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Ssb - record shattered slowly
A 19 year-old snooker record was broken, albeit slowly, at the Australian Open qualifiers in Gloucester last night.
There are few certainties in life but old sweats of the circuit were adamant that the record for the longest ever best of nine frame match would never be beaten.
It was set at the qualifiers for the 1994 British Open by Ian Williamson and Robby Foldvari, two of the most methodical players ever to wield a cue.
Their match was played on three different tables due to over-running into various other sessions and ended after 434 minutes, 12 seconds, or just over seven hours in old money.
Remarkably, this was surpassed in the early hours of this morning by Simon Bedford and Barry Pinches.
Bedford led 4-0. This in itself took three hours but proved, as Churchill might have put it, not to be the end, or the beginning of the end but merely the end of the beginning.
Pinches recovered to force a decider, which Bedford eventually won at just gone 3am.
The match lasted seven hours, 29 minutes and 46 seconds. So basically 450 minutes, beating the old record by just under 16 minutes.
The longest frame was 80 minutes in duration. The average frame time was 50 minutes.
Special mention should go to the referee, Greg Coniglio, who, rumour has it, is now receiving counselling.
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There are few certainties in life but old sweats of the circuit were adamant that the record for the longest ever best of nine frame match would never be beaten.
It was set at the qualifiers for the 1994 British Open by Ian Williamson and Robby Foldvari, two of the most methodical players ever to wield a cue.
Their match was played on three different tables due to over-running into various other sessions and ended after 434 minutes, 12 seconds, or just over seven hours in old money.
Remarkably, this was surpassed in the early hours of this morning by Simon Bedford and Barry Pinches.
Bedford led 4-0. This in itself took three hours but proved, as Churchill might have put it, not to be the end, or the beginning of the end but merely the end of the beginning.
Pinches recovered to force a decider, which Bedford eventually won at just gone 3am.
The match lasted seven hours, 29 minutes and 46 seconds. So basically 450 minutes, beating the old record by just under 16 minutes.
The longest frame was 80 minutes in duration. The average frame time was 50 minutes.
Special mention should go to the referee, Greg Coniglio, who, rumour has it, is now receiving counselling.
More...
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