Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie

Is snooker a real sport?

Options
124

Comments

  • Options
    #92
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 17,378 ✭ [Deleted User]


    frag420 wrote: »
    Is it fúck!!

    If you can play it in a pub then it's not a sport!

    If your two year old can play it in the garden, it's not a sport.. The logic means nothing.


  • Options
    #93
    K4t
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,362 ✭✭✭K4t


    It's a game. Like darts or golf.

    Why the need to classify them as a sport? Many sports do not require the skill and concentration levels of games.


  • Options
    #94
    GerB40
    Registered Users Posts: 2,047 ✭✭✭GerB40


    Aphex wrote: »
    Yep, and rightly so. Think he's broke these days.

    I reckon that unless he does a phenomenal amount of practicing to become a darts player his sports days are over... Higgins should've got banned too if you ask me but he's a legend of the game so that always looked unlikely.


  • Options
    #95
    Aphex
    Closed Accounts Posts: 653 ✭✭✭Aphex


    GerB40 wrote: »
    I reckon that unless he does a phenomenal amount of practicing to become a darts player his sports days are over... Higgins should've got banned too if you ask me but he's a legend of the game so that always looked unlikely.

    I'd say he'd make a buck or two at Sumo!

    Not sure of the whole Higgins thing, but did it not turn out that he was kinda entrapped to pay up somehow and was just agreeing for the sake of getting out of it?


  • Options
    #96
    Diabhal Beag
    Closed Accounts Posts: 15,238 ✭✭✭✭Diabhal Beag


    Hulk Hands wrote: »
    Darts is essentially the same throwing motion over and over at the same distance, just changing angles (at times). Snooker is changing angles at every single shot, changing distances at every shot ,changing the motion of the cue (top spin, backspin, swerve), using extra devices (rest), tactically accounting for your opponent. Players have picked up darts and turned semi professional or even professional within 2-4 years. I dont think theres a snooker professional alive that wasnt playing regularly in his pre teens, although I could be wrong on that.
    Aye apologies if darts v snooker is OT. I haven't watched snooker regularly in a long time and I can't account for the youth uptake but you're spot on about the late-comers in darts. That said I think you're hugely underplaying the difficulty in darts. It's a psychological experiment at times. For example missing a double 10 has broken some of the best players I've ever seen. You have to rectify mistakes (if you get the chance) within a couple of seconds. The crowd are ruthless and put off even the greatest of all time. Also when has wind ever been a factor in snooker :pac:


  • Advertisement
  • Options
    #97
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 0 ✭ [Deleted User]


    K4t wrote: »
    It's a game. Like darts or golf.

    Why the need to classify them as a sport? Many sports do not require the skill and concentration levels of games.

    All three are sports. Whatever a out the debate over snooker or darts there can be absolutely no doubt whatsoever over golf. It's as much as sport as soccer or rugby.


  • Options
    #98
    Diabhal Beag
    Closed Accounts Posts: 15,238 ✭✭✭✭Diabhal Beag


    Golf is just darts for the upper middle class


  • Options
    #99
    Aidric
    Registered Users Posts: 13,589 ✭✭✭✭Aidric


    Ah it's a sport alright. Requires as much game management as other sports.

    Remembering the first time I saw a snooker table after a moderately successful teenage pool career, I knew this was a step up.


  • Options
    #100
    AndonHandon
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,384 ✭✭✭AndonHandon


    A sport doesn't need to have too much athleticism. The sport is in the competition which makes drinking games a sport.


  • Options
    #101
    moxin
    Registered Users Posts: 1,203 ✭✭✭moxin


    Some say snooker is boring to watch. try playing it, its a game/sport of strategy and when you're an amateur in the snooker hall, it and pool can be fun as well. Hands up who has had that unintended funny fluke shot a few times in a frame, it would bring a smile even to the most miserable face ever! ;)


  • Advertisement
  • Options
    #102
    DEFTLEFTHAND
    Registered Users Posts: 16,500 ✭✭✭✭DEFTLEFTHAND


    Aphex wrote: »
    Yep, and rightly so. Think he's broke these days.

    Yeah he's on the dole.


  • Options
    #103
    major bill
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,421 ✭✭✭major bill


    Played All-Ireland snooker at underage level, couldn't care if people don't see it as a sport.

    Its takes great mentality and natural ability to become just half decent, playing 7 or 8 frames against someone your equal can be mentally draining!!

    Quality game!!


  • Options
    #104
    Cienciano
    Registered Users Posts: 14,232 ✭✭✭✭Cienciano


    Saying darts is a sport is like saying Jenga is a sport.


  • Options
    #105
    Turtwig
    Registered Users Posts: 26,578 ✭✭✭✭Turtwig


    Cienciano wrote: »
    Saying darts is a sport is like saying Jenga is a sport.

    Giant Jenga certainly works the cardiovascular system. There's competition, skill, finesse and even a good stretch involved too.

    Ergo, by the criteria established by naysers in this thread. Darts is a sport.


  • Options
    #106
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 0 ✭ [Deleted User]


    c_man wrote: »
    Well this week being the Masters and all, I've been loving it. Chill out in the evenings, maybe a small smoke, and switch to Eurosport when the BBC finishes their coverage. But then I've got a workmate bitching about it, like saying it shouldn't be on the sports section of the news, it isn't a real sport etc. So what say you AH?

    Depends on your definition of "sport". I think it is a shame we have this one word "sport" for such a diverse collection of sports. Whether you are Lawn Bowling or engages in MMA fighting this is all "sport".

    Perhaps you should worry less about whether this - or that - is a "sport" - and simply allow yourself to be awe struck by people who are masters in their field.

