If you met a top ranked player in the street

[trains]

So what should we do? Enforce cheaper tables for professional tournaments or have government subsidies for snooker?

good question , i think some leeway or middle ground could be made by going back to the table used in the 80's , was it burroughs and watts with slightly larger pockets , i'd be ok with that .

[snooker_bhoy]

Met Tony Drago and Michael Georgiou in the street , I knew Michael and had met Tony once before . He is a great laugh .

Been lucky enough to met and talk to loads of Pro's and not met one I didn't like .........they probably didn't like me though !!!
From Memory the one's that i've talked to : Cliff Thorburn , Tony Meo , Jimmy White , Jimmy Robertson [ really nice guy ] , Alexander Ursenbacher [ another good lad ] , Liang Wenbo , Stuart Bingham [ had a very enlightening chat with him about his ban ] , David Gray , Michael Georgiou , Kurt Maflin , Marco Fu , Allan Taylor , Martin O'Donnell , Steve Davis , Mark Selby , Tony Drago , Willie Thorne ……..I think that's about it !!

Good work. Cliff was one of my childhood heroes. I watched a documentary on Tony Drago. Was good, must find it and watch again

[Neil Taperell]

lol since when did a pro snooker player appear from toxteth liverpool or moss side manchester like ever ?

John Parrott

[snooker_bhoy]

John Parrott

John Virgo was from Salford which isn’t too far

[trains]

John Parrott

well i don't know if that was toxteth , when rod lawler became pro he asked parrott for a game and parrott apparently answered ' get back to me when you're in the top 16 ' , i can't see him having an impoverished background somehow , doesn't strike me as the type .

[trains]

and how many years and players have came and gone under the bridge since and all we can think of is parrott and virgo , says it all really .

[snooker_bhoy]

It’s a bit like when the government decided to increase public spending on sports so that we could win some medals at the London Olympics. I personally couldn’t give a flying ^&*( about the Olympics for various reasons like wasting money, building one use stadia, corruption etc.
I think it is better for the general population to get out and enjoy some exercise rather than watching elite level athletes beat each other by 100’ths of a second to gold/silver/bronze/nothing

[Starsky]

the problem with these older generation players you mention o' sullivan williams and higgins is that they came into the game when the game opened up from the norbreck hotel tournament in 92 , its more than a coincidence that the term ' class of 92 ' is still around , why wouldn't it be because they had the advantage of getting a foothold into the game , i don't think they are many competition practice tables at all that are respectably similar to world snooker tables , thats why a young chinese player at the q school would be more likely to win through than an english player , where's the attraction at all really its just too exclusive .

I’m sorry but that’s a load of codswollop

They had no advantage getting into the game . It’s to do with their ability , hard work and practice up until that point and has nothing to do with 92. . I knew a lot of the players who turned pro around the same time when they opened it up , most never made which was due to various reasons. If you speak to most knowledgeable people who played in that era they would agree it was actually harder to make it once they opened it up due to the extra qualifying rounds you had to play.

Im sorry no offense intended but your speaking as somebody who has never played at that level and makes assumptions instead of facts .

[trains]

I’m sorry but that’s a load of codswollop

They had no advantage getting into the game . It’s to do with their ability , hard work and practice up until that point and has nothing to do with 92. . I knew a lot of the players who turned pro around the same time when they opened it up , most never made which was due to various reasons. If you speak to most knowledgeable people who played in that era they would agree it was actually harder to make it once they opened it up due to the extra qualifying rounds you had to play.

Im sorry no offense intended but your speaking as somebody who has never played at that level and makes assumptions instead of facts .

john higgins and mark williams weren't in the top 64 at the end of their second season the 93 94 season , any young player now would be relegated and have to go back to q school , so how was it actually harder then ?

[vjmehra]

how many clubs in south east england have star tables ? whats the population of greater london say 9 million , do the math its too exclusive and expensive , isn't this obvious , why do you see a bulk of players from the midlands area like gilbert ford selby wakelin make it ? its because its less exclusive for them in a relatively less densely populated area , quite simple .

But thats very London specific and is always going to be the case, not sure there's much you can do to avoid it (and whether the tables are good or not they will always be more expensive than elsewhere).

