At present, the International Championship held in Daqing has set another historical record. By the end of the first three rounds, the total number of single-shot breaks has reached 84, however, there were only 73 single-shot records in the previous single event. With this development, this international championship is likely to set an amazing record of 100 single shots.
In snooker, there are many factors that affect players’ scores, among which the most important are the humidity of the environment and the change of the pocket size. As this competition was held in Daqing, located in the northeast, the dry environment greatly reduced the influence of static electricity on the ball, making the players have a greater chance to hit some difficult balls.
The size of the pocket has always been a factor of different opinions. This time, Joe Perry, the famous English general, raised this topic. He was eliminated by Neil Robertson 6-5 in the second round of this event.
Afterwards, Perry immediately released a Twitter, saying, “Daqing is really a good place. I don’t know if it is because the mouth of the bag has become bigger, I feel that the players have played a lot of single shots this time.”
In fact, conspiracy theories about pocket size have been proposed more than once or twice. In this year’s world championships, many players thought that the size of the pocket had changed.
Michael Holt said on Twitter: “The Pocket mouth has changed for a while, and the edge of the pocket drop point has more Radian.”
The Masters champion Mark Allen expressed a completely different view from Holt. “Personally, I don’t think the pocket is getting bigger at all. In the game a few days ago, I felt that the corner pocket was hidden farther, but medium bag was much more convenient.”
(Alden)