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Greatest matches 1976-2021: Snooker Island decides

Postby Pink Ball

Good evening, ladies and gentleman.

Over recent years, you may have enjoyed my countdown series, updated annually, of the top 125 matches since 1980 (when I began watching).

On the eve of the 2022 World Championship, I will count down the greatest matches of the modern era (from the 1976-77 season up to and including all of the year 2021), but as voted for by you, the posters. Simply select your 10 greatest matches, PM them to me, and I will reveal how the voting went afterwards.

Order your list from 1 to 10, and points will be awarded according to the Formula One points system: 25, 18, 15, 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2, 1.

All the matches you select must be at least best of 17 frames in length, and the gaps between the two players can not have been more than follows:

Up to and including best of 21: two frames (maximum gaps of 9-7, 10-8, 11-9)
From best of 23 to best of 27: three frames (maximum gaps of 12-9, 13-10, 14-11, 15-12)
Best of 31 to best of 35: four frames (maximum gaps of 16-12, 17-13, 18-14)

You must submit your votes BEFORE Friday, April 15, 2022.

Happy voting, and remember, submit your scores via PM, not on this thread!
Last edited by Pink Ball on 08 Jan 2022, edited 3 times in total.

Re: The greatest matches of all-time: Snooker Island's choic

Postby Pink Ball

Aside from the above criteria, you are free to vote as you wish as everyone's definition of greatness is different, but I think it would be best to stick to matches that were genuine contests, so that's why I've made the above enforcements.

Other than that, whatever you think is most important, you apply: quality, excitement, a mixture of the two, whatever. I would ask people to vote seriously though (and try to be objective, instead of being biased towards matches your favourite player won; or biased against great matches your favourite lost) as I think this will make for a very special countdown.

Whoever is first to submit their votes to me via PM, I will PM my top 10 (already selected) back to them, so as not to influence the results in any way.

Re: Greatest matches 1976-2021: Snooker Island decides

Postby Johnny Bravo

Pink Ball wrote:Order your list from 1 to 10, and points will be awarded according to the Formula One points system: 25, 18, 15, 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2, 1.

The old points system in Formula 1 was better, with the winner receiving 10 points.

Pink Ball wrote:All the matches you select must be at least best of 17 frames in length, and the gaps between the two players can not have been more than follows:

Up to and including best of 21: two frames (maximum gaps of 9-7, 10-8, 11-9)
From best of 23 to best of 27: three frames (maximum gaps of 12-9, 13-10, 14-11, 15-12)
Best of 31 to best of 35: four frames (maximum gaps of 16-12, 17-13, 18-14)

This is a stupid rule, the scoreline should not matter.

Re: Greatest matches 1976-2021: Snooker Island decides

Postby James Bentley

Pink Ball wrote:
vodkadiet1 wrote:Remember to only private message the master contributor, namely Pink Ball.

Yes. This is being done to limit others’ votes influencing proceedings. How everyone voted will be revealed afterwards, so it’ll all be very transparent.

I think the problem with this approach is that my memory is far from perfect and I'm bound to forget some of the best matches that I've seen. When everyone else's choices are revealed, it's an absolute certainty that I'll be kicking myself for not including some of them myself. You may say "well if they were that good, you would remember them", but that's not how memory works (well, it's not how my memory works). Sometimes it needs a prod.


That said, I'll be doing my best to compile a list. I'm looking forward to researching it! And it goes without saying that it'll be fascinating to see what everyone else comes up with.

Re: Greatest matches 1976-2021: Snooker Island decides

Postby Juddernaut88

James Bentley wrote:
Pink Ball wrote:
vodkadiet1 wrote:Remember to only private message the master contributor, namely Pink Ball.

Yes. This is being done to limit others’ votes influencing proceedings. How everyone voted will be revealed afterwards, so it’ll all be very transparent.

I think the problem with this approach is that my memory is far from perfect and I'm bound to forget some of the best matches that I've seen. When everyone else's choices are revealed, it's an absolute certainty that I'll be kicking myself for not including some of them myself. You may say "well if they were that good, you would remember them", but that's not how memory works (well, it's not how my memory works). Sometimes it needs a prod.


That said, I'll be doing my best to compile a list. I'm looking forward to researching it! And it goes without saying that it'll be fascinating to see what everyone else comes up with.



I'll be looking forward to seeing your list James, I'm sure you will select plenty of good matches <ok>

Re: Greatest matches 1976-2021: Snooker Island decides

Postby Pink Ball

Johnny Bravo wrote:
Pink Ball wrote:Order your list from 1 to 10, and points will be awarded according to the Formula One points system: 25, 18, 15, 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2, 1.

The old points system in Formula 1 was better, with the winner receiving 10 points.

Pink Ball wrote:All the matches you select must be at least best of 17 frames in length, and the gaps between the two players can not have been more than follows:

Up to and including best of 21: two frames (maximum gaps of 9-7, 10-8, 11-9)
From best of 23 to best of 27: three frames (maximum gaps of 12-9, 13-10, 14-11, 15-12)
Best of 31 to best of 35: four frames (maximum gaps of 16-12, 17-13, 18-14)

This is a stupid rule, the scoreline should not matter.

I stand by it.

Some of the greatest moments in snooker were total hammerings. But they weren’t great matches.

Re: Greatest matches 1976-2021: Snooker Island decides

Postby Iranu

James Bentley wrote:
Pink Ball wrote:
vodkadiet1 wrote:Remember to only private message the master contributor, namely Pink Ball.

Yes. This is being done to limit others’ votes influencing proceedings. How everyone voted will be revealed afterwards, so it’ll all be very transparent.

