Post a reply

Who is the Greatest Player of all time?

Ronnie O'Sullivan
20
40%
Stephen Hendry
24
48%
John Higgins
1
2%
Steve Davis
1
2%
Ray Reardon
0
No votes
Joe Davis
2
4%
other (please specify)
2
4%
 
Total votes : 50

Re: Who is the Greatest Player of all Time?

Postby Andre147

webcat86 wrote:
Sonny wrote:Actually his desire to throw his arm at a few and play his under the body shots and whatever else was purely about crowd pleasing if you want to be pedantic about it. He'd rather go for crazy shots than chase the ton with standard shots, and often finished with nonchalant deliberate fouls just for the amusement factor. Williams is a snooker players snooker player.


Ah, well, I'm going to use my defence of having not seen him in those matches. Just the ones where he slopes around the table like a man defeated and makes me want to pull my teeth out through boredom. I suppose I owe it to myself to look up some of his better performances then.


There are many many matches from him on Youtube during his golden period mostly 1998-2003, so it is a good way to really see how ha played back then and how wonderful and casual he was. He always seemed like he couldn't care less if he won or not, but in reality he obviosuly did care, his relaxed and casual attitude helped him a lot during that period for instance in maintaining his cool under the most intense pressure, and that's a great attribute to have in your game.

He certainly was and still is an amazing player, makes things look so so easy like Ronnie does when at his brilliant best.

Re: Who is the Greatest Player of all Time?

Postby mantorok

webcat86 wrote:
Sonny wrote:Actually his desire to throw his arm at a few and play his under the body shots and whatever else was purely about crowd pleasing if you want to be pedantic about it. He'd rather go for crazy shots than chase the ton with standard shots, and often finished with nonchalant deliberate fouls just for the amusement factor. Williams is a snooker players snooker player.


Ah, well, I'm going to use my defence of having not seen him in those matches. Just the ones where he slopes around the table like a man defeated and makes me want to pull my teeth out through boredom. I suppose I owe it to myself to look up some of his better performances then.


I don't think it's going to change your opinion that much, he still played with a relaxed look about him, except when he was in his prime he did joke about and put on a show a bit more, his long potting, imo, is the best of any player ever to have played the game, some of the long pots were absolutely outrageous and shouldn't have been allowed, he was deadly.

I think a lot of us have fond memories of when the top 4 players were Ronnie, Higgins, Hendry and Williams, the big 4 they used to call them, and every match up between these players were some of the highest quality matches ever seen.

Re: Who is the Greatest Player of all Time?

Postby Andre147

Tequilla really is the KING on Youtube in those type of snooker videos.

His work is amazingly wonderful and well done, I can't imagine the hours he puts in to make compilations like that. :hatoff:

Re: Who is the Greatest Player of all Time?

Postby Holden Chinaski

Andre147 PGC wrote:Tequilla really is the KING on Youtube in those type of snooker videos.

His work is amazingly wonderful and well done, I can't imagine the hours he puts in to make compilations like that. :hatoff:

Yes Tequila is the youtube king.

Take a look at some of the shots MJW pulls off in this vid:
http://youtu.be/cLCyYyjhYPg

Amazing!

Re: Who is the Greatest Player of all Time?

Postby webcat86

Holden Chinaski wrote:
webcat86 wrote:
Sonny wrote:Actually his desire to throw his arm at a few and play his under the body shots and whatever else was purely about crowd pleasing if you want to be pedantic about it. He'd rather go for crazy shots than chase the ton with standard shots, and often finished with nonchalant deliberate fouls just for the amusement factor. Williams is a snooker players snooker player.


Ah, well, I'm going to use my defence of having not seen him in those matches. Just the ones where he slopes around the table like a man defeated and makes me want to pull my teeth out through boredom. I suppose I owe it to myself to look up some of his better performances then.

You should watch some matches of Mark Williams in his prime! Fantastic player to watch! One of the best potters ever.

Take a look at this little video:
http://youtu.be/b9FllExurQs


Cheers for that! Great video, and precisely the stuff I haven't seen. (Except the underarm shot, I have seen him do that and always thought it was a neat move)

Re: Who is the Greatest Player of all Time?

Postby Andy Hunneybell

Its a great question but a difficult one to answer even though I answered Ronnie but as all the people mentioned are from different era's you can never really have a proper answer. I've got a question to match this one and that would be "Who has been the most ever exciting player to watch" ? and again Ronnie has to be right up there along with Jimmy and Alex and maybe a few others that are worth a mention.

Re: Who is the Greatest Player of all Time?

Postby edwards2000

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emklno6Tfeo

He was cueing non too shabby here. I forgot all about this.

Only a few players have made a 147 at the Crucible...

Cliff Thorburn
White
Hendry (3)
O'Sullivan (3)
Williams
Carter

I know this is offtopic, but it's a bit bizarre that at the Masters, only Ding and Kirk Stevens have made one.
Another challenge for Ronnie....
Last edited by edwards2000 on 06 Mar 2014, edited 1 time in total.

Re: Who is the Greatest Player of all Time?

Postby webcat86

Holden Chinaski wrote:
Andre147 PGC wrote:Tequilla really is the KING on Youtube in those type of snooker videos.

His work is amazingly wonderful and well done, I can't imagine the hours he puts in to make compilations like that. :hatoff:

Yes Tequila is the youtube king.

Take a look at some of the shots MJW pulls off in this vid:
http://youtu.be/cLCyYyjhYPg

Amazing!


Yeah that's some special playing! Fair play to him.

To be fair it's not his relaxed attitude that I didn't like, he just looks like he's given up, that's what his appearance suggests in recent years. I don't expect everyone to have a spring in their step though

Re: Who is the Greatest Player of all Time?

