147 by a distance.
147 or 9 dart finish
- Thread starter BEST No7
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9 darts In front of 10,000 drunk singing, shouting people vs a 147 in near silence, it’s pretty equal when you think all it takes is one of that 10,000 to open the wrong door and send a draft across the stage.
mentally the 9 darter is harder
mentally the 9 darter is harder
Wasn't this Quinten Hann's gimmick?
Statistically you'd think it'd be the 9 darter, almost every 501 game is started by an attempt at with triple 20 or 19....and yet theres still substantially less of them, even on a year basis, none in 21 compared 2 147's.
But..... 9 darters are genuinely more common by your good amateurs...
I agree that a 147 is harder but it doesn't require every shot to have perfect positioning as some have said on here. If you get a good split (which naturally requires a lot of skill) then you can afford to just keep the cue ball in an 'area' to be on the next shot. It doesn't have to be perfect, and if you lose positioning, you can always regain it by making your next shot very good. You can't afford to make a single error with a 9 darter.
If you arranged the reds nicely around the end of the table in practice with all the colours on the spot and gave any snooker pro a cue, they'd have a good chance of hitting a 147. I couldn't give a percentage because I don't know, but it would be a higher percentage than challenging a darts pro to hit a 9 darter in a single leg (which they attempt erery single leg anyway).
If snooker players attempted 147's at every opporunity then there would be way more 147's. Problem is if you choose to pot the black instead of the easier pink/blue and you miss, you're risking losing the frame. You could argue that's in favour of the 147 being more difficult though as it requires a particular set of circumstances for you to be able to pot the black after every colour.
There's nunances to both and I think it's difficult to suggest one is particularly more easy than the other. I'd go with 147 just because of the sheer number of shots you have to play. But you can afford to make errors on a 147.
If you arranged the reds nicely around the end of the table in practice with all the colours on the spot and gave any snooker pro a cue, they'd have a good chance of hitting a 147. I couldn't give a percentage because I don't know, but it would be a higher percentage than challenging a darts pro to hit a 9 darter in a single leg (which they attempt erery single leg anyway).
If snooker players attempted 147's at every opporunity then there would be way more 147's. Problem is if you choose to pot the black instead of the easier pink/blue and you miss, you're risking losing the frame. You could argue that's in favour of the 147 being more difficult though as it requires a particular set of circumstances for you to be able to pot the black after every colour.
There's nunances to both and I think it's difficult to suggest one is particularly more easy than the other. I'd go with 147 just because of the sheer number of shots you have to play. But you can afford to make errors on a 147.
Ah fair play I didn’t know any of that. I probably just assumed it was like pool just with a bigger table, and having to pot a red before you go for a colour. As you were!I think you might be getting a bit mixed up by “break” too as it’s used interchangeably for 2 different things. There’s the break at the start of the frame where the first player takes the first shot, but you’d never achieve a 147 from there and the aim is to play for position to prevent your opponent getting a potting chance.Then there’s what’s called a break when a player starts potting balls, if you score 16 that’s a break of 16 and players can have multiple of these breaks a frame. So a break of 147 would mean you pot every red with the black and of course your opponent wouldn’t pot a ball in the frame but there may have been a long string of shots leading up to that break that makes your life more difficult.
Reading that back it hardly makes sense to me
I would say the fact the 147 is basically all down to skill possibly makes it harder... they see the setup, and know it's on - Ronnie called one with 15 reds on the table once I think. They do them regularly in practice - not so much the case with 9 darters, they happen when they happen more or less.
Like the hole in one - there's an element of luck that makes the achievement more realistic to you or me.... though I've not hit a 180... loads of 140's, but someone above did say they've hit 2 x 180 in a row and I've seen a friend hit a 10 darter in one of the few darts sessions we've had(he's hit a 9 darter but I didn't see it nor do I question it as he's well known on the local scene)..... there's absolutely no way I can envisage myself knocking in a 147 at this point.... I've missed out on the childhood muscle memory probably required for it.
Hitting a 147 in matchplay circumstances is very difficult, due to the complete unpredictability of where you will be left on the table when it’s your shot.
If you set the balls up in the ‘line up’ formation which is used a lot in practise (all the red balls in the centre in a straight line) then a snooker pro would get a 147 around 70% of the time and a high level amateur would be able to get a few as well. The hard part is adapting to where the red balls fall while remaining at the end of the table to always be on the black.
