Drago's Finest Achievement?

[wildJONESEYE]

honestly, how can you say pool is "easier to play"? In every sport one has to work very very hard to be the best.

easy ive played both games and im a far better pool player than snooker player ...

yes youre right you got to work out the sport but just look at the success Alison Fisher,Karen Corr,Kelly Fisher and now Drago has had in pool reason its easy for snooker players to make the transition ie better cuist .....lets see Efran Reyes or Earl Strictland try snooker profesionaly to see how long before they deside its to difficult to climbe the Rankings and get nowhere at it..........

im sorry if thats hard for some people to take but thats the hard reality......

[mister_e]

A few years ago I bumped into Tony Drago at the UK when it was at the Barbican. I was in a food queue, and I turned around and who should I see, the Maltese Maestro himself. I paid for my food and I wished him luck in his match. He grunted something unintelligible at me so I just smiled at him, and it was only later when I looked at the draw that I realised he was already knocked out. You don't need to be a genius to work out what he probably said to me...

tony is as nice as pie and would never say anything rude to you!

[mister_e]

mate if youre been playing snooker all youre life trying to make something out of the game .....then when you aproaching 40 you look around and find something easier to play and to have success with its in my mind failure in the sport you put most of youre life in to....

as a pool player hes a success however as i said in the beggining for any snooker player to point to a pool tournament as his greatest achievemant is failure as a pool player he is having the most success not snooker...

in years to come Tony Drago will be remembered as a great pool player but ultimatly seen as a failure in snooker with the talent he had...

he got a great deal out of the game, one of only a handful to have earnt over a million pounds in prize money, being top 16 in the world for a long time, being a household name and still is not even being on our screens or on the main.

in tony's eyes he has not failed, he's proud of everything hes done for the game. surely that's the most important thing.

i know tony well and am a practise partner of his (when he not ravelling the world playing pool). let me tell you the guy is still mustard! i'm not gonna say what his plans are for the game, i don't want to say anything incase he doesn't want it public.

[rivercard]

he got a great deal out of the game, one of only a handful to have earnt over a million pounds in prize money

Yes, that's quite an achievement.

i know tony well and am a practise partner of his (when he not ravelling the world playing pool). let me tell you the guy is still mustard! i'm not gonna say what his plans are for the game, i don't want to say anything incase he doesn't want it public.

I hope he plans to play in the Malta tournament (if there will be one) as a wild-card, so maybe we can see him on TV again.

[mister_e]

Yes, that's quite an achievement.



I hope he plans to play in the Malta tournament (if there will be one) as a wild-card, so maybe we can see him on TV again.

well that all depends on world snooker, if they decided to get a tournament out there. he'd be up for it 1000%. whether they decide to give him a place in the tournament not being on the main tour. i think they would be obliged to. tony is GOD out in Malta. people worship the ground he walks on.

[millwall32]

i voted for beating Joe O'Boye in 81 mins.
But I have always been a little underwhelmed by that record.
does anyone know-was it a case of Drago playing brilliantly or Joe palying terrible, conceding frames etc.
Joe was/is something of a "character" and had/has a lifestyle that makes Alex Higgins look like Bjorn Bjorg.
Does anyone know any more details about that match?
Maybe frame scores etc.

I have been looking for them for years and haven't found anything....

[poolqjunkie]

easy ive played both games and im a far better pool player than snooker player ...

yes youre right you got to work out the sport but just look at the success Alison Fisher,Karen Corr,Kelly Fisher and now Drago has had in pool reason its easy for snooker players to make the transition ie better cuist .....lets see Efran Reyes or Earl Strictland try snooker profesionaly to see how long before they deside its to difficult to climbe the Rankings and get nowhere at it..........

im sorry if thats hard for some people to take but thats the hard reality......

I suppose you may have a different definition of "easier" than me. Although you may feel that you play better pool, but do you achieve more in pool than you do in snooker?

Yes, the women are doing well but that is partly because the standards before they came along was quite low. They are not dominating the WPBA anymore anyway. There are quite a few pool players who are winning now. Monica Webb just won the last event.

Another thing a lot of people overlooked is that there are some ex snooker women who have never won a major title in 9 ball. I can think of Kim Shaw, Val Finne, Julie Kelly(she won a world champion many years ago but that was it), Wendy Jans...

Men switching to 9 ball should be easy, but we have not seen Steve Davis won a world 9 ball championship yet, have we?