Postby Roland

Haha I remember that green he knocked in against Allen, can't believe how hard he hit it. In fact looking back now and the if only factor, if only he'd closed the UK final out against Higgins in 2010 (he potted match ball but Higgins got the snooker and ended up winning the match) and then got a deserved 10-6 lead in the semi at the Crucible against Higgins in 2011 I think he'd have gone on to win his 3rd title in 2011. He was playing as good as ever 2010-2011, he absolutely destroyed Mark Allen in the quarter-final.

In that first phase as people have said, the 1998-2003 period, his long potting is as good as anyone has ever seen in the game. Maybe Judd in 2011 came close but Williams back then was so consistent in banging in the long pots. What I loved about him and what first got me tuned into being a fan of his is how he never seemed to lose a scrappy frame. He'd happily play safety for as long as the opponent wanted, and then given the chance he'd pick off the long pots, always with a plan B if they missed, and always ended up winning. And to go with that, he was so good at escaping from snookers once he'd potted game ball you'd rarely see him end up losing the frame.

Re: Who is the Greatest Player of all Time?

Postby Wildey

Well the most exciting player to watch has to be Alex Higgins he was exciting to watch if he wasn't even at the table.

Re: Who is the Greatest Player of all Time?

Postby Cloud Strife

Mark Williams on form was a joy to watch. For me personally, only Ronnie was more enjoyable to watch than MJW.

I especially remember that time when he mimicked an Ebdon celebration at the Crucible, can't remember what year it was, but it was the one when Ebdon went crazy after winning a frame and did a fist-pump towards the crowd. If I remember correctly, the ref even stepped in and had a word with them both about toning it down.

Re: Who is the Greatest Player of all Time?

Postby webcat86

Holden Chinaski wrote:The Hurricane:
http://youtu.be/ocHpavzr8lE

The Whirlwind:
http://youtu.be/g0mLc4DwsOo


Jimmy was capable of truly incredible stuff. It's a shame the new players don't perform these shots - not even the exhibition ones, just the jaw-dropping 'how the hell did they do that?', like in that video where Jimmy pots into the yellow pocket then swings around for the red. Can't see anyone doing that today.

Re: Who is the Greatest Player of all Time?

Postby Andy Hunneybell

Wildey wrote:Well the most exciting player to watch has to be Alex Higgins he was exciting to watch if he wasn't even at the table.


You're spot on there Wildey. I can remember back to when they opened the game up in 1992 (I think it was) and the qualifiers were at Norbreck Castle in Blackpool, Alex was great to watch on and off the table. I was a big fan of his and even when he tried to get my wife and her mate back to his hotel room it didn't matter, that was Alex, a character on and off the table.

Re: Who is the Greatest Player of all Time?

Postby Roland

In terms of the Jimmy White shot, he was always pulling off shots like that, it just so happens that was in a memorable match where Kirk got his 147. Jimmy was always doing stuff like that, I just hope one day someone trawls through all the broadcast footage available and does an hour long compilation of all his flashy shots.

Williams was inspired by Jimmy, he pulled off similar shots and Judd does the same today.

Re: Who is the Greatest Player of all Time?

Postby Wildey

Sonny wrote:In terms of the Jimmy White shot, he was always pulling off shots like that, it just so happens that was in a memorable match where Kirk got his 147. Jimmy was always doing stuff like that, I just hope one day someone trawls through all the broadcast footage available and does an hour long compilation of all his flashy shots.

Williams was inspired by Jimmy, he pulled off similar shots and Judd does the same today.

Back in the 80s what was memorable about the Way Jimmy played was how clean he potted a ball with amazing amount of Work on the cueball.

Re: Who is the Greatest Player of all Time?

Postby Roland

I hear Ronnie was at Sheffield Academy today interviewing players for a feature on Eurosport to air later in the month. Apparently he was giving some coaching as well.

Re: Who is the Greatest Player of all Time?

Postby Holden Chinaski

Sonny wrote:I hear Ronnie was at Sheffield Academy today interviewing players for a feature on Eurosport to air later in the month. Apparently he was giving some coaching as well.

Interesting!

Re: Who is the Greatest Player of all Time?

Postby Andre147

Sonny wrote:I hear Ronnie was at Sheffield Academy today interviewing players for a feature on Eurosport to air later in the month. Apparently he was giving some coaching as well.


He said that in his interview he gave recently at Phoenix FM, as well as discussing alot more things after his recent Welsh Open win.

To know more details listen to his radio interview here:

http://www.phoenixfm.com/2014/03/05/ron ... n-again-2/

Re: Who is the Greatest Player of all Time?

Postby Witz78

I cant ever claim to have been a Williams fan, dunno, there was just something about him I couldn't warm too, but I did enjoy watching the early Williams in the late 90s / early 00s with his superb potting and winning mentality.

I suppose looking back then id class him as being part Hendry and part Robertson.

Re: Who is the Greatest Player of all Time?

Postby Holden Chinaski

Andre147 PGC wrote:
Sonny wrote:I hear Ronnie was at Sheffield Academy today interviewing players for a feature on Eurosport to air later in the month. Apparently he was giving some coaching as well.


He said that in his interview he gave recently at Phoenix FM, as well as discussing alot more things after his recent Welsh Open win.

To know more details listen to his radio interview here:

http://www.phoenixfm.com/2014/03/05/ron ... n-again-2/

Thanks for the link mate.

Re: Who is the Greatest Player of all Time?

Postby Holden Chinaski

NNear wrote:I thought I'd have a go at making a tournament tribute vid for the recent Welsh Open, even though it's Tequila's space. I have no subscribers anyway.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alGBkJObzzg

I'd like to watch it but I'm using a mobile device, Can you make it available for mobile devices?