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SasqWatch
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- November 1, 2014
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The Snooker World Championship got underway this week and with the first round just about over I found myself remarking to a colleague how everyone seemed to be very old this year & I made the claim that it feels like it's gone back to its early 80s state in terms of most of the players being old pros rather than exciting new talent.
I could have been making some kind of cognitive bias though, so I hunted for some stats.
I analysed the age data for the last five World Championships that occurred on a decade year, namely 1980, 1990, 2000, 2010 and 2020.
The televised stages of the competition are the only stages that really count towards public perception of the current Snooker player base, so I simply counted anyone who made it into the last 32 of the competition, commonly known as Round 1.
The average age of players was as follows:
1980: 38
1990: 33.5
2000: 29
2010: 32
2020: 35.5
So I was indeed vindicated in my assumption, it is indeed the oldest World Championship for about 40 years.
To make matters even more boring'er, at least in the 1980 era the old people in the competition were indeed really old, so even in 1980 it didn't seem totally dominated by the older players as it was more a case of the extremely old simply padding the stats & having a 20 year old playing a 66 year old is a different kind of interesting to a 43 year old playing another 43 year old.
The age range of players:
1980: 20-66
1990: 21-60
2000: 21-42
2010: 18-52
2020: 20-49
However, even this doesn't fully illustrate the oldness of this year's event. If we go one step further and now look at how many under 25s were playing in each year, 2020 really shines as the most lacking year for 'new talent' of the bunch:
Under 25s competing:
1980: 4 (including a future no.1)
1990: 4 (including a future no.1)
2000: 6 (including someone touted to be a future no.1 who sadly died of cancer)
2010: 5 (including a future no.1)
2020: 2 (neither of whom are expected/showing signs to become a no.1)
There are only two stats of relevance where 2020 is at least still barely 'younger' than the game was in 1980, that of under 30s and the number of 40+ players.
Under 30s competing:
1980: 7
1990: 12
2000: 18
2010: 11
2020: 9
Over 40s competing:
1980: 12
1990: 8
2000: 1
2010: 3
2020: 9
I remember back in the late 90s how people were postulating that Snooker had pretty much become a "young man's game" and that it had become another sport that almost demanded retirement by 35/40, but the reality of time has suggested that that era was actually the anomaly as Snooker seems to have quickly reverted back to being very much a middle-aged man's game. [Women are allowed to compete, there's zero sexism to entry, the long awaited arrival of female players just never materialises naturally for unknown reasons, the last female pro on the official Snooker tour circuit lost all 18 of her opening matches]
Combine this bevvy of stats with the fact that this year there are no crowds because of Corona Virus and the event this year seems to be just naturally less glamourous an event than it traditionally should or could be.
This is all fine for dedicated Snooker fans who are very familiar with all the players involved, but one can't help thinking that it wont be a year to attract much in the way of new talent via inspiration, even with any increased viewership as a result of Corona lockdowns.
I could have been making some kind of cognitive bias though, so I hunted for some stats.
I analysed the age data for the last five World Championships that occurred on a decade year, namely 1980, 1990, 2000, 2010 and 2020.
The televised stages of the competition are the only stages that really count towards public perception of the current Snooker player base, so I simply counted anyone who made it into the last 32 of the competition, commonly known as Round 1.
The average age of players was as follows:
1980: 38
1990: 33.5
2000: 29
2010: 32
2020: 35.5
So I was indeed vindicated in my assumption, it is indeed the oldest World Championship for about 40 years.
To make matters even more boring'er, at least in the 1980 era the old people in the competition were indeed really old, so even in 1980 it didn't seem totally dominated by the older players as it was more a case of the extremely old simply padding the stats & having a 20 year old playing a 66 year old is a different kind of interesting to a 43 year old playing another 43 year old.
The age range of players:
1980: 20-66
1990: 21-60
2000: 21-42
2010: 18-52
2020: 20-49
However, even this doesn't fully illustrate the oldness of this year's event. If we go one step further and now look at how many under 25s were playing in each year, 2020 really shines as the most lacking year for 'new talent' of the bunch:
Under 25s competing:
1980: 4 (including a future no.1)
1990: 4 (including a future no.1)
2000: 6 (including someone touted to be a future no.1 who sadly died of cancer)
2010: 5 (including a future no.1)
2020: 2 (neither of whom are expected/showing signs to become a no.1)
There are only two stats of relevance where 2020 is at least still barely 'younger' than the game was in 1980, that of under 30s and the number of 40+ players.
Under 30s competing:
1980: 7
1990: 12
2000: 18
2010: 11
2020: 9
Over 40s competing:
1980: 12
1990: 8
2000: 1
2010: 3
2020: 9
I remember back in the late 90s how people were postulating that Snooker had pretty much become a "young man's game" and that it had become another sport that almost demanded retirement by 35/40, but the reality of time has suggested that that era was actually the anomaly as Snooker seems to have quickly reverted back to being very much a middle-aged man's game. [Women are allowed to compete, there's zero sexism to entry, the long awaited arrival of female players just never materialises naturally for unknown reasons, the last female pro on the official Snooker tour circuit lost all 18 of her opening matches]
Combine this bevvy of stats with the fact that this year there are no crowds because of Corona Virus and the event this year seems to be just naturally less glamourous an event than it traditionally should or could be.
This is all fine for dedicated Snooker fans who are very familiar with all the players involved, but one can't help thinking that it wont be a year to attract much in the way of new talent via inspiration, even with any increased viewership as a result of Corona lockdowns.
- Joined
- Nov 1, 2014
- Messages
- 4,778