The game contains 22 coloured balls (including the white cue ball although, sometimes less balls are used) which must be pocketed in a certain order using the cue and cue ball. The first rules of snooker were created in 1882, sometime after Chamberlain's merging of the 2 games. Chamberlain would taunt bad players at the game by calling them ' real snookers', mocking their inexperience, and earning the game its name. The name of the game comes from soldierly slang: 'snooker' was a term describing inexperienced troops and first-time cadets. Thus, snooker's predecessors, life pool and pyramid pool, were born, Then in 1875, Sir Neville Chamberlain decided to combine the rules of these 2 games, giving us the earliest version of snooker. However, billiards was only playable by 2 persons, which prompted the development of multiplayer versions of the game. At first, the game was almost exclusively played by nobility, but in the 19th century, it found immense popularity amongst the British military in India. Snooker owes its origins to billiards, a similar game that has been around since the 16th century. And I feel the only way it will truly be recognised is if it happens in competitive play.Snooker How People Came to Hit Balls with Sticks Even in unofficial, non-competitive play, players will get close but only if they and a referee run around the table. I definitely don’t think it will be beaten in competitive play, due to the factors explained above. Does this change my opinion – will the fastest break ever be beaten? Officially, no. I think Rollie Williams said it best in one of his YouTube videos: ‘the guy is a one-man highlight reel’.Įdit: this was written well before 14 year old talent, Iulian Boiko from Ukraine made a 147 in under 6 minutes in training. Just look at his 146 against Ding in the 2017 WSC quarter-finals.
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And even in his 40s I’d say he has a good chance of achieving it in the 6 minute mark. The only person that could come close to reaching that time is O’Sullivan himself. So again, do I think it will be beaten? No. It was literally like watching a computer make the perfect break. He wasn’t having to check any of the potting angles. I mean, he was chalking practically every other shot and didn’t even do so when potting the final 3 colours. O’Sullivan was 21 at the time and he was a lot more carefree in his game and considering he was 8-5 up, this only added to how relaxed he was. And see what their average shot times are like.
#Snooker 147 ronnie fastest pro
Don’t believe me? Set up the opening shot for any pro and see how they do. And the time was set by the one person that could have made it happen. The referee was going round the table as quickly as O’Sullivan. The break itself was perfectly executed in that there were no complicated shots that required much thought. However, I do think what it ultimately came down to was a number of things falling into place at the right time. If it was one of today’s referees, who knows what the time achieved would have been? If anything, this makes me want to give a huge amount of credit to Len Ganley, who refereed the 1997 R1 WSC match for keeping with the pace of O’Sullivan and what was happening. Referees today are a lot more careful and take their time when re-spotting colours.
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We wouldn’t even know that a time in the realm of the low 5 minutes was even fathomable.Īnother point to consider are the referees of today. Nowadays, 147s take on average around 10-14 minutes or so.
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I feel that if O’Sullivan wasn’t in snooker, the fastest 147 times would hover around the 8-9 minute mark. It was made by (arguably) the quickest player the game has seen and possibly the only player that could have made that break happen. If we’re also looking at the general speed of a player, it’s not like the 5:08 was made by a player on a fluke. O’Sullivan broke this by near enough 2 minutes in the context of a maximum break, this is a considerable amount of time. The previous record before this time was James Wattana making a 147 in just over 7 minutes in 1992. Most of these feats were accomplished before 2003!īut will 1997 ever be beaten? Unlikely, for a few reasons. He also most likely holds at least 7 out of the Top 10. But to give some context, O’Sullivan holds at least 3-4 of the Top 5 quickest maximum breaks with times (excluding 1997) ranging in the 6 minute territory. There isn’t really a definitive list as to the fastest maximum breaks as players don’t really go for speed when compiling these breaks.
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It was Round 1 in the 1997 World Championship and Ronnie O’Sullivan was 8-5 up against Mick Price where a loose safety shot travelled a bit too far and well…the rest is history. Whether you class it as 5:20 or 5:08, 1997 saw the infamous and arguably most flawlessly executed 147 break in the history of the game.