Snooker Shootout

Paully D

This is starting tonight at 6pm on Sky Sports.

From Wiki:

The Shoot-Out is a non-ranking snooker tournament, which will first appear in January 2011. The tournament will be sponsored by Caesarscasino.[1]
It will be a 1 frame shoot out with a random draw. The winner will walk away with £32,000. 64 players will contest the tournament, which will be shown on Sky, the first time that Sky has shown a World Snooker event live since 2004.[2][3] Frames will be subjected to the 20 second shot clock in the first five minutes and to a 15 second shot clock in the last 5 minutes, meaning who ever is ahead at that point will win.[4] The inaguaral event will take place at the Circus Arena in Blackpool.[5] The event has been compared to cricket's Twenty20 matches.

• 10 minutes per a frame
• Shot clock: First 5 minutes of the match, players have 20 seconds per a shot. Last 5 minutes of a match players have 15 seconds per a shot.
• Players must hit a cushion OR pot a ball with every shot.
• All foul will result in ball in hand
• Players ‘lag’ for who breaks
• In an event of a tie: Blue Ball shoot out

Sounds like good craic.

The betting is obviously a minefield but I'll have a couple of quid on Neil Robertson at 16/1.

Syferus

It's certainly an interesting idea to me, someone who is a lapsed fan of snooker. It addresses most of the complainants people have about snooker as a spectator sport, but we'll have to see tonight if Barry Hearns has another Sky Sports-backed success on his hands.

And on a less mature note: a blue ball shootout sounds like all kinds of wrong!

vincenzolorenzo

Is this different to Power Snooker? Haven't heard any more about that since the first trial day?

KrazeeEyezKilla

I wonder how many completed frames there will be within the ten minutes? And how many matches will end 0-0?

zack01

Yeah it's completly different to Power Snooker. The rules and format were kindly put up by Paully D earlier.As with the Power Snooker this event is just a bit of fun for the players, but for the organisers and Barry Hearn it's another step in their attempts to get snooker out to a wider audience.

Some sceptics may say the winners cheque of £32,000 is small compared to other events, but the winner of this event will have only played one hour of snooker to win the cash! Also as it's a non ranking event and open to the top 64, the prize is decent enough.

A few players showing a bit of form that played in the Championship League over the last week will be looking to do well here, Matthew Stevens, and Shaun Murphy especially have looked good.
But as its a one frame scenario and a tome clock to boot form will certainly go out the window.

Setun

Have been keeping an eye on this tonight on sky sports. At first I didn't think much of it, but after a while I found myself getting into it. Jimmy White is out, as is Hendry and Ding. Very difficult to predict who'll win a match as in a big way it comes down to the run of the balls on that particular frame.

LuckyGent88

Another masterclass from Ronnie. Fu beaten out the door and gets 500 quid.

zack01

I think it's been brilliant so far,great atmosphere, great venue.

yermandan

Its a great idea but there's one fool shouting 'BOOOOOO' everytime a ball isnt potted

DH2K9

Much better than Power Snooker and seems to be a success. I'll be watching it over the weekend.

allOtherPlaces

I've been loving this format so far. Very entertaining. Come on Fergal!

LuckyGent88

Neil Robertson is just unreal. This format suits him perfectly.

The_Banker

Doherty playing now and off to a good start.

The_Banker

Doherty has it wrapped up.

Mr. Guappa

I'm really enjoying this.

The format definitely has potential. I can see this type of event becoming a regular occurrence, maybe 3 or 4 times a year.

LuckyGent88

Here are some of the big last 32 matches for tonight.
McManus v Robertson
Carter v O'Brien
Day v Dott
Lawlor v Ronnie
Perry v Doherty
King v Davis

Oh my god, Stephen Lee is huge now. He was almost out of breath after coming down the stairs from the intro!!!!!!!!!

Columbia

I'll be honest, I don't like it at all. Call me conservative or whatever, but I would go so far as to call it an abomination.

Why are they dressed like darts players? Why does the "announcement" voice have to be like something from robot wars, why can't the referee make the "15-second shot-clock" call during the frame, when there's no danger of putting a player off mid-shot? Why does it have to 'ding' (no pun intended ) down the final 5 seconds, putting players off at the most crucial moment? I can understand they want an element of the unexpected, but the rules as they are now introduce so much randomness and luck into the equation, in what is already a 1-frame match, that the players' own natural skill is made almost irrelevant.

Why must it announce "Player 1, go to the next round, player 2, you're out!" at the end of frames? Why must there be girls in several layers of fake tan there to walk the players the 5 yards to their 'place'? There's a cheapness and a bawdyness to the whole thing (as I'm typing now there are girls shouting "woo!" as Higgins bends over for a shot), that I think is demeaning to professional sportspeople.

All just my opinion, and I see most others are into it, but I do absolutely hate it.

edit: Having said all that, fantastic end to the Robertson match!

eigrod

That was the best finish yet. Well done Robertson. McManus looked to be the first to take it a bit too seriously with his reaction to defeat.

krustydoyle

That ref gets hotter every time i see her..

eigrod

krustydoyle wrote: »

That ref gets hotter every time i see her..

Who let Richard Keys on here ?

Queen-Mise

This is great viewing - thoroughly enjoying it. The crowd and the players are really enjoying themselves too. Neil Robertson played some excellent shots in less than 2 1/2 mins !!! And had to laugh at Ronnie O'Sullivan barely knowing the rules.

A lovely spin on snooker - has a lot of reminders of a darts competition about it. John Higgins was plastered last night playing one of his matches - could barely string a few words together in a sentence in the interview afterwards.