Last year there was 29 Professional 9 darters compared to 9 147’s
World Championship, 10 9 darters (from 94-2020 you had both BDO & PDC world championship’s) but 11 147’s
Televised, been 59 televised 9 darters but I can’t find how many 147’s have been hit on T.V
Slightly “easier” to hit a 9 darter until you play at the World Championship
World Championship, 10 9 darters (from 94-2020 you had both BDO & PDC world championship’s) but 11 147’s
Televised, been 59 televised 9 darters but I can’t find how many 147’s have been hit on T.V
Slightly “easier” to hit a 9 darter until you play at the World Championship
147 definitely.
I'd go with the 147. Just playing pub darts i've fluked the odd 180 and can hit treble 20 with some degree of consistency.
As a teenager i spent countless hours in the local snooker hall and i've never come close to a century break let alone a 147.
As a teenager i spent countless hours in the local snooker hall and i've never come close to a century break let alone a 147.
This. Easily.
It's definitely the 147 for me. That's way harder.
In Darts, you're throwing from the same distance at the exact same target - so the only variables are adjusting to how the darts are going through the air each day, and the pressure of the situation.
In Snooker, you've also the pressure of the situation and the player also has to adjust each time to the atmosphere effecting the roll of the cloth and the bounce of the cushions.
But, on top of that, you've also got the balls in different places every frame - meaning you might have to work the white all round the table to get back to the black; or some reds in very tough potting positions, etc.
And, often, there's a safety battle before the first ball is potted - meaning most frames a 147 is almost impossible where the reds / blacks are. Or the first red is a shot to nothing bringing the white away from the black as a safety shot so, again, ruling out a 147 attempt.
You've also got the additional problem of dealing with potential 'kicks' which, through no fault of the player, can scupper the pot or positioning.
And, on top of all that, you've got the obvious mathematical fact that it's 36 continual pots and positioning for the reds / blacks / all the colours, compared to just 9 at Darts.
Both are hard and relatively rare. Both rightly celebrated when they happen. But the 147 definitely has more things that could go wrong and, therefore, requires more skill to achieve.
In Darts, you're throwing from the same distance at the exact same target - so the only variables are adjusting to how the darts are going through the air each day, and the pressure of the situation.
In Snooker, you've also the pressure of the situation and the player also has to adjust each time to the atmosphere effecting the roll of the cloth and the bounce of the cushions.
But, on top of that, you've also got the balls in different places every frame - meaning you might have to work the white all round the table to get back to the black; or some reds in very tough potting positions, etc.
And, often, there's a safety battle before the first ball is potted - meaning most frames a 147 is almost impossible where the reds / blacks are. Or the first red is a shot to nothing bringing the white away from the black as a safety shot so, again, ruling out a 147 attempt.
You've also got the additional problem of dealing with potential 'kicks' which, through no fault of the player, can scupper the pot or positioning.
And, on top of all that, you've got the obvious mathematical fact that it's 36 continual pots and positioning for the reds / blacks / all the colours, compared to just 9 at Darts.
Both are hard and relatively rare. Both rightly celebrated when they happen. But the 147 definitely has more things that could go wrong and, therefore, requires more skill to achieve.
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Its not even close. For someone who had never played either sport, I would think a single 9 dart finish could be achieved in maybe 6 months or less of hard practice, but a 147 would take a number of years.
That's a slight exaggeration, they're very very rare even if people play all the time.
Reasonable level players hit 9 darters in practice fairly regularly. Reminds me of a prop bet a well known poker player did that he could get 90 free throws out of 100 (basketball) over a certain period of time.
Its largely muscle memory, whereas learning to control a cue ball takes years to master
Umm, what's reasonable?
Top level pub league players who are budding Q schoolers - don't hit them "fairly regularly". Check any forum, and see how mad they go when they do actually hit one, in practice, a game or q school. You'll find most 85 average players have probably peaked at a 10 dart finish, having lost their nerve on the 9 darter.... on their own, in practice. It still takes serious bottle!
I'd dare say a lot of pros don't hit them regularly in practice either, given they don't as a collective on tour, and every single leg is basically an attempt at it.
A Snooker pro can likely hit a 147 in practice with regularity than darts pro can hit a 9 darter - but on the flip side, the non-elite probably hit more 9 darters, as luck plays a bigger part in that than a 147 - after you lucked into a frame where the setup is right to even attempt it