world snooker championships - anyone else watching?
 

I thought I would post this here in the hope of catching the attention of most brits, though I appreciate that it probably belongs in the lounge.

of course it is being played at the Crucible in Sheffield, [where else?] so it does sort of fit.

Ronnie already through to the 2nd round along with Mark McManus and Mark Williams.

I am already fed up with Stephen Hendry's commentary - a great player but IMO as boring to listen to as to watch.

Anyone else wasting their time watching a few chaps chasing small balls around a baize lined table?

I don't think it is being broadcast in the States -- at least I haven't been able to find it on my local cable listings.

I thought the tribute to Steve Davis was quite moving. I wonder if we will look on the current players with the same affection as Hurricane Higgins, Jimmy White and Dennis Taylor.

Where's whispering Ted Lowe when you need him? "For those of you watching in black and white, the pink is behind the green!

Hello Annhig! Well, I never thought I'd see Snooker mentioned here. Looks like we can watch it on iPlayer. Must admit I havent seen any snooker since we moved over to the US. Great memories of watching it in black and white in the 60s/70s. How crazy is that for snooker? Last time I knew who was who it was people like Stephen Hendry, Alex Higgins, Jimmy White, Ronnie O'Sullivan. Steve was on his way out. Looks like not much has changed. And The Crucible too.
Maybe time to have another look.

Ah whispering Ted Lowe, one of my favourite lines was when the white ball was in the middle of the table and old Fred Davis was trying to stretch for it, Ted's comment was "Fred in his younger days used to be able to get his leg over, now he has to resort to the left hand method"

John Spencer was laughing loudly in the background

:)

well I'm pleased that I'm not a voice crying in the wilderness!

Steve, I too enjoyed the tribute to Steve Davis and there's a great piece on the BBC sport website though trying to imagine him as a techno DJ is too much for me.

JJ - I'm impressed that you know what it is, though i remember that you lived here for a while so perhaps it's not so surprising.

Geordie - thanks for the Fred Davis anecdote - shades of Jonners!

Glad that you can find it on iplayer, Gertie - as you say not a lot changes, Ronnie is still being wonderfully temperamental, refusing to give an interview even after he's won, John Higgins is still grinding out the frames, and plucky losers are still losing.

anyway, who on earth thought that broadcasting a game that relies upon the colours of the balls in black and white was a good idea? it'll never catch on!

You can't access iPlayer for live or recorded TV transmission from outside UK (they check your IP address), but if you have VPN or proxy server you can.

When Wimbledon comes round I might try a similar thread then I can bemoan the passing of Connors, Mcenroe. Borg and Gerulaitis (bless you).

There will always be an England!

My children still joke about there being two things on English television during their first visit: sheep dog trials and snooker.

Enjoy!

Didn't realise BBC broadcast snooker in the days before colour television - must have been hard to follow!

Heimdall, it was just 50 shades of grey!

Gosh annhig you'll be watching the world championship darts soon !!! Can't find the snooker on tv in Australia.

Takes me back, my mum used to play for England before the war and made me watch it (in B&W) as a kid. Like watching paint dry.

Gosh annhig you'll be watching the world championship darts soon !!!>>

I draw the line at darts. [I can never forget the great NTNON sketch:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgap_CzceBM ]

Bilbo - try getting a colour telly - it's much more exciting then!

A bit like this:

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

Ann, it was worse, she was virtually blind so I had to describe it to her.

Ann, it was worse, she was virtually blind so I had to describe it to her.>>

"that's a bad miss"....

<i>Heimdall, it was just 50 shades of grey!</i>

I'd rather watch the movie, haha!

"Didn't realise BBC broadcast snooker in the days before colour television"

They didn't, really.

The TV snooker thing really started with a programme called Pot Black, invented in 1969 more or less as the BBC started regular colour transmissions. In those days of low TV licence fees, and no income from co-production or overseas sales, it wasn't obvious colour programmes were going to be worth spending production budgets on - or, more importantly, that people would pay for color licences. Snooker seemed a cheap way of demonstrating the value of colour.

At first, the prog got a far larger audience than the Beeb expected, reaching many times more households than the number of colour TVs. Several elderly members of the Flannerclan - all far too frugal to lash out on colour TVs - found it surprisingly soothing.

As I understand it, the success of Pot Black turned snooker from something underachieving working-class teenage boys frittered their lives away on in smoky halls (billiards was what toffs played in their country houses) into a mass spectator sport. I'm not sure anyone plays it themselves any more: the snooker halls disappeared years ago, pool's what they play in pubs - but snooker's what gets the biggish TV audiences.