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Ssb - you can be serious
Yesterday’s one frame ‘rematch’ between Dennis Taylor and Steve Davis to mark the 25th anniversary of their 1985 world final was an hilarious occasion which entertained a packed Crucible before the semi-finals got underway.
Taylor and Davis wore microphones and made gag after gag as they slugged their way through the frame.
At the end, they attempted to re-enact the shots on the black. Taylor inadvertently potted all the blacks he had missed 25 years ago before missing the one he so famously potted.
Davis potted the black he famously missed.
It was a fun exhibition but anyone who looks at it and then says ‘why can’t the modern players be more like that?’ needs to get real.
Go back and watch the deciding frame from 1985. There was no laughing and joking there.
Snooker at the highest level is a serious business. Careers, indeed whole lives, are made or broken by what happens on the Crucible floor.
Mark Selby has been landed with the ‘Jester from Leicester’ nickname but in reality this amounts to little more than the odd smile and occasional quip.
Quite rightly too. To play top level snooker you have to concentrate hard. This isn’t Friday night at Jongleurs, it’s the World Championship. For the same reason Roger Federer doesn’t drop pithy bon mots before launching down an ace at Wimbledon, the players need to focus on their game.
Of course, many people will claim that in the good old days EVERY SINGLE PLAYER peppered EVERY SINGLE MATCH with a litany of one liners that would have shown up Oscar Wilde.
Snooker was a serious business then, it’s a serious business now.
The best way the players can entertain is to play good snooker. They can leave the zingers for the exhibition circuit and shouldn't be criticised for approaching their sport with the same professionalism those in other sports do.
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Taylor and Davis wore microphones and made gag after gag as they slugged their way through the frame.
At the end, they attempted to re-enact the shots on the black. Taylor inadvertently potted all the blacks he had missed 25 years ago before missing the one he so famously potted.
Davis potted the black he famously missed.
It was a fun exhibition but anyone who looks at it and then says ‘why can’t the modern players be more like that?’ needs to get real.
Go back and watch the deciding frame from 1985. There was no laughing and joking there.
Snooker at the highest level is a serious business. Careers, indeed whole lives, are made or broken by what happens on the Crucible floor.
Mark Selby has been landed with the ‘Jester from Leicester’ nickname but in reality this amounts to little more than the odd smile and occasional quip.
Quite rightly too. To play top level snooker you have to concentrate hard. This isn’t Friday night at Jongleurs, it’s the World Championship. For the same reason Roger Federer doesn’t drop pithy bon mots before launching down an ace at Wimbledon, the players need to focus on their game.
Of course, many people will claim that in the good old days EVERY SINGLE PLAYER peppered EVERY SINGLE MATCH with a litany of one liners that would have shown up Oscar Wilde.
Snooker was a serious business then, it’s a serious business now.
The best way the players can entertain is to play good snooker. They can leave the zingers for the exhibition circuit and shouldn't be criticised for approaching their sport with the same professionalism those in other sports do.
More...
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