Snooker and darts

[daveinaustria]

My question to any knowledgeable people out there (perhaps Statman or Cyril can help) is: has anyone been great at both the two big tap room games of snooker and darts and if so, to what level did they play and what achievements did they make?

[Semih_Sayginer]

not a direct answer to your question but closely related...

eric bristow was really good at "english" pool. not sure if he played snooker too.

[daveinaustria]

Thanks Semih, i'll look into it.

[cueman]

I can't answer your question but I would find it very unique if someone was very good at both sports. I used to play a lot of darts and got to quite a decent standard, it was at a time when I didn't really play snooker that much.
However over the last 6 years or so snooker took over and I got to a decent standard at that and it will remain my no.1 game.

This leads me to my point of the two games. I do play darts sometimes every now and then and I find I can't play to anywhere near the standard I used to. Also when I play snooker after playing darts it seems to affect my cueing and I find my form suffers because of it.
The two games require a certain muscle memory in your arm in order to get a solid technnique and I think that you can only be good at one or the other as they both require a different muscle memory technique. This is what I have found, I don't know if anyone else has found this but I think the two are definitely related and I think its impossible to develope a strong ability at both.

[elvaago]

Darts is a triceps muscle sport, snooker is a biceps muscle sport. I suppose if you train darts with one arm and snooker with the other arm, you could get to high levels in both sports, but with the same arm, I'd say it'd be exceptionally hard. Not to mention you'd need to practice 16 hours a day to become as good as Hendry in snooker /and/ as good as darts as Phil Taylor, and have the natural talent these two gentleman have.

Does Ding play darts? ;-)

[chasmmi]

Snooker players have always tended to be ok at golf though I think.

[SD147]

No one has ever played at professional level in both sports. I'm not too shabby at darts though, used to play in a darts league, i've had a 140 checkout and a 13 dart leg before. I also play golf off a 5 handicap. It's just the "hand-eye co-ordination" thing, hence why a lot of snooker players are good golfers.

SD147

[elvaago]

My highest checkout in darts is 137 (triple 19, double 20, double 20) and I've gotten a 13 darter as well. (41, 100, 140, 180, double 20). But on the other hand, I'm no snooker player, but I'm decent at pool. Cleared up the table numerous times in one visit. A few times with less than 8 shots. :-)

[daveinaustria]

Well, after much searching, i can find no information regarding Eric Bristow being good at pool. Can you tell me your source of info Semih?

[missneworleans]

I thought that snooker players are good at golf, but not darts