Snooker for a long time has been criticized as being a boring and un-interesting game. With long pauses, audience sitting quiet in the dim lights, men who wore tuxedos played like sloths, taking all the time they could before playing a shot and still miss it.
In this era of technological advancement, when youth and the young generation is more inclined towards X-box and Play-station, the sport of snooker is struggling to maintain its eminence and dignity.
With the dwindling pool of audiences and fans, World professional billiards and snooker association WPBSA had to come up with some innovative ideas. Barry Hearn the man behind the success story of ‘darts’ sworn in as the chairman of WPBSA lately.
Determined to bring snooker in public’s eye, Barry along with his partners and legendary Steve Davis, has created a new format of the game “The power snooker”. Although power snooker is independent of the governing body WPBSA, chairman of the association has said that "WPBSA completely supports the idea."
Barry takes a peek on the game as an experiment to make snooker more exciting and faster, as the sport needed an appealing and provocative transfusion. Power snooker is to snooker as Twenty20 is to cricket, it’s the fast and furious form of the slow and unpretentious snooker.
Format – The format of this variant of snooker is very interesting and attractive. As there are only nine red and six colored balls, fixed 30 minutes of play on the usual traditional table but with a modern baize and design. It is a time bound game regardless of frames.
The balls get continuously re-racked, until the fixed 30 minutes time is finished. The player with the highest score in the end of a match is the winner.
While the frame is re-racked the game clock is halted. In power snooker the nine red balls are stacked in a diamond shape unlike the usual tri-angle, rest of the colored balls remain on their usual spots.
Scoring – All the balls carry the same points except for a new dark-red ball placed in middle of the rack which has two points, this dark-red ball is called the “power ball”. A shot clock is set which allows each player a 20 seconds limit for a shot. If the player exceeds the time limit he is penalized by deduction of 20 points and his turn.
If a player scores a century in a single break he is acknowledged with 50 bonus points, another consecutive century gets a bonus of 100 points, and 200 points for the third consecutive century.
If a foul is being made the opponent gets the turn and can resume the game anywhere from the baulk area.
Power ball – It’s a dark-red ball with a special logo, placed in the middle of the diamond shaped rack. If a player pots the power ball he gets two points and a power play.
Power play – As soon as a player pots the power ball, a two minutes power play time starts. In the power play all the points are doubled, however if a shot is missed or a foul is committed the opponent can still utilize the power play.
Power zone – The D-shaped baulk area on the power table is known as the power zone. If any ‘coloured’ ball gets pot as a result of a shot originated in the baulk area, the score is counted double. If such a shot is being played in the power play then the score increases four times.
Environment – The most interesting fact about power snooker is the audience’s participation and interaction. The over-all environment of power snooker is lively, colourful, and full of excitement.
Unlike the traditional snooker, a power snooker match is being played with loud music, and glamorous lighting. Power snooker has rejuvenated the traditional quiet and dim snooker with its glittering and enthusiastic nature.
Another interesting factor about power snooker is that the players wear a live microphone and interact with the audience while playing. The creator’s of the format said that “power snooker is not about sitting quiet, rather it’s about fun, noise and interaction”.
To one’s bewilderment power snooker also has power girls, who are sassy, elegant and cheering. The players wear designer costumes, and referees are females.
This is a significant step towards re-branding the snooker, and changing its image as a boring sport. This attempt to revamp and overhaul the sport is totally backed by the WPBSA.
The power snooker’s incipient competition has been a huge success among the existing snooker fans and green horns alike. Ronnie O’Sullivan who is known as a ‘rocket’ for his bolstering and attacking playing style, won the first power snooker competition by beating Ding Junhui in July 2010. The English cue-man Ronnie scored 572 in the final match, which was also the highest score of tournament
This revitalising initiative will definitely pump enthusiasm into the game and help changing the image of snooker, which was much needed and desired among the snooker fans all over the world.
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