Start of the season? Horray! It feels like a while since the 2017 World Championships. But I think there needs to be an article about this, since Mark Selby seems to be a Marmite players that polarises snooker fans all over the place. God, imagine if Twitter was around in the Cliff Thorburn era……
After literally everyone under the sun wrote him off when he was 10-7 behind Ronnie O’Sullivan in the 2014 final, the ‘Jester from Leicester’ roared back to win 18-14, using his ‘granite’ display of fabulous and workmanlike break as opposed to Ronnie’s fluid exhibitionism. After being labelled as a ‘torturer,’ a lot of fans, particularly die-hard fans of the Rocket heavily chastised Selby for allegedly slowing the game down on purpose, being boring, monotone, arduous and not exciting as Ronnie. In other words, because his game is less appealing than “the greatest modern player the game has seen.” Ridiculous huh? But no argument is ridiculous on Twitter, nor will it be exaggerated. Hmmm.
Fast forward to May 2017, a year after Selby clinched his second World Championship title, beating Ding Junhui. You would think even when gunning for the third title some would appreciate the huge amount of skill to actually get to where he was?
Thank you nihat glad you enjoy watching 👍🏻
— Mark Selby MBE (@markjesterselby) April 23, 2017
In the 2017 final Mark Selby stormed back from 10-4 down to win 18-14 against only snooker’s legends, John Higgins. At the end of that season he won 5 ranking titles in 6 finals and became the third man to do so before Ding and Hendry. He is the first person to go past 1,000,000 points in two seasons. Talking about the World Championship alone, his is one of only four players to defend their WC crown. This is his third WC win in four years including his 18-14 triumph against Ding Junhui and joins an exclusive club of seven snooker players who won three titles for more. These achievements should be applauded, especially since it is a magnificent feat and would surely deserve respect?
Six days later…..
“SELBY IS A DISASTROUS CHAMP: How does the BBC justify blanket coverage of the World Snooker Championships? They should have an hour’s highlight package every night to cut back on the sheer tedium. Mark Selby’s reign as world champion is a PR disaster. He’s just so dull.” [1]
This makes me wonder: is criticism of Selby actually justified or should all of that be irrelavent because of his successes? Will he ever be accepted as one of the greats or simply just lucky that Mark Williams and O’Sullivan were deteriorating in form?
Selby is indeed boring!
You can maybe understand where all of that anger at Selby has come from. Most mainstream supporters of snooker find it hard to understand how Mark Selby’s nickname of the “Jester from Leicester” is actually justified, since they see him as being very humourless in interviews – not a character compared to Jimmy White or Ronnie O’Sullivan. That I can understand. The nickname was given by compere Richard Beare, who he usually has a joke with. Some people miss the point that his nickname refers to his demeanour around the table rather than acting like Dechawat Poomjaneg the whole damn time. See this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axNnGhCDTnY
It hasn’t been helped that Mark Selby was No. 1 in 2012 despite only winning two ranking titles at that time. Perhaps fans were annoyed that Selby got to the top not by winning titles but by boring consistency unlike the likes of Ronnie who got there by winning many titles. It didn’t help that Selby had a reputation for being involved in some awful games. His 6-5 win over Graeme Dott in the 2012 Masters semi-final was certainly one of them, since Dott remarked after the match that:
“…He just bored me to tears. I felt that I was living in a nightmare … I don’t think that is a good advert for snooker tonight. That is just my personal opinion. I don’t like being involved in games were lots of people are actually leaving. It is not so much putting me off. You just don’t get rhythm. It is like killing the game. [2]
Looking at the stats in the 2014 final, rapid O’Sullivan and grinder Selby are polar opposites. Ronnie romped to the final by thrashing the likes of Shaun Muphy and Barry Hawkins while Selby laboured past Michael White and Neil Robertson with his often-repeated “matchplay snooker.” I cannot be asked to repeat what happened! Afterwards, all the cliches of “killing snooker”, “parking the bus” and “boring boring Selby” [3] came into play, and continues to this day, and whenever Ronnie beats Selby in future matches, it was almost like a vindication to fans that Ronnie is God and Selby is Boring.
https://twitter.com/jstrickleton/status/463308000883933184
Selby should be appreciated a lot more!
Here’s at least my opinion on Mark Selby. Criticism of Selby was completely unfair. Anyone would kill to beat Ronnie who was undefeated in a Crucible final, which is an incredible feat, but because Selby did it by not playing the Ronnie way somehow drew criticism. He won because of his self-belief to comeback when everyone doubted him and won by magnificant matchplay snooker, playing brilliant safety and not attacking willy-nilly. He was very attacking too. Sue me. He scored nine +50 breaks and a century and played one of the best splits I’ve ever seen, compared to Ronnie’s 6 +50 breaks and three centuries, so people can’t say Selby wasn’t playing aggressively.
