You can understand what a breath of fresh air Jimmy White and Alex Higgins were to the game I mean the commentators here were analysing every shot before it was played.I bet they wouldn't or didn't have time to think with Jimmy and Alex their heads gonna explode🤣
Everyone admired John's perfect cue action and power back then. Ray had a 'broken wing' style but struck the cueball beautifully and was a master at dominating games and winning matches. Quality footage that brings back the atmosphere of '70s snooker when it really was a man's game..
Funny to watch now though. Most of today's players would wipe the floor with them. John Spencer looks like he's not pushing the cue through. Rather he's stabbing at it. Look closely..
@@simonhulme7173 I'd still rather watch these old masters any day. It takes me back. You're right about John's cueing here. He was usually more fluent, with a longer cue stroke. Perhaps he was playing to the conditions. You didn't see so many fluent players in those days of heavy cloths and heavy balls. Ray used to 'poke' the balls with a short cue stroke (Virgo was another). Remember too that they all learnt the game with ivory balls on old billiard tables in the '50s and '60s. A thirty break could be really something on some of those tables !
2 legendary players and gentlemen. My chilhood of snooker . Long live John and ray , you made us better persons. Thank you from my heart. Blissful and emotional and thank you for sharing!
Imagine if the pros still played on tables like this now lol 😂 Fun fact- i used to practice on one just like this as a junior player. My dads mate had one the pockets were like buckets and sounded like one when the ball hit the pocket. You can’t beat a starline table lol
Imagine if these commentators were commentating on a O'Sullivan v Trump match today how they'd react? 5 minute frames with one visit to the table. How standards have increased.
Rare footage from snooker's pre-TV 'dark ages' - although interesting the working mens' club was itself in Sheffield. Love watching Reardon - smooth unfussy cue action, and utterly unruffled demeanour around the table. You can see why he dominated the game for a decade plus. Odd table - bar the dimensions, more like a pub pool table.
He had reasonable cue power, it's the cloth was like a damp carpet, compared to the super thin heated ones they play on today. So much harder to make the cue ball move, but he was a master at it. First player to make a 147 in competition, but with slightly larger pockets, so it didn't count. Shame we can't see that, as I think the cameramen were on strike. Then he was the opponent when Steve Davis made the first televised one.
@@sharpvidtube yes I also played back then- the balls were also clunky and heavy admittedly.................in the end if the cue travels along the chosen potting angle while accelerating along that line there is the game of snooker. Achieving this is another matter.
As much as I hate the gold trim and advertising around the table frames these days, those were some ugly tables back then. Good lord. In keeping with the times though, they looked like a giant ashtray.
In those days everyone walked funny because they weren't millennial libtard woke PC-gone-mad brigade [insert more buzzwords here]...avocado and whole foods loving hippie commie lefty nazi feminist socialists with their leftist agenda to take over the world with hummus, black people and virtue signalling.
@@AD-kv9kj Most of the great players were from working stock whose bodies had been conditioned over generations to hard manual work in mines, factories, mills, farms etc. In all weathers too. Most working class people walked funny in those days. It was in the genes and in the streets.
You try playing with that eye stinging smoke, on a thick damp cloth. It wasn't easy back then. I remember playing pool in the 90s in conditions like that, it was horrible,
It's absolutely incredibile how relaxed Ray Reardon is. I wish I could be that relaxed and chill. Fly high mr. Spencer
Two legends, champs and two gents!
RIP John Spencer, very few had a cueing action like he had back then.
You can understand what a breath of fresh air Jimmy White and Alex Higgins were to the game I mean the commentators here were analysing every shot before it was played.I bet they wouldn't or didn't have time to think with Jimmy and Alex their heads gonna explode🤣
Everyone admired John's perfect cue action and power back then. Ray had a 'broken wing' style but struck the cueball beautifully and was a master at dominating games and winning matches. Quality footage that brings back the atmosphere of '70s snooker when it really was a man's game..
Funny to watch now though. Most of today's players would wipe the floor with them. John Spencer looks like he's not pushing the cue through. Rather he's stabbing at it. Look closely..
@@simonhulme7173 I'd still rather watch these old masters any day. It takes me back. You're right about John's cueing here. He was usually more fluent, with a longer cue stroke. Perhaps he was playing to the conditions. You didn't see so many fluent players in those days of heavy cloths and heavy balls. Ray used to 'poke' the balls with a short cue stroke (Virgo was another). Remember too that they all learnt the game with ivory balls on old billiard tables in the '50s and '60s. A thirty break could be really something on some of those tables !
Reardon looked so very smooth with his shots.Great players seem to make the game look easy when there on form.
2 legendary players and gentlemen. My chilhood of snooker . Long live John and ray , you made us better persons. Thank you from my heart. Blissful and emotional and thank you for sharing!
