Modern Professional Era - When did it start ? Your thoughts

[Pauloslam]

I have been putting together as many results and info from Professional Tournements as I can find for some time now. I have no plans to do anything amazing with the info other than use it for my own enjoyment and thirst for knowledge of the real 'beautiful game'. I have been mainly concentrating on working backwards through the years, and filling up what I can. As you can imagine there are some huge gaps, but I am now coming to the point where I need to decide a stopping point.

Sorry if this dissapoints some of the real true historians out there but I don't really want to go back too far and therefore I have decided to choose one of either two seasons for my starting point either 1976/77 as the first Crucible Championship or 1968/69 as the start of tournament World Champs rather than the old Challenge System ? Are either of these thought to be a defined start of the Modern Professional Snooker Era ?

Let me know what you think.................

Having only joined TSF a few weeks ago i'm hoping that the forum and its members will be able to fill in many of my numerous gaps in information.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

pauloslam

[AndrewB]

I'd say 1968-9, definitely.

[ademi]

I think it started when players start playing with both hands

[Cyril]

1969 to me.

World Championships restored to knock-out format and the start of Pot Black.

[spike]

1977/1978 for me. 1977 being the year that the Championship found it's new home the Crucible Theatre. 1978 turned out to be a pivotal year in Snooker and the World Championship, which the BBC covered from first ball to last for the very first time..

[wildJONESEYE]

Modern Snooker started in Belfast on 18th of March 1949.

[circle]

1977/1978 for me. 1977 being the year that the Championship found it's new home the Crucible Theatre. 1978 turned out to be a pivotal year in Snooker and the World Championship, which the BBC covered from first ball to last for the very first time..

Indeed, but this would then mean that snookers post modern era began in 1991 - when the game was opened up to anyone - as the closed shop which existed before this was a sham because the top amateurs were superior to a significant proportion of the world ranked professionals.

[david16]

The same player barely dropping a frame tournament in tournament out year after year was always unlikely past the 3 or 4 year transition since the game opened up to many more players in 1991. Hendry suddenly lost a few qualifying matches early in 1991/2, the potential of those players caught him off guard so early in the season when for seasons before hand he barely looked under any threat against the lower ranked players of the closed era. Hendry wasn't the only one who suffered a few surprising early season defeats that never looked possible previously in the closed era. Many of these closed era professionals were being replaced by the new breed all the time, and by 1996 most of them who were once ranked 20 downwards in the closed era were forced to retire. Also by 1996 the famous golden oldies of the closed era who were once a staple diet inside the top 16, almost all of them were just scraping a top 32 place or were outside the top 32.

If the game had opened up in 1988 Griffiths would not have made the 1992 world semi final. And Thorburn and Taylor would not have all been in the top 8 along with Griffiths up until the mid 1990's all well in their 40's.

Can anybody truly say that Cliff Wilson late 1980's or Steve Newbury and Steve Longworth were better than the same ranked players 10 to 15 years later.

The now Stephen Hendry is still better than Griffiths of the same age in 1992.

[wildJONESEYE]

The same player barely dropping a frame tournament in tournament out year after year was always unlikely past the 3 or 4 year transition since the game opened up to many more players in 1991. Hendry suddenly lost a few qualifying matches early in 1991/2, the potential of those players caught him off guard so early in the season when for seasons before hand he barely looked under any threat against the lower ranked players of the closed era. Hendry wasn't the only one who suffered a few surprising early season defeats that never looked possible previously in the closed era. Many of these closed era professionals were being replaced by the new breed all the time, and by 1996 most of them who were once ranked 20 downwards in the closed era were forced to retire. Also by 1996 the famous golden oldies of the closed era who were once a staple diet inside the top 16, almost all of them were just scraping a top 32 place or were outside the top 32.

If the game had opened up in 1988 Griffiths would not have made the 1992 world semi final. And Thorburn and Taylor would not have all been in the top 8 along with Griffiths up until the mid 1990's all well in their 40's.