When 2016 came along, Selby put his defeat to Anthony McGill in the Last 16 the previous year to bed by beating Rob Milkins, Sam Baird, Kyren Wilson, a tough match against Marco Fu to clinch the crown for the second time by beating Ding Junhui 18-14, leading throughout the match. He was even leading 6-0, withstanding fightbacks from qualifier Ding. Many people say he deserved it, with Willie Thorne citing that he is “the most dedicated snooker player I have ever seen.” [4] Some fans on Twitter?
fucking hate mark selby the cunt
— Velv (@velvlol) April 26, 2016
Mark Selby may just be the most boring snooker player to watch in the history of time…
— TwEats Everything (@eats_everything) May 1, 2016
Colourful, huh? And yes, of course there are many who respect Mark Selby, this is just pointing out that the same criticisms still kept coming.
2017 was relatively uncontroversial until a fantastic semi-final between Selby and Ding. Locked at 12-12, it finished 17-15, with Selby celebrating and pointing towards his supporter’s box three times when he clinched his final frame. This of course reignited the ire towards Selby, calling him being disrespectful towards Ding, over-the-top, bang out of order. Fellow fans and players defended Selby:
Snooker is the only sport in the world where players get criticised for celebrating.
After that win as well. 🙈
Ludicrous.
— Michael Holt (@hitmanholt) April 29, 2017
Personally, it wasn’t disrepectful. Maybe celebrating three times for me is a bit much, but this is showing passion to release tension after a fantastic match. Not too sure if other players would be criticised if they celebrated the same way, but getting to another final is something to shout about. Selby gets criticised for being boring and gets criticised for showing passion. Trust me, I’ve seen more passionate celebrations. Look at Tony Drago!
Even before winning his third world title, Steve Davis considered him “one of the greats already” with Hendry saying that he is “one of the two best players in the world.” [5] Aside from many accolades after winning in 2017, many place him among the greats after winning five and for finishing as No. 1 for the five consecutive season. He still gets criticised for being dull and for not being as good as Ronnie or Hendry though.
Ending!
It's sacrilege to say, but the way Selby dominates the sport makes it duller. He's Snooker's Federer. Ding is wonderful. Rooting for him.
— Alex Andreou (@sturdyAlex) April 29, 2017
The tweet above does bring up an interesting point though. Is it because of winning three world titles in four years and for being so dominant that makes him unpopular? Not playing ‘attack, attack, attack’ certainly fuels the fire but it is a valid reason if that happens. Everyone was amazed with Stephen Hendry when he dominated the sport, but when someone else dominates the sport afterwards like Selby is doing, everyone’s patience will wear thin. Sort of like when Michael Schumacher won seven Formula 1 titles and five between 2000-2004, but when Lewis Hamilton came along and won two in a row between 2014-2015, everyone thought “for god’s sake.”
Selby deserves to be among the greats of modern snooker. His all-round game is brilliant, his B-game is the best, his safety is exceptional and at his best makes great breaks as well as being cold, calculated and merciless. Maybe because he isn’t as exciting as Judd Trump but you’d do anything to win a trophy and you got to appreciate that ever player’s technique is different and never the same. Selby is now in an exclusive club of seven who have won three World titles and many are predicting he will win many more. It is possible with the Crucible now being his fortress, but with Ding, Trump and Wilson hungry for their long-awaited title, things will get interesting!
[1] Swann, A., “SWANNY’S WORLD OF SPORT: Mighty fighters, dodgy divers and snooker snorefest.” Peterborough Today. (6th May 2017) Accessed on: 22nd May 2017. Accessed from: http://www.peterboroughtoday.co.uk/news/opinion/swanny-s-world-of-sport-mighty-fighters-dodgy-divers-and-snooker-snorefest-1-7944582
[2] Eurosport., “Dott questions Selby tactics during ‘nightmare’ semi.” (20th January 2013) Accessed on: 22nd May 2017. Accessed from: http://www.eurosport.com/snooker/dott-questions-selby-tactics-during-nightmare-semi_sto3582037/story.shtml.
[3] Duerden, C., ““So while the king was looking down, the jester stole his thorny crown” – World snooker review 2014.” (8th May 2014). Cambridge 105. Accessed on: 9th June 2017. Accessed from: https://cambridge105.co.uk/king-looking-jester-stole-thorny-crown-world-snooker-review-2014/
[4] Weaver, P., “Mark Selby clinches second world title with 18-14 win over Ding Junhui.” (2nd May 2016). The Guardian. Accessed on: 9th June 2017. Accessed from: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/may/02/mark-selby-world-championshp-ding-junhui.
[5] BBC., “Mark Selby: Leicester man humbled by Hendry and Davis praise.” (7th December 2016). Accessed on: 9th June 2017. Accessed from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/snooker/38234451
