N_Castle07 wrote:Selby can adapt his game to the situation he is in. If the other player is playing really well Selby can slow the match up and slow the other player down. Unlike a lot of players Selby can adjust his game and make the other player want to hang themselves. This is a great factor to his game IMO and although it is not always entertaining to watch at times it is the reason why he is so consistent. There is a lot of negative criticism in today’s game about these tactics mainly because of Ronnie’s comments on Ebdon/Selby but there is nothing in the rules to say you can’t play this way (we all do it down the pub playing pool when the other player is flying) Raydon was the master of this kind of play and won 6 World titles.
1. The only comment Ronnie made about Ebdon after that infamous match was that "he did what he had to do to win".
2. The last "complaints" about Selby's slow play comes from Ding and it's related to their semi last Saturday. So that's rather fresh innit? and totaly unrelated to ROS.
3. Section 4.1 of the rules deems "unecessary slow play" as ungentlemanly conduct insofar it is dealt with in the same rule as general "ugentlemanly behaviour" and that the ref is entitled to take the same actions: warn the player at first offence, dock him a frame at second and dock him the match at third . So it's in the rules. The real problem is that it is very difficult to enforce and therefore is never enforced.
I'm not saying that Selby does it systematically or that any slow pace is ungentlemanly conduct. Obviously some situations do ask for a lot of thinking time and pressure does play it's role. But in my opinion Selby has been guilty of this on certain occasions and not just against ROS.
He's never done it to the extend Ebdon does though. In the 2011 Masters, against Carter , he was on an
average shot time of 57 seconds at a point during the match. That's twice what Selby and ROS had during their very tense 2009 Masters final that featured top drawer safeties from both. So if anyone can explain to me how that can be justified and "necessary" I'm listening.