By far, Tony Drago is probably the best snooker-turn-9-ball-player on the tour. Some other snooker players tried the game but did not achieve much at all (Jimmy White, Quieten Hinn...)

Ding lost to a girl 9 ball player from China, Pan in an exhibition on the 9 ball table. I am sure Pan could not beat Ding on the snooker table, but Ding also had a hard time winning on the 9 ball table.

I define easier as "easier to achieve success." In that sense, I woudl say 9 ball is not really that much easier for any snooker player just because they coudl pot better and have a straighter cueing arm. The top 9 ball players are really good at what they do.

I do nto consider that Tony drago is a failure if he achieve more in pool than he has in snooker. I think it is a feat that few snooker players coudl achieve.

[mister_e]

pool is easy in the sense that you hit inches up the rail and the ball will still go in! i'm still a far better snooker player than pool though.

[Mal]

I play pool quite a bit now and have had some good victories against supposedly good big tournament players. In fact about 10 years ago, I should have beat Drago at pool, but missed the 9-ball. If I played him at snooker, I wouldn't have a hope. Yes, admittedly, I only play snooker once or twice a year, but when I played regularly 12 years ago, I was still no good, just making 30 - 40 breaks. I'd have had no hope playing against a good amateur player at snooker never mind the next level.

Pool is a different story - If I play pool on any given night, chances are I'll have 3 or 4 clearances from the break and of course it wouldn't matter if I was playing Bob the builder or Mark Selby - the game would win. Obviously, the longer frame matches that are played and the better player will win, but with snooker, the class differential is much greater.

I think poolqjunkie while trying to say it was hard at pool, actually fails. For example, you say about Julie Kelly failing at pool, yet she was world champion in 2000 and ranked in the top few in the world in ladies pool. You say about Quentin Hann not having much success - yet he was world champion!! Mark Selby won the world 8ball pool tournamnent as well and he undoubtedly focuses more on snooker. You say about Steve Davis, yet he took the game up late in his career and he was regularly competitive in major 9 ball pool tournaments and beat world champions regularly.
In both 8 ball and 9 ball a player with some ability will be able to clear the table with regularity, but snooker requires much more than that. Quite a lot of snooker players have transferred to pool with a lot of success, but the same cannot be said in the opposite comparison. Of course there is still a lot of great pool players who focus on pool, but snooker is definitely the more challenging game.
Admittedly, I'd love to get back playing snooker regularly again and improve my game, but pool has taken over.

[poolqjunkie]

I did not know Quiten Hin is a world pool champion, do you mean British 8 ball. I was thinking only about 9/10 ball, which is what Tony Drago is competing in, right?. I do nto know Mark Selby plays 9 ball. Which tournament did he play in?

Yes Julie Kelly was a champion in 2000, but she never won another title for almost 10 years. If pool was so easy for a snooker champion, why couldn't she?

These ladies including Allison Fisher will not be able to compete against the top notch mens 9 ball players in the world even, that is a fact. There are quite a few top ladies now on WPBA, some of whom do not play snooker. I coudl think of a few names of world champions, such as Ga Young Kim, and Xia Tang Pan, Shin Mei Liu, and Jasmin Ouschan. Tehse ladies have all beaten Karen Corr, Allison Fisher and all the other snooker ladies champions on the 9 ball table.

I am not saying pool is not easier than snooker, but I was trying to say 9 ball is also a difficult game that is not simply an easy game for snooker players because they are good at snooker. I am trying to make my point that it should not be consider a failure for Tony Drago if he ever achieve more in 9 ball than he ever has in snooker.

As a matter of fact, no men snnoker players have won a world 9/10 ball championship yet. Many have tried, but they never made it. Tony has coem the closest, by winning the Predator 10 ball championship.

I agree that it is easier for a snooker player to reach a decent level at 9 ball than the other way around; however, to be a champion in 9/10 ball is not easy at all even for a top class snooker player.

That was what I wanted to say.

[wildJONESEYE]

I suppose you may have a different definition of "easier" than me. Although you may feel that you play better pool, but do you achieve more in pool than you do in snooker?

Yes, the women are doing well but that is partly because the standards before they came along was quite low. They are not dominating the WPBA anymore anyway. There are quite a few pool players who are winning now. Monica Webb just won the last event.

