Improve Your Snooker [antikvár]

INTRODUCTIONPlay better snookerSnooker is the great sporting success story ofmodern times, but it is easily forgotten that it was avery substantial folk sport long before it becamea normal subject for dinner-table conversation.There were three million players in Britain aloneeven when the World Professional Championshiphad sunk so low in public interest that it was notheld at all from 1950 to 1964, and for five yearsthereafter only on a limited challenge basis.By 1986 there were seven million players inBritain, with representatives of twenty five coun-tries competing at international level. The WorldProfessional Championship, held each spring at theCrucible Theatre in Sheffield, is one of the nation'sgreat sporting occasions. It provides thrilling enter-tainment not only for the 980 or so spectators luckyenough to be in that ideal amphitheatre for thegame, but for millions who watch on television.From the 18.5 million who watched the climax ofthe epic Dennis Taylor v Steve Davis world final in1985 to the one or two million faithful who will bein front of their sets for even ihe quietest afternoonsession, televised snooker is the phenomenon ofthe age. Indeed snooker has become television'sleading sport. BBC and ITV networked 383 hourscoverage in 1985, plus some regional coverage, andthe professional circuit is crammed with tourna-ments from one end of the season to the other.The huge public appetite for snooker is anythingbut passive. People want to play, and hundreds ofmulti-table snooker centres have sprung up to copewith this demand. Standards of play are rising allthe time, particularly among the young - and ofboth sexes. Some of the more precocious talentsseem almost to have been born with a cue in theirhand, so naturally do they fall into sound stanceand true cueing.Most are not so lucky. They either start with ordevelop technical faults which condemn them toa lifetime of mediocrity, however hard they try.They may be knowledgeable about shot selection,because they see so much good snooker on tele-vision, but what will be the right shot for someonewho possesses a reliable cue action may prove sui-cidal for someone who does not. If you cannotdeliver the cue through straight, you will never getanywhere with the game.One of the prime values of this book is that an as-piring player can guide himself anew through basictechniques in the hope that by making a couple ofchanges he will transform his standard of play andtherefore his enjoyment of the game. Beyond that,purposeful practice is as important to a snookerplayer as scales are to a pianist. The routinessuggested are finely judged to develop the art ofpositional play - the secret of snooker. In particularthe routine entitled 'The line-up', never beforeplayed through in sequence in an instructionalbook, is useful for players of all standards. Regard-less of any limitations you may run up against interms of potting ability, you will most certainly beable to improve your positional play so that you canconsistently make substantial breaks when theballs are favourably placed. And remember that thetop players, brilliantly as they may pot, tend to berather keen to get on the next ball not just wherethey should pot it but where they can hardly miss it,even under the most severe pressure.Finally, as an example of the game's infinitevariety - and to prove that everything does notalways go according to the book - I have contri-buted an analysis of one of the most remarkablebreaks ever made, the 69 clearance by Alex Higginsagainst Jimmy White during the 1982 EmbassyWorld Championship semi-final.Clive Everton