Most difficult in-game sporting achievement - 9 dart finish, 147 break, perfect hat-trick etc. ??

RedPed

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I was just watching a programme on TV where a snooker player and darts player were debating which was more difficult to achieve; a nine dart finish or a 147 break. They both set forth compelling arguments for their respective sport but both agreed that the 147 break shaded it. It got me thinking about other sports. Not sure what the iconic milestone achievements would be in other sports but was wondering which IS the most difficult to achieve, The only thing is that it would need to be an in-game achievement rather than for example going a season unbeaten, winning the quad etc.

So......what is the most difficult to achieve?

The 9 dart finish
A Hole in One
A 147 break
The perfect hat-trick
Scoring a perfect 10 (in judge-based sports)
300 score in bowling

I'm not sure what similar achievements would be in cricket and US sports. From that list, I would have to say the hole in one surely has to be the hardest? Still can't get my head around that one.
 

RedPed

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OohAahMartial said:
I've had a hole in one and I'm rubbish. 147 break has been done very few times and easily the hardest of the above.
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I know it's been done but to lob a small ball straight into a small hole from 100 yards??? That's crazy. A top snooker player only needs to get his break right surely?
 

OohAahMartial

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A hole in one is a complete fluke. A 147 break, while obviously involving some luck, is mostly about skill as so many balls need to ve sunk in a row and the cue ball well positioned and right order of balls chosen. While it has been done in practice quite a bit a televised 147 is extremely rare though I did watch one. Tremendous skill and concentration required.
 

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Anyone who's played Snooker for more than 3 minutes will appreciate the difficulty in getting a 147.
 

OnlyTwoDaSilvas

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A pitcher throwing a perfect game in Baseball should certainly be up there. Only happened 21 times since 1900 in MLB. That sounds like quite a lot, but when you realise each team plays 162 regular season games, plus playoffs in a best of 7 series, 21 times in 116 years is a tiny amount.
 

RedPed

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OnlyTwoDaSilvas said:
A pitcher throwing a perfect game in Baseball should certainly be up there. Only happened 21 times since 1900 in MLB. That sounds like quite a lot, but when you realise each team plays 162 regular season games, plus playoffs in a best of 7 series, 21 times in 116 years is a tiny amount.
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What is a 'perfect game' ?
 

Raees

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RedPed said:
What is a 'perfect game' ?
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A perfect game is defined by Major League Baseball as a game in which a pitcher (or combination of pitchers) pitches a victory that lasts a minimum of nine innings and in which no opposing player reaches base.

Yet I am still none the wiser.
 

RedPed

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Raees said:
A perfect game is defined by Major League Baseball as a game in which a pitcher (or combination of pitchers) pitches a victory that lasts a minimum of nine innings and in which no opposing player reaches base.

Yet I am still none the wiser.
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What the hell?? :houllier:
 

Igor Drefljak

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Yeah a hole in one isn't that great. Kim Jong-Il, hit 11 in a single round of golf..
According to his biography, he first picked up a golf club in 1994, at North Korea's only golf course, and shot a 38-under par round that included no fewer than 11 holes in one. Satisfied with his performance, he reportedly immediately declared his retirement from the sport.
 

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RedPed said:
What is a 'perfect game' ?
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A perfect game is when the pitching team doesn't allow any batting player to reach first base over 9 innings. Lots of teams stop the opposing team from scoring any runs, but to not even allow a base runner to get to 1st is pretty special, and incredibly rare.
 

Igor Drefljak

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I don't watch Baseball but yeah that seems near impossible :/
How about a NHL match without fighting. Surely that is up there?
 

Zen

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If you are a pro at whichever sport, the odds are you've done a hole in one, 147 and 9 dart finish......just maybe not in competition play. In terms of looking for hardest, maybe the pure individual that achievements shouldn't be looked at.
 

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Igor Drefljak said:
Yeah a hole in one isn't that great. Kim Jong-Il, hit 11 in a single round of golf..
According to his biography, he first picked up a golf club in 1994, at North Korea's only golf course, and shot a 38-under par round that included no fewer than 11 holes in one. Satisfied with his performance, he reportedly immediately declared his retirement from the sport.
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:lol:
 

Raees

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  • Hole in one, impossible to get if you were to aim for it so in that sense it is the hardest because even pro's can't really aim for it. However it happens more often than you think and everyone has a I got a hole in one story, including myself - twice! As long as you land close to the hole, odds are if you play enough.. you'll get your fair share of hole in ones.
  • 147 - now there must be a distinction made between practice and televised. In practice, I am sure most top professionals can get a 147 but competitively, it is ridiculously hard.. takes an awesome amount of skill, concentration and luck. That said, it isn't an achievement which has been restricted to the very greatest.
  • Perfect hat-trick.. depends what level you play, and the context of who you played against. I wouldn't class it as hard as a 147.
  • 9 Dart Finish.. Phil Taylor's got 9, Ronnie has 13 147's. I haven't played darts enough to know how hard it is for a good regular player to get a 9 darter in practice, but I know personally, I'd find it really damn hard. Up there with a 147 IMO. I feel like with a 147, the reason why televised ones are rare is because the players are looking to win the frame and that competitive element means they're not always forcing the 147.. they have to focus on doing what they must to win the frame, so if you need to go for the blue which is a easier shot.. you do it. Whereas in Darts, your entire game until it gets down to the last few hundred is basically geared at scoring as much as you can.. so in essence everyone is trying for a 9 dart finish from the outset and yet for it to be so rare, tells you what you need to know about how rare it is. On the flip side, more people take snooker seriously as a game/sport so it has more people playing it.
  • Six 6's in an over in cricket.. only 6 men have ever done it, again it depends on context and who is bowling to you.. but even in amatuer cricket, I have never seen it. You'd think with the popularity of 20/20 cricket, this would become more common but no.
  • Perfect 10 - seems a subjective type of achievement, reliant on judges.. so don't feel qualified to talk about that.
 