Another thing a lot of people overlooked is that there are some ex snooker women who have never won a major title in 9 ball. I can think of Kim Shaw, Val Finne, Julie Kelly(she won a world champion many years ago but that was it), Wendy Jans...

Men switching to 9 ball should be easy, but we have not seen Steve Davis won a world 9 ball championship yet, have we?

By far, Tony Drago is probably the best snooker-turn-9-ball-player on the tour. Some other snooker players tried the game but did not achieve much at all (Jimmy White, Quieten Hinn...)

Ding lost to a girl 9 ball player from China, Pan in an exhibition on the 9 ball table. I am sure Pan could not beat Ding on the snooker table, but Ding also had a hard time winning on the 9 ball table.

I define easier as "easier to achieve success." In that sense, I woudl say 9 ball is not really that much easier for any snooker player just because they coudl pot better and have a straighter cueing arm. The top 9 ball players are really good at what they do.

I do nto consider that Tony drago is a failure if he achieve more in pool than he has in snooker. I think it is a feat that few snooker players coudl achieve.

you get better more you play the game i can guarantee if a top snooker pro dedicated theire carear to pool they will get to a high standard but winning tournaments isnt guaranteed but far better chance than the other way round Lets pick up a Drago equivelent of the pool world and give him a snooker cue how would he do ????? in my opinion hopeless...

[Mal]

I am not saying pool is not easier than snooker, but I was trying to say 9 ball is also a difficult game that is not simply an easy game for snooker players because they are good at snooker. I am trying to make my point that it should not be consider a failure for Tony Drago if he ever achieve more in 9 ball than he ever has in snooker.

As a matter of fact, no men snnoker players have won a world 9/10 ball championship yet. Many have tried, but they never made it. Tony has coem the closest, by winning the Predator 10 ball championship.

I agree that it is easier for a snooker player to reach a decent level at 9 ball than the other way around; however, to be a champion in 9/10 ball is not easy at all even for a top class snooker player.

That was what I wanted to say.

Yep,I agree with these points. I am certainly not denigrating Tony Drago's achievement. There is certainly a certain amount of transferable skill and any player who swaps games will not automatically be expected to beat the professional 8, 9 or 10 ball players, but snooker players would be more competitive.

I certainly agree that winning tournaments on a world scale at any cue sport is a huge achievement, but it is a pity that with the ability Tony had/has that he never won a ranking tournament at snooker. He will always be remembered for his style, speed, charisma and attitude - he was in and out of the top 16 for a number of years and certainly there have been other players who have won more with less ability, but Drago will always be held in higher regard (IMO).

[poolqjunkie]

you get better more you play the game i can guarantee if a top snooker pro dedicated theire carear to pool they will get to a high standard but winning tournaments isnt guaranteed but far better chance than the other way round Lets pick up a Drago equivelent of the pool world and give him a snooker cue how would he do ????? in my opinion hopeless...

Yes, I do not disagree with you. It is easier to learn to reach a certain level in 9 ball than in snooker. But to become a champion is a different story.

Just want to say that pool (9/10 ball) is not an easy game either. A lot of snooker players have dedicated many years in the game of 9 ball, some never won a major. On the other hand, there are many 9 ball champions who never play snooker in their life.

I think it is just a different game. Like I said, no men snooker pro player have ever won a world 9/10 ball championship as far as I know.

[wildJONESEYE]

and in no way shape or form im saying its easy to win because the pool of players playing is mast and im very proud of Tony comming from my sport to pool and being succesfull.

but comparing snooker to pool i am and snooker is the pinicle of cue sports because its far harder to play..

[poolqjunkie]

I love snooker, dont get me wrong.

I used to play a lot of 9 ball. I could run out some tables, but you know what, so could my opponent. So, it all comes down to who knows more shots, who makes lesser mistakes, and who holds better under pressure. It is not that easy at all to win against a field of good players who could all run out racks after racks.

When i first tried to play snooker, it was like a nightmare trying to pot those long shots, my success was like zero.

I have since been practicing snooker on a daily basis. I am not good at it yet, it has been almost 1 & 1/2 years, but I have had a century and some breaks over 60s. I do not anticipate myself ever winning the world snooker championship, but I think I could reach a decent club level if I keep practicing.

I am sure the potting in snooker helps my 9/10 ball game, too. And my knowledge on cue ball control from 9 ball helps me to pick up the break building aspect faster.

I have not played any 9/10 ball since I started to play snooker. Kind of miss 9 ball actually.