For those with access to this special technology as it was introduced, recorded accounts of life in motion gave creative minds a nigh infinite range of possibilities and created enough work to fill jobs by the thousands. It has only grown since. Indeed, nearly every passion and pursuit in humanity's catalogue of activity demands some sort of video coverage in the present day (such as cow fighting and a surprisingly large collection of frying pan tennis videos).
During the original snooker boom kick-started by Pot Black in the early seventies, video cameras were hardly pervasive as today's pea-sized handheld camcorders are, and those that did exist were almost solely in the possession of television networks. There weren't ten thousand channels and even colour television itself was a novel, state-of-the-art concept at the time so the popularity of snooker back then doesn't particularly surprise me.
There is an argument that Chinese checkers or crokinole may have enjoyed similar levels of public rapport if they had been selected as pilot programs for the first colour broadcasts from the BBC--but I doubt very much that the staying power of snooker and the very human moments it has gone on to create throughout its history could be trumped by such abstract tabletop games where the table itself can be stowed away in a closet rather than permanently consuming the majority of the space in any homeowner's rumpus room.
But here in the 21st century, we are now victims of information overload and video is no exception. Folks aged 1 to 100 are recording videos and you can hardly buy a dog collar without a built-in camera these days. I seem to remember some sort of article about certain players wearing a goofy 'cueists-eye-view' headband-cam at last year's World Championship but thankfully someone pulled the plug on that before the cameras started rolling (presumably Crucible staff filed complaints at the sight of the Borg entering the theatre as assimilated top-16 players).
Surely, there are pros and cons to this overwhelming tidal wave of technology, but a standout positive side effect is that tenderfoot newcomers to snooker fandom have the facility to take in the greatest moments in snooker history thanks to the preservation of film.
I was born just a couple of months after Jimmy White reached his first World Championship final in '84, so it goes without saying that I've missed a great deal of snooker's greatest moments. Without the aid of the internet and the preserved film in question, I would never have had any shred of what it must've been like to experience this:
However, as a present-day snooker fan who watches the current events unfold live, as they happen, it would be an outright lie to suggest that merely watching these old videos is equal to experiencing the moment. After all, Dennis Taylor's win over Steve Davis on the final black was long the stuff of legend well before I saw the video and although knowing the result doesn't necessarily spoil the sight of this iconic moment, it also doesn't capture the entire story. It doesn't bring the viewer back to what they must've been feeling early on in the match when Taylor trailed Davis 8-0 after the first session. It doesn't remind the viewer what it must've been like for him to fight back and finally draw level at 15-15, only to fall behind again 17-15 needing to win all three remaining frames. If you don't see the entire match, the attempted double on the final black from Dennis Taylor that miraculously runs safe after somehow pulling it back to 17-all doesn't carry as much meaning.
Although the entire 35-frame final may be available for viewing somewhere on the internet, my point is that watching a full match from the past is as close as you can get, but there's still nothing quite like watching it happen when it's really happening.
Snooker is not exactly a fast-paced viewing experience and it can be quite difficult for many to commit to watching every frame of some of the lengthier-format live matches, never mind those that are several decades old where you already know the winner and the final score before you even start the video. Nevertheless, it can be a worthwhile experience to see the whole story unfold and you end up with a more intimate knowledge of the history of a tournament or the game as a whole. A true purist might argue that you haven't really seen the whole story of the 1985 final if you hadn't also been present to witness the matches that each of the finalists had won to get there and I would tend to agree. Often the road to the final is a more dramatic journey than the final itself, but alas, there are only so many hours in a day and as the snooker season's calendar grows ever-more bloated with events all over the world, it becomes more and more difficult to find time for matches from years gone by, especially going in with the predisposition that it could never be as rewarding a viewing experience as seeing something happen live.
Not to downplay the experience too much though, there are definitely a number of full and complete matches that I would be remiss not to have seen as a snooker fan. If you love the game and haven't seen them already, you owe it to yourself to watch the complete, or nearly complete video of the 1997 Liverpool Victoria Charity Challenge Trophy final, and the complete 2004 Masters final with Paul Hunter and Ronnie O'Sullivan to name a couple of the best contests that can be found in their entirety.
Seeing great matches from the past does give me some sense of going back in time, putting myself in the frame of mind of the commentators who are there reliably calling the game just as though it truly was happening live. The downside is that it leaves me wanting to see other matches that I've only ever heard about in clipshows and highlight reels, only to discover that such videos aren't available.
Would love to have seen the full match where Cliff Thorburn made the first 147 at the Crucible but alas, nowhere to be found! Nor will my desire to see 1980's semi-final between Alex Higgins and Kirk Stevens be sated by this so-called powerful video technology!
Nay as well to the full and complete 2006 final, in which Graeme Dott, my own personal hero in snooker, achieved the dream. Oh to have seen the turgid drama unfold! To witness the build-up! Alas, I am relegated to clips and highlights, offering glimpses of a player's heart that has worn the task of surviving this long with the finish line just ahead...
I take solace in the knowledge that as I am now a dedicated follower of the game, these rare moments from the past are ones I will bear witness to when they happen, as they happen in the future.
As the tour plunges into the 2012/2013 season and as more and more camcorders are installed into cell phones, pocket watches and dog collars, more and more videos of these great moments in sport will be captured forever for future generations who inherit the patience that a sound appreciation of the game calls for.
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