RedPed

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Raees said:
  • Hole in one, impossible to get if you were to aim for it so in that sense it is the hardest because even pro's can't really aim for it. However it happens more often than you think and everyone has a I got a hole in one story, including myself - twice! As long as you land close to the hole, odds are if you play enough.. you'll get your fair share of hole in ones.
  • 147 - now there must be a distinction made between practice and televised. In practice, I am sure most top professionals can get a 147 but competitively, it is ridiculously hard.. takes an awesome amount of skill, concentration and luck. That said, it isn't an achievement which has been restricted to the very greatest.
  • Perfect hat-trick.. depends what level you play, and the context of who you played against. I wouldn't class it as hard as a 147.
  • 9 Dart Finish.. Phil Taylor's got 9, Ronnie has 13 147's. I haven't played darts enough to know how hard it is for a good regular player to get a 9 darter in practice, but I know personally, I'd find it really damn hard. Up there with a 147 IMO. I feel like with a 147, the reason why televised ones are rare is because the players are looking to win the frame and that competitive element means they're not always forcing the 147.. they have to focus on doing what they must to win the frame, so if you need to go for the blue which is a easier shot.. you do it. Whereas in Darts, your entire game until it gets down to the last few hundred is basically geared at scoring as much as you can.. so in essence everyone is trying for a 9 dart finish from the outset and yet for it to be so rare, tells you what you need to know about how rare it is. On the flip side, more people take snooker seriously as a game/sport so it has more people playing it.
  • Six 6's in an over in cricket.. only 6 men have ever done it, again it depends on context and who is bowling to you.. but even in amatuer cricket, I have never seen it. You'd think with the popularity of 20/20 cricket, this would become more common but no.
  • Perfect 10 - seems a subjective type of achievement, reliant on judges.. so don't feel qualified to talk about that
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Great post, thanks. Forgot about the the cricket one...or perhaps 6 wickets in an over?
 

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RedPed said:
Great post, thanks. Forgot about the the cricket one...or perhaps 6 wickets in an over?
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There's only been 42 Hat tricks in the history of the game, so 6 wickets in an over is just impossible, never going to happen.
 

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Raees said:
There's only been 42 Hat tricks in the history of the game, so 6 wickets in an over is just impossible, never going to happen.
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Yeah I think we can wipe that one off, the 6 sixes is very difficult but also I don't think players actually play for it often. Shot selection is obviously key in cricket and going for 6 sixes is way too risky. I think a lot more players could do it but they just aren't going to go for it.
 

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Snowjoe said:
Yeah I think we can wipe that one off, the 6 sixes is very difficult but also I don't think players actually play for it often. Shot selection is obviously key in cricket and going for 6 sixes is way too risky. I think a lot more players could do it but they just aren't going to go for it.
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Yeah agreed, similar concept to 147 in that sense where shot selection does come into it.
 

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RedPed said:
Great post, thanks. Forgot about the the cricket one...or perhaps 6 wickets in an over?
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Not yet happened. Think the best is 4 wickets in 4 consecutive balls. Remember watching Malinga do it in 2007 World Cup, which I think is the only instance of it happening in an international match. I also remember watching Shaun Pollock take 4 wickets in 4 balls in a county match.
 

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Snowjoe said:
Yeah I think we can wipe that one off, the 6 sixes is very difficult but also I don't think players actually play for it often. Shot selection is obviously key in cricket and going for 6 sixes is way too risky. I think a lot more players could do it but they just aren't going to go for it.
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Understood but I'm not talking about which is most likely or unlikely. It's purely based on which would be the most difficult to achieve if attempted by the players in the respective sports.
 

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Snowjoe said:
Yeah I think we can wipe that one off, the 6 sixes is very difficult but also I don't think players actually play for it often. Shot selection is obviously key in cricket and going for 6 sixes is way too risky. I think a lot more players could do it but they just aren't going to go for it.
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A cricketing hattrick is an achievement in itself. It's also hard to compare with the solo pursuits because you could be bowling against three idiots or the batting team may need quick runs towards the end of a limited overs game. Test hattricks are special, as are 36 run overs (I remember Yuvraj giving Broad some right treatment in the World T20 in 2007).

In tennis beating a similarly-ranked opponent without dropping a game would be pretty amazing. I doubt it's ever happened though.
 

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Find it tough to compare things pros may not do in a years worth of practice to stuff they could easily do in practice but most competition situations mean it's not worth the risk or requires an insane amount of luck on top of the insane skill to do - being 6x6 or hell perfect hat trick or quintuple double.....though Timmys ghost "Quad" was the finest performance between MJ and LeBron game 7 2016. If Hakeem couldn't do it, no one will. Hakeem the Dream!
 

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Eboue said:
what even is your life
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Not as bad as this guys...

Raees said:
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Still, the trend vexes the game's leading experts, from Len Nicholson of Vacaville, Calif., who has dedicated his career to the study of bowling lane surfaces
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paulscholes18

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Hole in one - Pure Luck
147- a lot of Skill, but need the balls to run right for you
9 darter, Pure Skill
 
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