    The word "sport" means nothing to me. But when I see someone hit a tiny golf ball into a hole from a distance I am tired to even WALK in the morning - or I see a snooker player demonstrate Newtonian logic at every angle of a table when I have trouble even seeing them as spheres when I get down on the cue - or people who have a tiny pointy blade who can throw it across a room bigger than my house and land it in the "bullseye" or "ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY" on command. I have long given up on the word "sport". But I will never give up on observation of people who excel in all walks of life.

    "Sport" for me is just our way of displaying what our species is capable of :)


  • Options
    #107
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 0 ✭ [Deleted User]


    On a different note though - snooker is the one sport that taught me how to be a sportsman.

    I remember a year - the year I can tell you not - when Jimmy White had reached the final - a number of times - shall we say.

    And I remember him getting down on the white (oo err) - and he was MANY frames ahead at the time -

    - and Jimmy got up - without a cry from Stephen Hendry. And without a Cry from the referee.

    And he just said "I touched the white with my cue - sorry".

    And he went on to LOSE the final. So this anecdote is not going to teach you anything about honesty.

    But my love of Jimmy White was sealed that night. To admit to a foul - that no one else saw - in a world where people like Rinaldo find a way to trip over a PAINTED white line. That moment sealed the way I want to live my life. Snooker a sport? I do not know. But it taught me something about "sport(hu)manship"- Jimmy White taught me something - that I take with me like a lost baby takes a blankie. And I hold on to it tight.


  • Options
    #108
    DEFTLEFTHAND
    Registered Users Posts: 16,500 ✭✭✭✭DEFTLEFTHAND


    You see pro golfers also calling a foul on themselves. There's a code of honour in these sports, something that's long lost in other games.


  • Options
    #109
    kneemos
    Registered Users Posts: 20,411 ✭✭✭✭kneemos


    Read the first two pages and skipped to the last for a continuation of yes it is,no its not.


  • Options
    #110
    kneemos
    Registered Users Posts: 20,411 ✭✭✭✭kneemos


    Masturbation requires exertion and concentration...game or sport?

    Dunno how it would work as a league though.


  • Options
    #111
    aaronjumper
    Registered Users Posts: 14,128 ✭✭✭✭aaronjumper


    Anything that has tournaments, trophies, winners and losers is a sport, I would have thought, leaving dictionary definitions aside. Never thought people based it on how much energy you burn.


  • Advertisement
  • Options
    #112
    Kermit.de.frog
    Registered Users Posts: 23,544 ✭✭✭✭Kermit.de.frog


    Darts are labelled a "sport" yet every "pro" who plays seems to be a fat drunk with a pint in their hand.


  • Options
    #113
    DEFTLEFTHAND
    Registered Users Posts: 16,500 ✭✭✭✭DEFTLEFTHAND


    Kermit.de.frog wrote: »
    Darts are labelled a "sport" yet every "pro" who plays seems to be a fat drunk with a pint in their hand.

    Darts is serious business these days and some of the younger crew have a new ethos, look at guys like Kim Hybrechts or James Wade in the PDC, men who are in shape. Over at the BDO you have guys like Wesley Harms and Jeffery De Graaf. These men hit the gym every morning as Vassos Alexander revealed recently when commentating for BBC on Lakeside.

    Big money to be made out there.


  • Options
    #114
    ceadaoin.
    Registered Users Posts: 8,122 ✭✭✭ceadaoin.


    Kermit.de.frog wrote: »
    Darts are labelled a "sport" yet every "pro" who plays seems to be a fat drunk with a pint in their hand.

    You obviously haven't watched professional darts in a good few years


  • Options
    #115
    Dirty Dingus McGee
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,631 ✭✭✭Dirty Dingus McGee


    DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »
    You see pro golfers also calling a foul on themselves. There's a code of honour in these sports, something that's long lost in other games.

    Its easier to be more sporting in a non contact sport where the referee has no influence other than to count the score.I definitely wouldn't be willing to call a foul on myself, in soccer, gaa, rugby etc when the referee probably doesn't award loads of fouls per game that might have cost your team already.


  • Options
    #116
    Dunford
    Registered Users Posts: 118 ✭✭Dunford


    My wife never understands me when I tell her that some the finest athletes in the world compete at the Lakeside every year.

    Snooker and darts are both sports.

    Todays final is going to be a cracker. Im glad Ronnie is out. I seem to have gone off him after the school fees comment.


  • Options
    #117
    Whosthis
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,342 ✭✭✭Whosthis


    Its more of a giant board game than a sport really.


  • Options
    #118
    sipstrassi
    Registered Users Posts: 131 ✭✭sipstrassi


    Del2005 wrote: »
    Can it be a sport where the equipment has a bigger impact than the person ,same for horse events?

    Horses are not 'equipment'. I could drive an F1 car once shown but I could never ride any of the top horses from any equestrian sport. Horses will develop a relationship with a rider and not perform for an equally good rider. Unlike a car or any other 'equipment'.


  • Options
    #119
    Whosthis
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,342 ✭✭✭Whosthis


    Dunford wrote: »
    My wife never understands me when I tell her that some the finest athletes in the world compete at the Lakeside every year.

    Snooker and darts are both sports.

    Todays final is going to be a cracker. Im glad Ronnie is out. I seem to have gone off him after the school fees comment.

    Calling it a sport is pushing it, calling them athletes is a step too far.


  • Options
    #120
    job seeker
    Registered Users Posts: 5,115 ✭✭✭job seeker


    :D
    Areyouwell wrote: »
    At the very least, I'd say you'd need medication.

    Lol


  • Advertisement
  • Options
    #121
    force eleven
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,039 ✭✭✭force eleven


    Americans call it Snucker.


Advertisement