much tougher call than the stats suggest. I think Cliff circa 1977-1988 would have been a good close match against a 1950s Fred. While I have to go for Fred, I wanted deep down to vote for Cliff just to represent the likely closeness of the match that probably would have taken place.

It's matches like this where its going to be difficult to get a vote which ideally matches the quality-power of the two players; where the option is obvious but the score would likely be very close in reality.

Agreed. Davis hammered Selby, in reality it would be a damn good match, and Selby would win some of the time.

I agree, PB. If peak Fred plays peak Thorburn over twenty frames I’d predict a 12-8 or 11-9 score line in Fred’s favour but the nature of this contest will be more one sided.

Davis wins by 11 frames to 2.