Billy 2 chairs in the crowd.
4:17 miles and thorburn watching
Look at the haze in the air 😂 I remember when it was legal to smoke in bars etc.
When the love of the game outweighed the love of money......raw snooker at its best, played by two great players and real gentleman of the game....
there really was a passion in the 70's and 80's .. money of course was a bonus
The money was a lot less back then but I'm sure it counted for more. Fifty quid was not to be sneezed at.
Yeah 2 legends actually enjoying their trade,and smiling
Players smiled more back then because they were drunk and on cocaine half the time.
Keith Macklin commentating better known for Football.
John Spencer was quite a quick player. Even the long shots.
The carpet is much more rough than today
Strange that they seemingly made snooker tables to resemble pool tables for a period of time. Riley starline tables.
Like a mild Mosconi Cup crowd 🤣
Imagine if the pros still played on tables like this now lol 😂
Fun fact- i used to practice on one just like this as a junior player. My dads mate had one the pockets were like buckets and sounded like one when the ball hit the pocket. You can’t beat a starline table lol
Hey 2 classy players genuis
Two great players.think Spencer was just two behind ray on their head to head .17 to 15 think it was .
The commenters fighting over who can talk the most
I wonder how they made the different coloured snooker balls back then ... The pockets look like they are slightly bigger and cut different..
Dispels the myth that pockets were massive in the 70's. Some club tables maybe.
Imagine if these commentators were commentating on a O'Sullivan v Trump match today how they'd react? 5 minute frames with one visit to the table. How standards have increased.
Nobody noticed when snookers were required. I guess it was hard to see through that eye stinging smoke😂
Thornburn was only 26 here!
What a coincidence....so was Thorburn.
Is this table smaller than todays tables?
No, the camera is probably further away, making it look squashed. Or maybe they adjust they perspective slightly now?
Who were the commentators?
Keith Macklin, who is better known as a football commentator, and Leslie Driffield who was a former billiards champion.
@@mickf9999 Thanks
What is the name of this tournament ?.
Park drive tournament.
@@leebeardshall2888 There was lots of park drive tournaments ? Do you the exact event and final score ?
@@leebeardshall2888 there was no Park Drive listed in 1974
Rare footage from snooker's pre-TV 'dark ages' - although interesting the working mens' club was itself in Sheffield.
Love watching Reardon - smooth unfussy cue action, and utterly unruffled demeanour around the table. You can see why he dominated the game for a decade plus.
Odd table - bar the dimensions, more like a pub pool table.
looking back 50 years i am surprised at how stabby was Spencer, seemed like he had shit cue power
He had reasonable cue power, it's the cloth was like a damp carpet, compared to the super thin heated ones they play on today. So much harder to make the cue ball move, but he was a master at it. First player to make a 147 in competition, but with slightly larger pockets, so it didn't count. Shame we can't see that, as I think the cameramen were on strike. Then he was the opponent when Steve Davis made the first televised one.
@@sharpvidtube yes I also played back then- the balls were also clunky and heavy admittedly.................in the end if the cue travels along the chosen potting angle while accelerating along that line there is the game of snooker. Achieving this is another matter.
John had tremendous cue power but you don't see it here. Reardon was so dominant in the '70s that I wonder if John was copying Ray's style ?
As much as I hate the gold trim and advertising around the table frames these days, those were some ugly tables back then. Good lord. In keeping with the times though, they looked like a giant ashtray.
It's called Crookes Club
Why are they both walking as if their piles are playing up ?
In those days everyone walked funny because they weren't millennial libtard woke PC-gone-mad brigade [insert more buzzwords here]...avocado and whole foods loving hippie commie lefty nazi feminist socialists with their leftist agenda to take over the world with hummus, black people and virtue signalling.
Everyone had piles back in the 70s
@@petersharkey8676 My Rockfords have been playing up something rotten lately
@@AD-kv9kj Most of the great players were from working stock whose bodies had been conditioned over generations to hard manual work in mines, factories, mills, farms etc. In all weathers too. Most working class people walked funny in those days. It was in the genes and in the streets.
@@AD-kv9kj Exactly.
Almac is a scott ripper bloke, nearly as good as cousin ron
Who's the commentators?
Keith Macklin is one.
Leslie Driffield.
@@ysgol3 wasn’t he a DJ on red rose radio Lancashire in the 80’s? Could be wrong
@@BradRae188 Not sure, I only know that Keith was a football commentator too.
@@davidsmith5523 Leslie was an excellent billiards player from Leeds. Good snooker player too.
This is Crookes Working Men’s Club, Sheffield.
Pockets were huge then too 😅😅
Awful standard. My god.
You try playing with that eye stinging smoke, on a thick damp cloth. It wasn't easy back then. I remember playing pool in the 90s in conditions like that, it was horrible,