Steve Davis!

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Smokin Joe

Legendary Member
A great performance, but he will be relying on others to be below par to get to the final. I would love to seee it though.

On a sadder note, did you see Alex Higgens playing an exhibition against Thorburn last week? What a pitiful sight, the man who was the most exciting player ever to pick up a cue looking like a skeleton and barely able to walk round the table.
 

marinyork

Resting in suspended Animation
Location
Logopolis
Great match. I don't think Davis will go all the way, I'd expect him to get to the semis on paper and have a very tough match against Carter/Ding/Murphy. Perhaps he'll run out of steam against Gould (if he gets through).
 

Maz

Guru
Excuse my ignorance, but how come this was such a shock? Snooker isn't exactly a strength or stamina sport. Davis has won the snooker championship many times before. If anything, with time and experience, shouldn't he be more relaxed and play his natural game?

Not trying to be agumentative, just curious.
 

Hacienda71

Mancunian in self imposed exile in leafy Cheshire
They say it is concentration. In your 40's and 50's you can't concentrate as well as in your 20's. I don't think Davis has been a world champ for 20 years or so. It is like golf where physically you can play into your 80's but you wont see a major winner much over 40.
 

Noodley

Guest
Just saw it on the news...well done to him! He looked genuinely shocked stunned and drained by it.
 

Greedo

Guest
Maz said:
Excuse my ignorance, but how come this was such a shock? Snooker isn't exactly a strength or stamina sport. Davis has won the snooker championship many times before. If anything, with time and experience, shouldn't he be more relaxed and play his natural game?

Not trying to be agumentative, just curious.

I'm with you here mate

Hacienda71 said:
They say it is concentration. In your 40's and 50's you can't concentrate as well as in your 20's. I don't think Davis has been a world champ for 20 years or so. It is like golf where physically you can play into your 80's but you wont see a major winner much over 40.

I kind of see what you're saying, but the thing with snooker is it's not that physical. Where golf is far more physical and the older you get the less supple you are. Even when I was younger than my 37 years I always felt tired after a round of golf so god knows how tired the older golfers get.
 

Hacienda71

Mancunian in self imposed exile in leafy Cheshire
Greedo said:
I kind of see what you're saying, but the thing with snooker is it's not that physical. Where golf is far more physical and the older you get the less supple you are. Even when I was younger than my 37 years I always felt tired after a round of golf so god knows how tired the older golfers get.


You need to get a trolley did wonders for my scores on the back nine
and if you are using a trolley get an electric one.:becool:
I agree golf is more physical and that is an aditional factor but I am not 40 yet and I have played with guys in their fifties and sixties who play of scratch or low single figures. Tom Watson at the open in his sixties last year competed at the highest level, but mentally you can't keep the focus at that level even if your body lets you still play the game. Snooker and golf both have that mental requirement. Darts may be similar haven't played it myself but you don't see Jockey Wilson or Eric Bristow playing anymore but i would imagine they can still throw the arrows.
 

Yellow Fang

Legendary Member
Location
Reading
I've often wondered why snooker players seem to lose it in their 30s. You get racing drivers in their 30s and sometimes 40s.
 

Renard

Guest
I don't remember him being as animated in his younger days. Some of his facial expressions during that final frame were priceless.
 
Location
Midlands
What I liked was that he wanted it so much - the guy on the other side of the table was the reigning champion and is and will be the world number one - He knew that 19 times out of 20 he would come back and beat him - having got in front the expectation of the world, the audience and most of all himself was that he could maybe hold on - then the television cameras being practically up your nose all the while - it is no wonder that he did not look like the composed Davies of old
 

Smokin Joe

Legendary Member
The difference between snooker and golf is that golf has been a major sport for over a cenyuary, and the standard of play has improved comparatively slowly in that time. Snooker died on it's arse at the end of the fifties, after the game had been stifled for decades by the closed shop run by Joe Davis and a few others for their own benefit. When the game took off again in the seventies the likes of Reardon, Spencer and Higgens had no coaching structure behind them and made it up as they went along. Their standard of play when they were at the top would not be good enough for most amateur tournaments today, and when Steve Davis came along his structured approach to playing put him head and shoulders above everyone else. He is now a victim of the continued rise in standards that he himself started.
 
I think I'll agree with Maz's point of view on this one - it is all a load of bull to 'sell the story'!
Yesterday in the Times, there was an article on Alex Ferguson - with pictures showing how all his years with Man Utd had 'aged' him.
Poppycock! We are all subject to changing as maturity takes a hold and everyone's job possibly takes a certain amount of 'toll' physically or/and mentally. Essentially, we age - and associating natural progress with working activity may prematurely affect some, but the people like Steve Davis, Alex Ferguson or any other competitive minded person aren't going to be that phased mentally. Of course, if it needed a sprint around the table before each shot...

May the best man win.
 

marinyork

Resting in suspended Animation
Location
Logopolis
I think it'd have made a big story whoever it was beating John Higgins. I could see three or four of the thirty two beating him.

Davis is fine as a player just people just outside of the top 16 like him have a difficult time.
 
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