Speed it up ...

twiddle hearn off with a JCB perhaps? That was one of Wilds more colourful methods of dealing with ragamuffins

SnookerFan wrote:

Wild wrote:

Witz78 wrote:"According to The Guardian, Hearn sees Power Snooker as "an element of the WPBSA's ongoing attempt to overhaul the sport and introduce it to new audiences". Hearn stated on the launch that "We are 100% behind Power Snooker. In this new time for World Snooker, it is important for us to embrace new formats and new ideas", stating that he believed it would bring new audiences and fans to snooker"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_Snooker

over my dead body will that rubbish get any bucking air time....

im going to shoot that bucking crap down thats for sure

You always come out with this stuff, Wild. But out of interest, what would you do to propose to do about it? Say it was announced that Barry Hearn was launching another Power Snooker event, what would your plan to prevent that from getting air time? I'm just interested.

buck knows yet but that rubbish will never happen i promise you

http://www.dailystar.co.uk/othersport/v ... m-snooker/?

NEIL ROBERTSON wants to see snooker’s grinders flushed away.

The Aussie begins the defence of his Betfred.com World Championship title at The Crucible, Sheffield, tomorrow.

He takes on rising star Judd Trump, 21, winner of the China Open a fortnight ago.

And world No.5 Robbo is sick of plodding potters sending fans to sleep and interrupting matches for phony toilet breaks.

Robertson, 29, said: “My mindset will be to go out and play all my shots.

“It could be a faster tournament with the emphasis on speed and entertainment. Referees need to be more on the ball about slow play. I’ve lost a couple of times where it has been ridiculous.

“I have been sitting there while they made a 30 break and Ronnie O’Sullivan would have had back-to-back centuries in that time.

“In China I played a match where I made a framewinning break in six minutes, then my opponent goes to the toilet for 10 minutes. Why is it allowed?

“I walked in to a toilet once and there was another player just sitting in there, doing nothing, biding his time and chilling out.”

To win the £250,000 first prize again, Robertson will have to end a Crucible curse – no first-time winner has ever successfully defended the blue riband trophy.

But he insisted: “The pressure is on people like Mark Selby and Ding Junhui, who haven’t won it.”

The bit about toilet breaks made me smile I must confess because Neil is not known for speeding those up ;). Also not all longish toilet breaks are due to "chilling out" ... there are the ones who get lost on their ways to or from the loo (Liang ;) )...
Other than that, this coming after Ding's comments in China, shows that the younger players, the top ones, are behind Hearn on this. It's not about not taking the necessary thinking time when the situation requires it. It's about getting rid of something that is against the rules (section 4.1) but is rarely punished because the refs feel uneasy to do so.

Toilet breaks yes. Slower players, get over it.

Listen I'm a fast player myself but I learnt the most from practicing with a slower player who was always playing mind games with me. He taught me the most out of everyone I've ever played.

The more some players moan about slower players, the more if I was playing them I would take my time because I know it gets under their skin.

The most important thing is though, if you have a clock telling you play a shot in a certain time, it stops you thinking clearly and instead of considering the shot you're worrying about running out of time and you're not even thinking about the shot. I've practiced and pretended I've got 20 seconds to think of a shot and it makes my head explode.

As I've said many times, if they introduce a shot clock in snooker for good, then I walk away and go do something else.

There is no mention of a shot clock in this article whatsoever. It's a call for referees to take their responsibilities and punish a conduct that is against the rules as they are now. You have interviewed Graeme Dott and he certainly doesn't like it neither when players take unnecessary long to play a shot. It usually bogs both players game down and does make for poor viewing.

Yes I know the shot clock wasn't mentioned but at the end of the day snooker has always had players like this and 20 years ago they were household favourites and now suddenly they are killing the game. I'm sorry but if you have a natural rhythm then you should be allowed to play to it.

If you are hiding in the toilets like Robbo suggests or if you are blatantly making a meal of easy shots like Rory McLeod does then yes the referee should intervene but there is far far too much talk of slow players at the moment for some reason. It's as if the faster snooker players think they have a right to remove the players they don't like to play from the game and I'm sorry but that's just tough and it's not going to happen. Get on with it and play your own game.

I actually agree with this: players should play to their natural rhythm. I think that players like Neil or Ding react because the situation has been abused - and I've no doubts that it has been abused - and they want this to stop. Rightly IMO.
It's a natural human trend. When something isn't right, the reaction can sometimes push the trend overly to the opposite direction. I'm not asking for that. But the rules should be enforced and I'm glad to see players coming out of the bushes now and express their views. Something they never did under the old regime (bar one exception ;) ).

Monique wrote:http://www.dailystar.co.uk/othersport/view/186242/Neil-Robertson-Flush-out-the-cheats-from-snooker/?

NEIL ROBERTSON wants to see snooker’s grinders flushed away.

The Aussie begins the defence of his Betfred.com World Championship title at The Crucible, Sheffield, tomorrow.

He takes on rising star Judd Trump, 21, winner of the China Open a fortnight ago.

