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Snooker lacking new talent?

Postby snooker_loopy

Aside from Judd Trump's rise up the rankings in the last four years - not much or any new (lower ranked players) challenging for major or even lesser titles. Bit worrying, perhaps? I dunno, just seems there's no major talent coming up to rival the current top 16. The Chinese invasion of snooker hasn't amounted to much neither. Only Ding is a major contender for titles.

Snooker does need a new major talented teenager to give current players a run for their money! Not sure he exists but you never know what is around the corner....

Re: Snooker lacking new talent?

Postby Andre147

snooker_loopy wrote:Aside from Judd Trump's rise up the rankings in the last four years - not much or any new (lower ranked players) challenging for major or even lesser titles. Bit worrying, perhaps? I dunno, just seems there's no major talent coming up to rival the current top 16. The Chinese invasion of snooker hasn't amounted to much neither. Only Ding is a major contender for titles.

Snooker does need a new major talented teenager to give current players a run for their money! Not sure he exists but you never know what is around the corner....


The best talent for me out there is definately Luca Brecel, after his heroics at the Worlds and UK 2012 I thought he would push on and by now I would have thought he would be like in the Top 20 or close to Top 16 and be a regular at venues and gaining more and more exprience.

It still hasn't turned out that way bcause I think he lacks practice with the top players, that's the only way he can really improve on his game, becuase often you seem him rush shots he shouldn't, his safety pay leaves much to be desired and his Snooker escape attempts for instance seem very casual and not much thinking is put into it.

Of course there are other talents out like Michael White, Xiao Goudong for instance but these only have the odd good result, they never challenge the Big boys on a regular basis.

Re: Snooker lacking new talent?

Postby AC or LT?

Too many distractions for the younger guys. In the 80s spending 8-10 hours in a snooker hall would have been appealing to young professionals nowadays snake hissing about on twitter and splashing their little winnings on stupid flash items is more appealing, not to mention whereas years ago there'd be 2-3 months between events which left a good amount of time to balance families and snooker nowadays there's barely enough time between tournaments to squeeze in families. It's going to take someone beyond obsessed with the game and willing to shun modern distractions to become a new snooker superstar in this era, and it's unlikely that will happen in the next few years. If it does, we're sorted though. Also, young players need substantial financial backing these days to compete and lose, never mind win, not all of them have it.

Re: Snooker lacking new talent?

Postby SnookerFan

AC or LT? wrote:Too many distractions for the younger guys. In the 80s spending 8-10 hours in a snooker hall would have been appealing to young professionals nowadays snake hissing about on twitter and splashing their little winnings on stupid flash items is more appealing, not to mention whereas years ago there'd be 2-3 months between events which left a good amount of time to balance families and snooker nowadays there's barely enough time between tournaments to squeeze in families. It's going to take someone beyond obsessed with the game and willing to shun modern distractions to become a new snooker superstar in this era, and it's unlikely that will happen in the next few years. If it does, we're sorted though. Also, young players need substantial financial backing these days to compete and lose, never mind win, not all of them have it.


Those distractions are there for any young sportsperson.

Though, I guess some sports are seen as more glamorous. Loads of kids still want to be footballers. Many may be doing it for the correct reasons, but I'm sure a lot aren't. It's not just for the money, but also because we're in a celebrity obsessed culture and they see these footballers with their chavvy wags who would do anything for them just to be seen on the arm of a famous sports star, and they think; "I'll have some of that."

I guess snooker doesn't have the same glamour. It's all hard work, and trying to get through qualifying. Unless you're not continually getting to the semis, finals or winning tournaments, the success may be less obvious to the mainstream.

Re: Snooker lacking new talent?

Postby KrazeeEyezKilla

I'm not sure why the constantly predicted Asian Invasion hasn't really happened but it's pretty funny thinking back to how in 2004 people said half the Top 16 would be Chinese by 2014 <laugh>

I think the main reason for the lack of young players today is down to the decline in Snookers popularity during the 00's. Someone who is 18-22 now would have been 8-12 in 2005 when Snooker was reaching it's lowest point with Tournaments being dropped and sponsors leaving. I'd imagine the number of children into Snooker was a lot lower than a decade earlier when I was a child and I knew loads of people who watched Snooker and had them little Pot Black tables. It would have been even bigger a decade before that. When they aired a 25th Anniversary documentary on Taylor-Davis both O'Sullivan and Williams were on it as they were both children watching it at the time. It's no coincidence that the biggest influx of young talent into the sport was during the 90's and made up of 80's children. Snooker has recovered a fair bit in the last few years and eventually Asia and Mainland Europe will slowly start to produce more top players. In 7-8 years time when Selby, Robertson, Murphy etc. are hitting 40 and O'Sullivan and Higgins are close to 50 there could a flood of players similar to 30 years earlier and there will be a couple of lost generations with a small enough number of top players from them.

Re: Snooker lacking new talent?

Postby TheSaviour

Yes, it is lacking a bit. It doesn´t help when some GUINEA PIGS here on the sites do write yet again some incredible garbage about snooker and refuses to see snooker simply as a sport and a game. You need to see the origins of the game.