VR, Pig Farming, and The American Line – Ronnie O'Sullivan's Golden Age

文/Jack Potter,《The Sportsman》

Refusal to call 147

Ronnie O'Sullivan, of course, has a tireless pursuit of the 147 full scorer like other professional players. However, if he hadn't been so obsessed with the full-point bonus, he could have played more out of 10.

In February 2016, when Ronnie O'Sullivan found the 147 out of 10,000 prize at the Welsh Open with "only" £10,000, he refused to play 147. O'Sullivan, who led Barry Pinkis 3-1 and scored 40 runs in the fifth inning of the game, asked the referee how much he would take if he scored 147 points. When told the prize money was only a "negligible" £10,000, he continued to play black until he unexpectedly opted for a pink ball to play after the penultimate red ball, ending the set with a single 146 points.

After the game he replied lightly: "I could have played blackball, or I could have played 147." ”

"I know the prize money is £10,000 and I just think it's a little too cheap. Achievements of such a large percentage pole should have more generous bonuses to match. My £147 is certainly more valuable than £10,000. ”

"If the bonus increases, I will go to 147, and it is just as good to play 146."

A year later, he started his old trick again. But this time, the referee spoke sincerely with him, asking him to clear the stage "for the sake of the fans" to score a full score, but fortunately O'Sullivan's conscience found that he still played 147.

Pig gate

O'Sullivan has been noncommittal about the snooker game that made him a hit. For a while, O'Sullivan gave up racing and went to pig farming. In 2013, the then-world champion, tired of snooker and ubiquitous bureaucracy, went to Crucible to play as a free laborer on a farm in Essex.

"There were sheep, pigs, cattle, goats, chickens and horses on the farm, and I wore green waterproof shoes to clean the stables and pigsty, remove the fences, put the garbage in the buckets, and clean up the silt."

"In addition to that, I take big bags of hay to feed the animals. I was so bored that something had to be done and I needed a goal to get out of bed in the morning. ”

'I didn't want to be stressed and that's why I quit snooker, so I decided to do something unpaid.

"I went to the farm around 8 a.m., ran three or four miles in the forest, and then came back to do about six hours of farm work."

"It's the opposite of what I've had in snooker, I really enjoy doing farm work."

A trip to the United States

O'Sullivan and his friend sports broadcaster Matt Smith were invited by the History Channel to "micro-service privately" the sport of pool in the United States. With a smaller Snooker audience in the U.S., O'Sullivan can anonymously visit the U.S. pool scene.

O'Sullivan and Smith's job is to "find America's most notorious billiards cheater and see the local customs," find some local pool cues and then "beat magic with magic" to win over the locals. In the episode we can see that the British are constantly frowning at the mispronounced pronunciation of the American "snucker", while the Americans are confused to know who "Johnny O'Sullivan" really is. At the same time, the program team will also take O'Sullivan to some of the little-known underground ball halls to watch Ronnie play with local pool players such as Pearl, Scorpion and Black Widow.

Experience VR

Snooker did not produce breakthroughs at the level of new technology applications as O'Sullivan had hoped. In 2016, O'Sullivan put on an HTC Vive virtual reality mask to hit snooker. There is no better person to test this technology than he is. Unfortunately, playing in VR was a daunting task for the snooker superstar, who couldn't adapt to the "no table" snooker at all and fell to the ground making a joke.