And world No.5 Robbo is sick of plodding potters sending fans to sleep and interrupting matches for phony toilet breaks.

Robertson, 29, said: “My mindset will be to go out and play all my shots.

“It could be a faster tournament with the emphasis on speed and entertainment. Referees need to be more on the ball about slow play. I’ve lost a couple of times where it has been ridiculous.

“I have been sitting there while they made a 30 break and Ronnie O’Sullivan would have had back-to-back centuries in that time.

“In China I played a match where I made a framewinning break in six minutes, then my opponent goes to the toilet for 10 minutes. Why is it allowed?

“I walked in to a toilet once and there was another player just sitting in there, doing nothing, biding his time and chilling out.”

To win the £250,000 first prize again, Robertson will have to end a Crucible curse – no first-time winner has ever successfully defended the blue riband trophy.

But he insisted: “The pressure is on people like Mark Selby and Ding Junhui, who haven’t won it.”

The bit about toilet breaks made me smile I must confess because Neil is not known for speeding those up ;). Also not all longish toilet breaks are due to "chilling out" ... there are the ones who get lost on their ways to or from the loo (Liang ;) )...
Other than that, this coming after Ding's comments in China, shows that the younger players, the top ones, are behind Hearn on this. It's not about not taking the necessary thinking time when the situation requires it. It's about getting rid of something that is against the rules (section 4.1) but is rarely punished because the refs feel uneasy to do so.

Its all mind game and adds to the drama so a longer toliet break is no big deal IMO

Sonny wrote:Yes I know the shot clock wasn't mentioned but at the end of the day snooker has always had players like this and 20 years ago they were household favourites and now suddenly they are killing the game. I'm sorry but if you have a natural rhythm then you should be allowed to play to it.

If you are hiding in the toilets like Robbo suggests or if you are blatantly making a meal of easy shots like Rory McLeod does then yes the referee should intervene but there is far far too much talk of slow players at the moment for some reason. It's as if the faster snooker players think they have a right to remove the players they don't like to play from the game and I'm sorry but that's just tough and it's not going to happen. Get on with it and play your own game.

all it comes back to same as the miss rule Referees are rubbish scared to make judgement calls and therefore not doing their job properly in my view.

i have no problem with slow play even tactical slow play but i also have no problem with referees using their discretion and using their own judgement what is right and wrong for them as individuals.

i done tknow why certain players getting up their own baboons shiny behinds disapponted in neil as has been mentioned hes no stranger to toilet breaks and he slowed his game down accordingly to suit and has been rewarded with the world title

some players and fans need to get over it and joining the bandwagon isnt helping i remember in the eighties average frame time was about twenty minutes yet jimmy when on a run would reel off three or four frames inside half an hour i never heard him compaining that players have to speed up same with ronnie hes got a gift hes bloody good at the game when in full flow but hes different robertson shouldnt be comparing slow players to him one of the reasons i love snooker is because of the contrasts variations different styles different match ups etc

if people want fast entertaining cue sports i suggest they go watch pool and leave the game of snooker alone i love the mind game aspect of snooker people say well it in the rules already that referees should use their own discretion if they think the player is playing excessively slowly

i say bullocks to applying that rule how the flying buck would the referee be able to differentiate between excessive slow play and a player being slow anyway or shots that require a lot of thinking time ? the referees have to learn all the rules doesnt mean that they played the game at a pro level anyone can memorise all the rules of the game

and if a player is warned then that will change the dynamics of the whole game next time the player has to think over a shot he will have it in the back of his mind he needs to hurry up and it does the game no favours again those that think snooker should be speeded up but are in love with the game go and stick to pool ha

Is this the same Neil Robertson who used the toilet break tatic against Gould at last years Worlds?

Seems a few players want it speeding up a bit, but the ref telling a player to do so should only be done in extreame cases and the only one I can think of was Edbon THAT night. I have never thought to myself any other time, the ref should be stepping in here. A lot of players knock themselves out of a rhythm anyway, only for their opponent to benefit.

onlyevertonjon wrote:Is this the same Neil Robertson who used the toilet break tatic against Gould at last years Worlds?

Seems a few players want it speeding up a bit, but the ref telling a player to do so should only be done in extreame cases and the only one I can think of was Edbon THAT night. I have never thought to myself any other time, the ref should be stepping in here. A lot of players knock themselves out of a rhythm anyway, only for their opponent to benefit.

i had no problem with ebdon that night

BUT

i agree the majority of times its because its a tricky shot and their nerves is holding them back from going for it where as ebdon was obviously getting at Ronnie and it worked perfectly.

All I can say is that it would be lovely to be able to choose what style of player you'll go up against but that's not snooker.

As a professional player you need to be able to deal with all types of players, not just the ones that you like.

If you can't deal with a slower player that's a weakness on your part, not the slower player.

im sure a lot dont like to play against fast players you could be 3-0 down in 30 minutes feeling like your not in a match.

it takes all sort of styles and speeds to make snooker exciting.