I was a good amateur and played John Spencer in an exhibition at South Norwood Con club in 1977. I broke and he made 136 clearance whilst holding a conversation with me and joking with the crowd!!!!!!!! Great game.....NOT
Ray Reardon was a great player. And he just seemed to smash the balls into the pockets. And the crowd all dressed smartly in their suits and ties. Great video. 🏴🇬🇧👍
Amazing watch for an early match. Ray Reardon raised the bar in the 70s from a casual game to a competitive one. Alex Higgins brought Snooker to the masses with flair and brilliance. Steve Davis brought a whole new level of professionalism in the next decade. Jimmy White got the women interested. Stephen Hendry raised the bar even further, and then, finally, Rocket Ronnie was the cherry on the cake.
Thank you mjt. This is a fantastic upload - loved it. Ray looked very comfortable playing with the old crystalate balls here. These balls were quite heavy (150 odd grams in todays money) and needed quite a punch. Ray was not known for his cue power but - as this upload shows - more than capable of producing controlled power play when needed.
i love ray present himself as gentleman player... he can smile all the time and joking while in break and match... that show u how sportmanship must be...
@@williamstephens9945 LOL! Memories of Ted Lowe's greatest moment, during a Pot Black game: 'for those watching in black and white, the green is behind the blue...'
@@williamstephens9945 It WAS televised in " Black and White " , famously the great whispering Ted Lowe once said in Commentary " for those watching in Black and White the Pink is next to the Blue " 😀
Brilliant upload, really enjoyed watching this. Loved how close the crowd were to the players. Especially when the old geezer casually walks past carrying two pints as the game finishes!
Absolutely great footage, might well be one of the very first in color and of course with a magnificent 127 total clearance from Reardon, highest televised break at the time.
If it wasn't for the Cameraman taking a break John Spencer would have had the first Televised 147 , I can't remember which Competition it was but I know it was sometime in the 1970's .
@@leebeardshall2888 not Ivory ,they had not been used for years ,they were crystalite ,super crystalite came out in 72 and Alex Higgins used to carry a set round with him as most clubs in the early 70’s were still using the old balls .It was the new supers that were responsive and changed the game .
I don't think Reardon gets the credit he deserves for how truly great a player he was! Higgins got all the headlines but Reardon could pot anything, and his cue ball control was immaculate! There's a clearance against Eddie Charlton in the 73 world final that was sensational!
Reardon almost at his peak as a player making the game look so easy. Spencer was a great player, 3 times world champion and the blue in the 4th frame on that quality of table used back then was an outstanding shot
You can actually *see* how big and heavy the balls are. It's amazing they can play some of those shots and play them accurately. Makes Alex Higgins' play even more remarkable.
The pockets were NOT tight ( that's myth ),they were a lot bigger back then. The cloth was slower and the balls heavier but the pockets were bigger. I have just watched Dennis Taylor and Ken Doherty talking about how many people thought the pockets were tighter back in the day but it isn't so and they are actually tighter nowadays
@@davidmellish3295 how much bigger were they then, you say " a lot bigger" and yet produce no evidence for that? Henfry, Davis and even Robertson have said in recnt years the pockets were bigger though the person in charge says they are the same yet won't divulge the pocket aperture, angle (tightness) nor the depth back of the pocket. No openess in this side of things, as such, anything said is all heresay regards modern tables
Thanks for uploading this, this is fabulous. The commentary is so refreshing! No cliches, no amateur psychology, and no imbecile honking about the cue ball. He got a couple of calls wrong, but that still happens today.
The olden days of cigarette sponsors. I think Embassy did the World Championship. Ray with his cue arm about 30 degrees to the vertical, probably guiding his cue on his waistcoat. Spencer vertical arm. Many ways to greatness. The ref sounded like John Smith but was in fact Bruce Tomkin. Happy, smokey days.😃
@@Eat-MyGoal I found it nice to not have a know-it-all pro blabbing about terrible shot this, horrible that... It was a nice, comfortable pace of speech that made you feel like he was there at your home enjoying the game with you.
Great upload. It's interesting to see the crowd drinking, smoking and talking during play. Didn't seem to put the players off even with the background chatter! It is very much like a working mens club.
It was probably noisy but I suspect another thing to consider is TV mics at the time were unable to target sound as precisely as in the 80s, and would catch much more scattered sound, especially in locations with worse soundproofing such as this one.
The commentary is fine, don't know why people are complaining about it. The game had only recently developed a professional circuit and snooker commentary was itself in its infancy. Look it at through the proper context not through 2021 eyes, and the commentary is more than adequate.
Alex Higgins was not in this park 600. He arrived 1972 won the Irish professional championship world championship at the first attempt & men of the Midlands.
Classic Ray Reardon, although John was not on his game at all. Hilarious how the commentator sounds like he has never actually held a cue with his guesses about the next shot…
It's just the angle. That was a very shallow angle here, and modern broadcasts are also closer in, filling the screen more. Plus Ray was a tall guy and the cushions are thinner, giving an added subtle illusion of less table space.
Ah, good lad, that's how you do it! I bet Ronnie would be a lot happier in matches if he could chill between breaks with a gin and tonic and a good cigar.
Colour TV was introduced in 1968 but it took a while before everyone upgraded , my Grandmother was still watching a Black and white TV in 1990 and as her TV was of the old 405 line type she had to use an adaptor box .
There isn't that much coughing here...in fact I was hearing more coughing at this year's World Championship than this. Also, have a look, cancer rates have never been higher than now, despite cigarette smoking having massively been declining since the 80s... Cigarettes are surely bad for you but I think the evidence is very clear now that there's something far more carcinogenic than smoking, and smoking's been getting all the wrap for decades. Probably traffic fumes, industrial pollution and all the junk we load into food is far worse. Also, we advertise online gambling everywhere now, and actually way more of it, so how is that any better?
