World Championship Snooker thread

[Drico One]

Ali Carter has one ridiculous little walk as he shuffles back to his seat. I'm putting it down to that awful bowel condition that he suffers from. Amazing the silly little things one notices when watching the masters of the green baize.

Drico.

[Undertaker]

I think Jimmy White was as good as, if not a better player than both Hendry and Davis. White wasn't so much flawed, just didn't take it seriously enough. You can't play cards until 8 a.m in the morning, knock back a bottle of vodka and then go play and expect to win against a top player. Getting in at 5 a.m, kipping on a chalet floor with 6 other people then playing at 10 a.m, isn't ideal either lol. White blew it himself and he knows that. I suspect that's why you never hear him moan. Whereas Hendry and Davis were the true professional. Higgins was similar. Carter was right when he said it isn't just about potting balls. Not only is it about match play, it's about preparation. Some players beat themselves. Mark Allen looks like the next in line to combust.

Same with Ronnie. He just doesn't care enough sometimes. He's easily the best player ever to pick up a cue. He's also playing in an era were there is a much stronger field.

If you put the top 16 of all time in a tournament and they just played, i doubt it would be Hendry v Davis in the final. I also doubt players like Joe Johnson wouldn't even get into the top 64 of all time and he's won a World Championship. You have to laugh. sometimes you just can't sum sport up. Let's not even try to figure out how Dennis Taylor won one either. It was more of a shock than when Alex Higgins threatened to have him shot

Does anyone on here play?

[Patrick Bateman]

Not regularly. If I ever get rich I will.....on my own table 24/7.

[Drico One]

Yes, I play. Badly. But I talk a great game. Naturally.

Drico.

[Patrick Bateman]

I was just looking at the stats. Jimmy lost four of his finals to Hendry. I think that's why I never warmed to him. Significant too that it was the final heartbreaking defeat that spelled the end for the Whirlwind. I'll never forget that, and clearly he didn't either. Bloody Hendry. And on such margins does sporting history turn.

It does seem very strange that Jimmy only reached one final in the 1980s.

[Drico One]

Jimmy is loved, though, Hendry merely admired. It's not much consolation, but sport is as much in the heart as it is on the mantelpiece. Jimmy was hugely talented, and he played from the heart rather than the head. It's why Davis always handled him, the ultimate tactician. Stephen didn't have that tactical edge over Jimmy, and so their matches became potting contests. Jimmy could match him at his best - but, fatally, couldn't match his temperament. Being utterly human, Jimmy bottled it. Twice. We love him because we see him as us with ability. There's glory in having a go - and he always had a go - and running into the brick wall that is your own fundamental weakness. Jimmy couldn't get over the line. It was too much for him. But he tried. He was heroic, really. I'd have hung myself in his place.

It also explains why Jimmy slogs away on the circuit today. What's an empty cubicle in the qualifiers at Pontins when you've had to face down your own pathetic inadequacies. In public. Six times. In its own way, that's the real mental strength - the ability to accept your own flaws, to accept yourself. I love Jimmy.

Drico.

[Patrick Bateman]

My ultimate memory of Jimmy is back when I first started watching snooker; probably the year when Higgins beat him in the semi with that clearance. His big moon face sitting there, the Artful Dodger to Davis' Uriah Heep. I have a greater affection for that era in many ways too, just as I kind of prefer football in the 80s (and pop music ). This is of course mainly because it is our first exposure to things but also because it is our childhood which we subsequently mythologise. That's why I find it strange he only made one world final in that decade; he's always been an 80s icon to me yet it appears his true golden age was actually the early 1990s. Davis won it in 1989 then never made the final again so even though he's older than Jimmy, he truly was (as you intimated Drico) symbolically obliterated as a totemic force in 1989 like the Berlin Wall.

[Drico One]

In my mind, Davis is the sporting equivalent of Pet Shop Boys. Both dominated their chosen fields in the 1980s, peaked in the popular consciousness around 1987, arched a knowing eyebrow at their own images, were acquired tastes, thought deeply about their careers, and continued to this day out of a genuine love for what they do rather than any lust for success. I really admire Davis for that, just as I do the PSBs.

If Neil and Chris were Stephen Hendry, they'd have retired in 1993.

But you're right, PB, we do mythologise our formative years. Yet, there was a lot of be sentimental about. I'd sooner be Joe Johnson with my world title and another final appearance 12 months later than any number of Ali Carters. I've no doubt that if we held Undertaker's all-time top 16 tournament, Cliff Thorburn would do well to win a frame. But, Cliff is infinitely greater than Stephen Maguire or Mark Selby. It doesn't need explaining. I mean, imagine making a 147 at the Crucible having snorted half of Colombia the night before. I'm sure that sniffle was just a cold, though.

Of course, only people from our generation can really have that connection via nostalgia for that time. It's like long-time posters on this forum. You mightn't even like some of the buggers you've shared the place with since before the end of the last century, but deep down there's a basic appreciation for them just for being there that long.

Drico.

[Patrick Bateman]

[Patrick Bateman]

I especially love the 1980s because it was the point at which modern technology like personal computers first became prevalent in society. So it seemed like it was the bright new future when it was in reality the end of the past; Thatcherism irrevocably changed the UK for the worse and when I look back at that time there's a strange sense of a world caught between the old and the new which you don't get in any other decade. This may be completely irrelevant to a snooker thread but for one man.....



Icke's very much the synecdoche of this transition. As an ex-footballer and media face, he would be gracing the cover of Heat if he were in his 80s pomp now. Yet perhaps unnerved by Jimmy Saville loitering in the shadows of a Yorkshire graveyard, Icke sensed that the world was changing. The Pringle knitwear of the avuncular David Vine represented the dying light of Albion.

[Drico One]

[Drico One]

[Drico One]

Just to show what an icon Davis was, here he is at about 0:40 rubbing shoulders with our own Janet Street-Porter.

[Drico One]

[Undertaker]

Oooh i'll watch those later. Apart from being a football fanatic, there isn't a sport that grips you like Snooker. It was probably more popular for a time in the 1980's than football was. Pot Black once a week at 9pm, Alex v Jimmy in 1982, Davis' maximum in the Lada Classic followed by Thorburn's in 83? watched by big Bill peeping around the dividing wall. 1984 saw Kirk Stevens knock in a maximum v Jimmy White in the Masters, dressed in an outrageous white kit with a cue from Argos. Jimmy went on to win lift the trophy. The 85 final between Davis and Taylor and that epic final frame. One of the greatest sporting memories that ever will be. The press witch hunting of Alex Higgins. Snooker used to be unmissable, even for those watching in black and white. John Virgo's impressions for crying out loud. Even Thorburn, Mountjoy and Griffiths could have you on the edge of your seat at 3 a.m.

Oh, let's not forget the Matchroom Mob. Terry Griffiths must be a cross dresser or something.