Can anybody truly say that Cliff Wilson late 1980's or Steve Newbury and Steve Longworth were better than the same ranked players 10 to 15 years later.

The now Stephen Hendry is still better than Griffiths of the same age in 1992.

the Griffiths of 1997 almost beat mark Williams the former Welsh Open champion at the crucible it went 10-9 Williams.

[AndrewB]

The same player barely dropping a frame tournament in tournament out year after year was always unlikely past the 3 or 4 year transition since the game opened up to many more players in 1991. Hendry suddenly lost a few qualifying matches early in 1991/2, the potential of those players caught him off guard so early in the season when for seasons before hand he barely looked under any threat against the lower ranked players of the closed era. Hendry wasn't the only one who suffered a few surprising early season defeats that never looked possible previously in the closed era. Many of these closed era professionals were being replaced by the new breed all the time, and by 1996 most of them who were once ranked 20 downwards in the closed era were forced to retire. Also by 1996 the famous golden oldies of the closed era who were once a staple diet inside the top 16, almost all of them were just scraping a top 32 place or were outside the top 32.

If the game had opened up in 1988 Griffiths would not have made the 1992 world semi final. And Thorburn and Taylor would not have all been in the top 8 along with Griffiths up until the mid 1990's all well in their 40's.

Thorburn and Taylor weren't in the top 8 until the mid 1990s. They both dropped out of the top 8 for the last time in 1990.

Hendry's 3 early losses in 1991/2 were against Warren King, Joe Swail and Mark Johnston-Allen, so only 1 of them was against a new professional.

[mattyshinobi22]

Modern Snooker started in Belfast on 18th of March 1949.

yeap agree with that all the way

[gavpowell]

I couldn't pin it down to a particular year but I would say the modern era never truly began until the influence of Joe Davis was at least on the wane - when Higgins won his first title the game was still emerging from the shadows of essentially being a gentleman's game rather than a professional sport in the true sense, so I would say mid to late-seventies, Reardon and Higgins being sort of the bridges between the old and the new game.

[wildJONESEYE]

I couldn't pin it down to a particular year but I would say the modern era never truly began until the influence of Joe Davis was at least on the wane - when Higgins won his first title the game was still emerging from the shadows of essentially being a gentleman's game rather than a professional sport in the true sense, so I would say mid to late-seventies, Reardon and Higgins being sort of the bridges between the old and the new game.

1969 WC Heralded the start of modern snooker but along the ways there's been other milestones

1972 when the exciting new world acording to higgins started
1973 when the BBC on the back of the higgins win in 1972 showed a bit of the World Final
1976 when embassy started their sponsership
1977 when they moved to the crucible
1980 when a young Steve Davis came on the scene with a UK Win
1985 that black ball final
1987 when Hendry came on the scene with intent to blow it apart
1991 when the sport went open and heralded the younger stars like Ronnie and Higgins.

[tommygunner1309]

For me it was Steve Davis. Prior to the Nugget, most players put the emphasis on the tactical game. Being able to play safe was paramount. Steve took it into the new world, where break building became the major factor.

Alex Higgins of course was a phenomena. He was different to everyone else in almost every aspect of the game. He had so much head and body movement on his shots it was a wonder he could pot anything. But he did and was brilliant with it, but his game wouldn't I believe survive today. He would still do well, because of his amazing potting ability, but I think the likes of Williams, Higgins and Hendry in his heyday would see him off. Again, of course, its all a matter of opinion.

[spike]

For me it was Steve Davis. Prior to the Nugget, most players put the emphasis on the tactical game. Being able to play safe was paramount. Steve took it into the new world, where break building became the major factor.

Alex Higgins of course was a phenomena. He was different to everyone else in almost every aspect of the game. He had so much head and body movement on his shots it was a wonder he could pot anything. But he did and was brilliant with it, but his game wouldn't I believe survive today. He would still do well, because of his amazing potting ability, but I think the likes of Williams, Higgins and Hendry in his heyday would see him off. Again, of course, its all a matter of opinion.

Alex Higgins would have competed in any era....i have no doubt about that..