Slowest & Fastest

[matt01]

The discussion on the forum on best/worst world champion got me thinking.
Who is/was the slowest pro player ever and who is/was the fastest?
I'm sure every knows of local club members that are pedestrian. We have a few members in our club that bore you to death with their slow play.I've read Fred Davis' book where he claimed that Joe Davis was a very quick player. I've seen footage of Alex higgins in the eighties and he was no hurricane. Anyway , lets hear what others think.

[craigslater]

Tony Drago or Ronnie for the fastest and Peter Ebdon for the slllooooowwweessssttt............

[Sam147]

Tony Drago is the fastest i've seen but Ronnie is the fastest one that maintains good control on his cueball.

Ebdon is slow until he secures the frame then his rhythm picks up considerably, but his shot time dropped considerably lately and he seems to have found a good rhythm/pace... Dave Harold is one slow player tho, it's like everything happens in slow motion when he's up for his shot

[attilahun]

Drago is surely the fastest. Ronnie is fast and also Jimmy, when he was young was quite fast.
As for the slowest players i think Ebdon is pretty slow.
As for Alex Higgims, he seemed fast beacuse ha used to "run" around the table, but he wasn't that fast.

[Alex0paul]

Chris Small was always a slow player. Robert Milkins is the fastest in my opinion.

[Robert602]

Yes Milkins is definitely up there with Drago if not faster.

Alex gained the Hurricane reputation when he first came on the scene in the 70s (and that was next to Reardon who didn't hang about), by the time of his second title he was much slower. I haven't seen much early footage of him to be honest but I wouldn't dismiss him on the basis of 80s videos.

Also, I think Ebdon gets a lot of unfair criticism over his speed. He can play slowly but no worse than many players in the same circumstances (Lee, McCulloch, Hamilton, even Selby). His preferred rhythm is much faster and when the games are open that's how he tends to play.

Charlton and Thorburn are two naturally slow players as far as I've seen. Harold is another who doesn't seem to be able to play quickly even when the frame is decided.

[Nugget]

The discussion on the forum on best/worst world champion got me thinking.
Who is/was the slowest pro player ever and who is/was the fastest?
I'm sure every knows of local club members that are pedestrian. We have a few members in our club that bore you to death with their slow play.I've read Fred Davis' book where he claimed that Joe Davis was a very quick player. I've seen footage of Alex higgins in the eighties and he was no hurricane. Anyway , lets hear what others think.

Alex Higgins was more of a "Hurricane" in his youth, although he still had his moments in the eighties. He is said to have made a century (122 I have read) in 2 minutes 45 seconds in the Irish Professional championships against Patsy Fagan.

Also mentioned in the Bill Borrows biography of Higgins is a maximum break made in the seventies which allegedly took 4 minutes 42 seconds.

Having seen him completing a century break of around 3 minutes in the 1972 documentary, Hurricane Higgins or some similar title) it wouldn't be inconceivable to discover that either were true.

[Semih_Sayginer]

slowest - Cliff Thorburn / Dave Harold (jointly)

fastest - Tony Drago

[fudgeflaps]

Alex Higgins was more of a "Hurricane" in his youth, although he still had his moments in the eighties. He is said to have made a century (122 I have read) in 2 minutes 45 seconds in the Irish Professional championships against Patsy Fagan.

Also mentioned in the Bill Borrows biography of Higgins is a maximum break made in the seventies which allegedly took 4 minutes 42 seconds.

Having seen him completing a century break of around 3 minutes in the 1972 documentary, Hurricane Higgins or some similar title) it wouldn't be inconceivable to discover that either were true.

Higgins was lightning in the 70s.

Fastest (in no particular order):

Drago;
O'Sullivan;
White;
Alex Higgins.

John Higgins is no slouch, either.

Slowest:

Robbie Foldvari;
Ian Williamson;
Griffiths;
Thorburn;
Ebdon.

[PaulTheSoave]

Agreed! (only this one ) In my book Cliff has now two titles. slowest and worst champion!

slowest - Cliff Thorburn / Dave Harold (jointly)

fastest - Tony Drago

[googlefooger]

Any videos of the cue actions of the slowest/fastest guys?

[rivercard]

Any videos of the cue actions of the slowest/fastest guys?

Here is a video of Tony Drago making a nice break against Ben Woollaston:

http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?...87827630838584

(the frame winning break starts at 3:50 BTW)

[JPK123]

Higgins was lightning in the 70s.


Slowest:

Robbie Foldvari;

He holds the record for longest frame ever (in pro tournaments), no?

EDIT: Ah, no it's this -
"LONGEST NINE FRAME MATCH
434 MINS 12 SECS Ian Williamson v Robby Foldvari 1994 British Open (5-4) (QRd7)"

[rivercard]

And to answer the initial question:

Fastest: Tony Drago

Fast:
Robert Milkins
Ronnie O'Sullivan
Jamie Cope
Mark Allen

Slow:
Peter Ebdon
Dave Harold
Rod Lawler (http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...39113479353507)

Can play really slow sometimes:
Matthew Stevens
Ian McCulloch
Anthony Hamilton

[googlefooger]

Thanks for that video, it took him about a minute to make a break over four.