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Giant Bomb #22 | Drew, F*** This Tank

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Z

Zaph

Member
When I was a kid, the local snooker hall would replace their tables with pool tables to fit more in. Heathens. They didn't last much longer after that.
popo said:
Also real numbered pool balls were very rare when I was a kid. Bootleg Red and Yellow were much cheaper.
Click to expand...

Yup, was always odd how much cheaper they were. Wonder if it was like a rights thing?
 
S

stump sock

Member
Xater said:
Snooker is the least amount of Anime. The only sports less anime is darts.
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230px-Break_Shot_%28manga_cover01%29.jpg
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on the other hand, I can't find one dedicated to darts
 
P

| Praxis |

Banned
Lunar FC said:
This is like the only day in history where gb gaf will care about snooker. Drop some knowledge on us!



Yiss please!
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Well, the closest America has got to a good snooker player was Cliff Thorburn,but he was Canadian. He won the World championship in the 80's and I believe he got the first televised 147.

The current number 1 in the world is Mark Selby, the guy who's ass is on display in the gif on last page, his nickname is "the jester from Leicester" (that probably won't rhyme for Americans because you struggle to say Leicester) but before him the game was dominated by the likes of Steve Davis, Stephen Hendry, John Higgins and Ronnie O'Sullivan who is probably the most naturally gifted player ever. He is also a bit crazy, he has walked out of televised matches, sat with a towel on his face, scratched himself in the face and called other players cunts in interviews, so he has his fair share of detractors.

Snooker is probably one of the highest skilled ball games around, the control of the white ball needed is insane, just look up best snooker shots to see this. It makes pool look like a kids game.

It used to be played by bordering alcoholics and the smell of Benson and Hedges cigarettes was the official sport fragrance, it has since tidied itself up a lot. Everyone just drinks water now and the players are probably covered in nicotine patches underneath their clothes.

The world final is being played right now, in the semis one of the biggest highlights was a players tip flying off as he was chalking his cue. This warranted half a dozen replays of said tip tumbling off Marco Fu's cue.
 
G

giant_frying_pan

Member
TraBuch said:
I'm embarrassed to say that, like Dan, I thought snooker had those little bumpers and things on the playing surface.
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Not embarrassing at all! That's billiards and the table (in terms of baize colour and dimensions) are very similar to snooker (just...with 18 fewer balls!)

Xater said:
Snooker is the least amount of Anime. The only sports less anime is darts.
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Well once there's an Asian world championship, either today or in the coming years, that may change! ;)

But darts is waaaaaay more anime than snooker with what Barry Hearn did with the PDC. And the BDO just straight up has players come out in costume!
 
M

MassiveNights

Banned
Snooker can also boast one of sport's greatest Cinderella stories in Jimmy "The Whirlwind" White, a player so gifted that many consider him one of the best players ever despite never winning the World Championship or reaching world number 1.

He lost in the final 6 times, including 5 times in a row in the 90s.

He took the first loss so hard that he became addicted to crack.

He is of course also the face of licensed snooker video games.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_White's_'Whirlwind'_Snooker
 
M

Myggen

Member
giant_frying_pan said:
I'm not a big fan of Ronnie, but as you say, he's a captivating personality and gives snooker some much needed...pardon the pun...colour.

I'm happy that he's found solice in running as an outlet for his frustrations and dispositions. I also don't think he's the greatest ever player... (but as a Scot, I'm biased...)
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IIRC that article only talks about him as `greatest` in that he`s the most naturally gifted player, it`s clear that he has wasted a lot of that talent of course.

The white ball could dance, or not, at any time. In the first round of the World Championship in 1997, O’Sullivan made a maximum in five minutes and twenty seconds, surpassing the previous record by almost two minutes. He was knocked out in the next round. The British press called him “the Two Ronnies,” after a comic duo who were big in the nineteen-seventies. During the 2001 World Championship, in Sheffield, where he won the title for the first time, at the age of twenty-five, O’Sullivan called the Samaritans, a suicide hot line, and started taking Prozac. The unpredictability was exhausting. He was desperate for a thought system that would make sense of his life. He saw shrinks and gurus. He tried Christianity, Buddhism, and Islam. After recovering from his addiction to marijuana, O’Sullivan tried all of the Anonymouses, out of a sense of completism. He went to sex-addiction meetings even though he was not addicted to sex.