I think the problem with this approach is that my memory is far from perfect and I'm bound to forget some of the best matches that I've seen. When everyone else's choices are revealed, it's an absolute certainty that I'll be kicking myself for not including some of them myself. You may say "well if they were that good, you would remember them", but that's not how memory works (well, it's not how my memory works). Sometimes it needs a prod.


That said, I'll be doing my best to compile a list. I'm looking forward to researching it! And it goes without saying that it'll be fascinating to see what everyone else comes up with.

Pink himself has compiled some fairly comprehensive Best Matches lists which could be of some help to you.

Re: Greatest matches 1976-2021: Snooker Island decides

Postby Andre147

Pink Ball wrote:
Johnny Bravo wrote:
Pink Ball wrote:Order your list from 1 to 10, and points will be awarded according to the Formula One points system: 25, 18, 15, 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2, 1.

The old points system in Formula 1 was better, with the winner receiving 10 points.

Pink Ball wrote:All the matches you select must be at least best of 17 frames in length, and the gaps between the two players can not have been more than follows:

Up to and including best of 21: two frames (maximum gaps of 9-7, 10-8, 11-9)
From best of 23 to best of 27: three frames (maximum gaps of 12-9, 13-10, 14-11, 15-12)
Best of 31 to best of 35: four frames (maximum gaps of 16-12, 17-13, 18-14)

This is a stupid rule, the scoreline should not matter.

I stand by it.

Some of the greatest moments in snooker were total hammerings. But they weren’t great matches.


Oh yes, to be considered a great match both players need to play a huge role in it, not just a 10-1, 10-2 or 17-4 hammering.

Re: Greatest matches 1976-2021: Snooker Island decides

Postby James Bentley

Iranu wrote:
James Bentley wrote:
Pink Ball wrote:
vodkadiet1 wrote:Remember to only private message the master contributor, namely Pink Ball.

Yes. This is being done to limit others’ votes influencing proceedings. How everyone voted will be revealed afterwards, so it’ll all be very transparent.

I think the problem with this approach is that my memory is far from perfect and I'm bound to forget some of the best matches that I've seen. When everyone else's choices are revealed, it's an absolute certainty that I'll be kicking myself for not including some of them myself. You may say "well if they were that good, you would remember them", but that's not how memory works (well, it's not how my memory works). Sometimes it needs a prod.


That said, I'll be doing my best to compile a list. I'm looking forward to researching it! And it goes without saying that it'll be fascinating to see what everyone else comes up with.

Pink himself has compiled some fairly comprehensive Best Matches lists which could be of some help to you.

<ok>

Cheers sir. I've been going through one of my ancient Rothmans Snooker Yearbooks (which has reminded me of a few contenders already) but I think you've given me a great new steer there. Will have a proper look this afternoon.

Re: Greatest matches 1976-2021: Snooker Island decides

Postby LDS

This is an extremely tough one for me to complete to personal satisfaction.

Just refreshing my memory by looking back to the WSC of 1982 and then onwards, which was the year I kinda started watching properly, and just by the end of looking at all the WSCs I've got 28 matches I particularly enjoyed and felt like landmark matches to my personal fan-mind.

However, the stipulation of max-frame-difference has scuppered one of my automatic top 10s from that list of 28, when John Parrott beat Jimmy White 18-12 to clinch the 1991 WSC title. At the time I was a huge fan of both and it was the perfect final for me, the dream match-up. And Parrott was actually my slight favourite as he was marginally the underdog at that point & I felt deserved more recognition than he currently had.

Alas, I can't include this one, but that still only reduces my tally to 27, and I haven't even begun to look back at any other events. And even the best of other events will struggle to compete with those big and momentous WSC moments over 40 years.

Likewise, this isn't even including many of the great Ronnie O'Sullivan performances that I particularly enjoyed, such as another final with two players I really wanted to be there, the 2013 WSC with Barry Hawkins, another 18-12. It was 7-7 at one point, and then 10-8, then 15-12 before RoS cleaned up.

Although RoS does appear in other matches that could be included from my top 27, it's going to be more often than not the times he lost, which is an incorrect position in terms of my fandom of him in the late 90s and early 2000s, it just so happens that when he was facing another player I liked, he tended to lose when it was a close call.

On top of this there's the tournaments where a player's journey is as much a part of the story as a single match, and for a few of the years the same player can have two matches in a row that were rip-roarers because of the circumstances of the journey. For example, I have eight Jimmy White matches for the eleven years between 1984 and 1994, where the built-up drama from all the years compounds anything specific about any specific match, making such things as Jimmy White vs Stephen Hendry in the 2nd round in 1988 a much 'bigger' match than it might seem to modern eyes.

You could make a top 10 just out of Jimmy's journey before you even think about the journeys of all the other players.

And then there's the desire not to bias all of our picks into one specific era, where we know it's youthful over-excitement adding that extra layer of drama to a match, the stuff we don't realise slowly wears away as each year passes for us. I shall have to exclude one of those 2 matches from 1984 just because two from 1984 is too skewed a perspective on the big picture. But then which of the two from 1984 to include, they were both absolute classics!

So picking ten with a good year variety combined with a good player variety, before I even get to tournament variety is going to be one hellova job.

Re: Greatest matches 1976-2021: Snooker Island decides

Postby Pink Ball

Johnny, I appreciate that you're submitting a list, but I will remind you of my second post: please try to be objective. You're more than welcome to give me 10 matches your favourite players won, but I do ask you, are they really the greatest matches you've seen, and were their not some matches that ended in crushing defeats that were still positively thrilling?

Re: Greatest matches 1976-2021: Snooker Island decides

Postby Juddernaut88

SnookerEd25 wrote:Johnny - did you like watching Tornado Drago?
You like your flair players, seems he would have been right up your street, at his best :chin:


Drago was good to watch in my opinion <ok>


   

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