[Starsky]

john higgins and mark williams weren't in the top 64 at the end of their second season the 93 94 season , any young player now would be relegated and have to go back to q school , so how was it actually harder then ?

Your talking about two different topics now .

The reason why they weren’t in the top 64 was due to the sheer number of pros at the time once they opened it up. The better players eventually went on to become top pros. If you look at the record O’Sullivan broke for unbeaten matches at the time will give you an indication of how many matches you had to win. Most players in those days took the game up during the 80’s heyday , there was a huge amateur pro am circuit .

Also I never said it was easier now than in those days , I said it was harder once they opened up the pro ranks as you said it gave the ‘class of 92’ a helping foothold to which I completely disagree.

I think I’ll leave it at that as I’ve got to go to work

[trains]

Your talking about two different topics now .

The reason why they weren’t in the top 64 was due to the sheer number of pros at the time once they opened it up. The better players eventually went on to become top pros. If you look at the record O’Sullivan broke for unbeaten matches at the time will give you an indication of how many matches you had to win. Most players in those days took the game up during the 80’s heyday , there was a huge amateur pro am circuit .

Also I never said it was easier now than in those days , I said it was harder once they opened up the pro ranks as you said it gave the ‘class of 92’ a helping foothold to which I completely disagree.

I think I’ll leave it at that as I’ve got to go to work

yes good luck with your work , how many 17 year olds have ever seen a pro table in real life let alone ever played on one , yet o'sullivan won the uk championship at that age , how many years practice on pro tables did he have before that , i don't know just asking .

[Danger Steve]

would you feel any interest or point in talking to him if he wasn't in a hurry ? personally i wouldn’t as the tables are too exclusive for me to take the game seriously , just interested in your thoughts , i mean other than enjoying watching the baize and the balls what is appealing about the players ?

Sorry but your original question was would I talk to a professional player if I met one not in a hurry? Not would you interrogate them on social inequality. Not sure what your gripe is about the quality of tables the average player has access too! Most of the top pros probably started off playing on a 6’ fold away Riley table made from chipboard the same as I did... Yet I’m here sweating my ass off laying 70m2 of porcelain floor tiles today and their off round the world playing top level snooker! Unfortunately that’s life bud!! I’m not from a necessarily poorer background than your top snooker pro, I had all the same opportunities, so why them and not us? Is that the question? I don’t think it’s because they have access to better quality tables. It’s TALENT my friend and bloody hard work, of course they need to practice on the current tables being used... But every sports person would have to do that to remain at the top level.

[Starsky]

[QUOTE=trains;n998849]

yes good luck with your work , how many 17 year olds have ever seen a pro table in real life let alone ever played on one , yet o'sullivan won the uk championship at that age , how many years practice on pro tables did he have before that , i don't know just asking .

He practiced in Ilford and Barking clubs in Essex as a junior. Only Ilford had three tables which could be classed as pro tables at the time. There were a load of pro’s playing down Ilford on those tables along with a load of juniors including Ronnie. Between those two clubs there were so many good amateurs around the age of 17 who got to play on the better tables based on their ability at the time.

It wasn’t the lack of playing on pro tables as an amateur that was the reason why players didn’t push on as pros or become good amateurs.

[trains]

[QUOTE=Starsky;n998855]

yes good luck with your work , how many 17 year olds have ever seen a pro table in real life let alone ever played on one , yet o'sullivan won the uk championship at that age , how many years practice on pro tables did he have before that , i don't know just asking .

He practiced in Ilford and Barking clubs in Essex as a junior. Only Ilford had three tables which could be classed as pro tables at the time. There were a load of pro’s playing down Ilford on those tables along with a load of juniors including Ronnie. Between those two clubs there were so many good amateurs around the age of 17 who got to play on the better tables based on their ability at the time.

It wasn’t the lack of playing on pro tables as an amateur that was the reason why players didn’t push on as pros or become good amateurs.

three in the london area is a lot , the lack of pro tables in london is the reason london has had hardly any pro's since jimmy in 79 and o'sullivan in 92 , gould springs to mind and the other o sullivan but it really is next to nothing in 40 years , it isn't brain surgery its simply the lack of pro tables , it goes back to my original posts i'm not trying to belittle these players but put for example these midlands players i mentioned earlier in london bring them up as kids and youths in london and its more likely we would never had heard of them , thats all .