Nothing helped. During the 2008 season, by any measure one of his most successful, O’Sullivan would get drunk every weekend. His long-term relationship with Jo Langley, the mother of two of his three children, whom he met in rehab, was falling apart. (O’Sullivan has an eighteen-year-old daughter, Taylor, from an earlier relationship.) “I was cueing well, but I had no family, no home,” he said. Between tournaments, he stayed on a friend’s sofa, reading “How I Play Snooker,” Joe Davis’s classic manual from 1949.
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J

jaina

Member
popo said:
Dave Land and Hot Spurs Fans must be excited for the match tonight. Best chance in years of beating the hated enemy on their home turf, keeping the slim title dream alive in the process.


Hype for snooker QL. Expecting to see

Danny "The Hurricane" O'Dwyer

http://static.giantbomb.com/uploads/original/6/61169/2847979-6407190637-artic.jpg

Jeff "Mr Maximum" Gerstmann

http://www.independent.ie/incoming/article31229260.ece/ALTERNATES/h342/por_1205_07.jpg

Dan "Clown Prince" Ryckert

http://cdn.images.dailystar.co.uk/dynamic/63/photos/930000/620x/56930.jpg
Click to expand...

*thumbsup*
 
G

giant_frying_pan

Member
MassiveNights said:
Snooker can also boast one of sport's greatest Cinderella stories in Jimmy "The Whirlwind" White, a player so gifted that many consider him one of the best players ever despite never winning the World Championship or reaching world number 1.

He lost in the final 6 times, including 5 times in a row in the 90s.

He took the first loss so hard that he became addicted to crack.

He is of course also the face of licensed snooker video games.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_White's_'Whirlwind'_Snooker
Click to expand...
Jimmy White Snooker for the Amiga BLEW MY MIND. It was so good...but rock hard! I'm partial to Team 17's Arcade Pool and Sierra's Maximum Pool/Cueball.

Myggen said:
IIRC that article only talks about him as `greatest` in that he`s the most naturally gifted player, it`s clear that he has wasted a lot of that talent of course.
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Yeah he's frequently refered to as the most naturally gifted player by the core commentators. A tag that I completely agree with. But three other players in the modern era have more world titles than him (and Hendry has a better head-to-head record too).

But he absolutely had/has the talent to be the best ever. Still could mind.
 
P

popo

Member
Virtual Pool 2 had a decent snooker mode. VP was such a great series.

MassiveNights said:
Bar billiards.

It's an English thing.

Bloody English.

It's not a professional or popular sport anywhere.
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Nobody plays billiards. You only get a billiards table if you are so rich that you have too many rooms in your stately home and have to fill them with something.

I don't think anyone lower than a Viscount or Earl in the lists even pretends to know the rules any more.

Zaph said:
When I was a kid, the local snooker hall would replace their tables with pool tables to fit more in. Heathens. They didn't last much longer after that.


Yup, was always odd how much cheaper they were. Wonder if it was like a rights thing?
Click to expand...

Maybe. I remember most of the red/yellow ones being plastic and the striped/numbered were the real resin ones that had that porcelain style shine to them.

When I was a kid I always wanted to go in the snooker hall but it was right next to a police station. It was filled with drunk cops all the time so, understandably, they were super strict about checking ID. I think you had to be 16 even if you were not drinking.
 
G

giant_frying_pan

Member
MassiveNights said:
Snooker also has the greatest TV theme tune ever.

A tune so ripping that even Dan would approve.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GkgoeKHsXI
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ALL of the BBC's sport themes are amazing! This won't be news to you, but for the benefit of Sports-GB-GAF...

Snooker
Football
Tennis
Grandstand (like an old fashioned Sports Center)
Skiing
Cricket
Golf

And of course, the ULTIMATE sporting programme theme... (sorry Monday Night Football...!)

Formula 1

Might be missing some though!
 
D

daydream

Banned
i remember when we got a snooker and a poker game every year on, like, every platform

edit: wait, pool is not the same as billiard? i've only played the latter
 
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