> --- gevinchapwell <gevinchapwell@y...> wrote:
>
> > It would be interesting to see people's lists.
> > Here's mine. With me
> > greatness is a combination of talent and success,
> > not just one or the
> > other. I've excluded later players who we haven't
> > seen in a champion
> > of champions tournament.
> >
> > 1. Harvey Freeman - He did it all. After winning his
> > series (with the
> > highest ever series score in the half-hour game) and
> > CofC unbeaten,
> > he put himself on the line again in the supreme
> > championships, which
> > he won. He lost in the Masters series to Mark Nyman,
> > but that doesn't
> > detract from his success.
> >
> > 2. Julian Fell - The highest averaging player in
> > history. His series
> > win was staggering and if he'd won the CofC, he
> > would probably be
> > number one on this list, but he was beaten by Graham
> > Nash in the
> > quarter finals.
> >
> > 3. Graham Nash - He wasn't the highest scorer, but
> > he had the
> > success. Unbeaten series champion and CofC winner,
> > he beat Julian
> > Fell, Tom Hargreaves and Chris Wills in consecutive
> > games, in
> > arguably the most competitive CofC.
> >
> > 4. Allan Saldanha - He never won a championship but
> > in the supreme
> > championships, he looked the most impressive player,
> > making it look
> > easy on his the way to the final before meeting
> > Harvey Freeman.
> >
> > 5. Don Reid - He was an unbeaten series champion and
> > CofC winner. His
> > only defeat came against John Clarke in the supreme
> > championships,
> > and that was on a sudden death conundrum.
> >
> > 6. Nic Brown - He was unbeaten as series champion
> > and CofC winner,
> > but did not come back for the supreme championships.
> >
> > 7. Scott Mearns - Another unbeaten series champion
> > and CofC winner.
> > he would have been higher if not for losing to
> > Natascha Kearsey in
> > their battle of the champions of champions.
> >
> > 8. Mark Nyman - One of the earliest Octochamps, he
> > failed to win his
> > series final (his only defeat) before winning the
> > first CofC and then
> > beating Clive Freedman in a champion of champions
> > head to head, as
> > well as beating harvery freeman in the masters
> > series.
> >
> > 9. John Clarke - He was an unbeaten series winner,
> > but lost in the
> > CofC and supreme championships at the semi-final
> > stages, both times
> > to Harvery Freeman, the only person to defeat him.
> >
> > 10= Tim Morrissey - He wasn't a series winner, but
> > he was an
> > Octochamp, CofC winner and made it to the
> > semi-finals of the supreme
> > championships, before losing to Allan Saldanha.
> >
> > 10= Chris Wills - One of the highest scoring
> > unbeaten series winners,
> > he made it to the final of the CofC before losing to
> > Graham Nash,
> > whose place he could have had if he'd won.
> >

A very good list Gevin. Fairly near to being
spot-on in terms of trying to include all 10
best players within a list of just over 10 names.

My all-time list may begin
1. Julian Fell
2. Harvey Freeman

But after that? The fact that John Clarke
only beat Don Reid on a *2nd* conundrum is
probably a good illustration of how closely
matched many of the rest might be.

---------------

Despite not winning either a Series or a C-Of-C,
I'd be tempted to include David Williams of
Series 43 as a 3rd person in Joint 10th place,
due to the v. high standard of his performances.

While playing at home against him during his
octochamp run, I found him to be one of *the*
hardest-to-beat players of the whole 9 rounds era.
Since then (2000), during all of the subsequent
octochamp runs, the ONLY person whom I've
actually found to be *tougher* to try to beat
during their octochamp run has been Julian Fell.

DW's so-called 'lack of success' may have been
caused by an iffy looking DC decision going
against him in his Series 43 Semi Final, plus
a 1st round draw from hell against Chris Wills
in his C-Of-C, where he only lost by 2 pts.

Okay, so David would still have had to overcome
a slightly-below-his-very-best-due-to-nerves
Graham Nash in that Series 43 Grand Final. But
I'd have to add him to my own Top 10 Countdown
players of the Whiteley era.


Zef