Slow play

[philip in china]

How slow is slow play?

[DawRef]

That is really difficult to answer as it will depend on a lot of factors. The official definition can be found in Sedtion 4 Rule 1.
The late John Street writes:
'Under the old Rule a referee could only judge the the time a striker was taking 'over a stroke' which meant basically the striker had to be aligned with (i.e. standing behind) or down on his stroke. The way the Rule is written now, the Referee can warn the player about the time his is taking selecting his stroke, which is far more sensible. Too many players seem to take an eternity just walking around the table looking to see which stroke to play, even when it is obvious to all and sundry what he is going to to. Referees are now in a stronger positionand should put their foot down and apply the Rule as written. It must be written that this practice of taking an age before selecting and playing a stroke is very upsetting to the opponent and the striker is fully aware of this fact. This type of gamesmanship should not be allowed. This is not a 'blanket' rule however and is not meant to apply to every stroke because, as everyone is fully aware, some positions do require a great deal of study by the striker. Each stroke has to be treated on merit.'

[poolqjunkie]

Slow is I would say when you need three months to take and post four very blurry pictures that no one can really understand on the forum.

I am sorry, just joking.

Slow play or not I think depneds on the player and the situation--whether the player is playing much slower than his usual speed for no apparent reason; and whether the situation requires more thinking or is it just the usual standard formality this this player was known to execute much quicker.

[montoya10]

I can't exactly remember, but the longest shot time I've ever seen belongs to Ronnie

He took more than 3 and a half minutes before he played it and it was last season..

Just to add, I didn't realize a warning from the referee, as the position was too complicated to make a shot choice, it wasn't a deliberate attempt to slow down the game..

[Krypton]

How slow is slow play?

Slow is I would say when you need three months to take and post four very blurry pictures that no one can really understand on the forum.

I'd consider a shot 'slow' when the cueball only travels a couple of inches...