Its nice to see all the snooker players in a different light, see the immediate interviews.

A good innovation on the game.

zack01

After watching it last night i was so impressed by it, i booked a flight online, and arrived here at the circus arena midday, got my pass sorted and i'm all set.
First impressions are this is a fantastic venue, fantastic atmosphere and after talking to a few of the players they are enjoying every minute of it.
If it's half as good as it was last night then we're in for a great day.
I've a feeling this event is here to stay!

LuckyGent88

Ronnie v Selby. Should be good

It wasnt competitive at all. 1 miss from Selby off break and Ronnie clears the table with a masterclass.

Rjd2

This was fun.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_zHGu0iBTE

Queen-Mise

Enjoying watching it again tonight - and the eye candy is a bonus (not saying who ;);))

iMuse

I find it enjoyable apart from people shouting out when its the last 5 seconds of the shot clock. Its much better than power snooker which was overly complex, hopefully it will get more people interested in snooker.

BaZmO*

I think it's a fantastic idea. Been really enjoying it.

FlawedGenius

Columbia wrote: »

I'll be honest, I don't like it at all. Call me conservative or whatever, but I would go so far as to call it an abomination.

Why are they dressed like darts players? Why does the "announcement" voice have to be like something from robot wars, why can't the referee make the "15-second shot-clock" call during the frame, when there's no danger of putting a player off mid-shot? Why does it have to 'ding' (no pun intended ) down the final 5 seconds, putting players off at the most crucial moment? I can understand they want an element of the unexpected, but the rules as they are now introduce so much randomness and luck into the equation, in what is already a 1-frame match, that the players' own natural skill is made almost irrelevant.

Why must it announce "Player 1, go to the next round, player 2, you're out!" at the end of frames? Why must there be girls in several layers of fake tan there to walk the players the 5 yards to their 'place'? There's a cheapness and a bawdyness to the whole thing (as I'm typing now there are girls shouting "woo!" as Higgins bends over for a shot), that I think is demeaning to professional sportspeople.

All just my opinion, and I see most others are into it, but I do absolutely hate it.

edit: Having said all that, fantastic end to the Robertson match!

Totally agree. Its cringy and tacky. I know there trying to make the sport more exciting and fast paced but theyve gone OTT on it. No need for the robot voice I cringe when I hear it. It just doesnt suit snooker.

zack01

This has been fantastic, really really enjoyable, agreed they can drop the American voiceover but apart from that I think it's a winning formula and another great addition to the calendar from Barry Hearn. Hopefully it becomes a regular event in the coming seasons.

As much fun as this has been, it's back to the serious stuff on Wednesday as the newly formed German Masters begins.
Eurosport are providing coverage throughout the week.

Exclamation Marc

I totally disagree that its been an abomination.

A lot of my friends who don't watch snooker have tuned in over the weekend to watch it because they find the format exciting and enjoy the fast paced nature of it. How many will tune in to other events I don't know, but if even one does its been somewhat of a success.

Its a totally different event to the regular snooker format and whilst I'll always be more excited about the bigger more regular format events, its just a fun weekend. And if it pulls in some new interest in the sport and encourages people to check out the ranking events then fantastic.

I do agree that the voice-over is ridiculously over the top, but its a minor complaint. Even the crowd and some of the players were laughing at it first time around, but its existance doesn't surprise me (in that its a hugely promoted sky sports event and they tend to do OTT just perfectly) but I'm sure (and hoping) that it will be toned down next year.

Some of the fans are far too loud and shouting the countdown clock is cringeworthy and it always sounds like its ar$eholes doing it, and I think thats been the biggest problem I've had. Michaela told them to shut up yesterday but that was the only time someone has (on camera at least) told them to shut up. Some people were even shouting randomly (not counting down the clock, just shouting) as the shot was about to be taken and it was ridiculous, they should be given one warning and turfed out. It really seemed like the daytime crowd was pretty respectful and the evening crowd was a football crowd.

Great event, nice little break from the norm, and if its pulling in new viewers and generating fresh interest then its great for the sport. Take out the "Sky Sports-isms" (the booming voice and the shítty crowd control) and it'd be flawless. It'll never displace or replace the "proper events" so whats the harm? The tension in some of those games (the Drago McLeod match and the unbelievably exciting Robertson finish) is fantastic and the excitement it brings is wonderful.

It's also a fantastic showcase of lower-ranked talent. A lot of the other events (like the World Championships and UK Championships) rarely show the opening rounds (unless its by red-button or something) and by that stage a lot of the lower-ranked players are gone, so its a great way of showing off talent that may improve over time (Judd Trump for example) and whom you'll see more of in the future. And on the flip of that you get to see old-faces like Bond or Drago whom a lot of people probably haven't seen in years.

All in all, great event.

vincenzolorenzo

I didn't see this live as I don;t have sky but just after watching that video of the drago/mcleod match. Overall I thought it was very entertaining, fast paced and snappy and it looks like the players were having good craic. What i did not like at all though was the roaring and shouting from the crowd, and usually at nothing too. I reckon this type of tournament is here to stay but purely as light tv entertainment, and for me could never match up to a proper snooker match

allOtherPlaces

I think the OTT robot announcer is fun. So there.

- crowd: for the most part created a great atmosphere. Yes, there were a few vulgarians but nothing compared to the boorish mob that ruined the Power Snooker final IMO.

- overall: a fun weekends entertainment.... a good hook for the game for new supporters... a good opportunity to keep players interested in the game.

what's not to like?