Funny how offensive "not a sport" is to plenty of games. Why snooker players, car-drivers, horse-riders and athletes desperately wish to be sportsmen i'm not sure. But i'm not having someone as a sportsman for running fast any more than they're a sportsman for pissing efficiently. Or for driving any more than for being excellent at World of Warcraft. Or for riding a horse any more than for being given a fantastic piggy-back.
Don't want to derail the thread too much, but I'm quite happy to accord snooker, darts, running and driving the status of "sport". All satisfy the basic criteria of being a) physical & b) not having an entirely subjective scoring system.
ITSTL
Indeed. As i say, it's bizarre how saying something isn't a sport can be so offensive. Love snooker to bits tbh, but there's no way it's a sport.
Pretty offensive to those involved when you don't deem them to be any more of a sport than something that is purely a mental game such as WOW. (Not talking about snooker as I'm not sure where I stand re: pub games/'sports', but athletics/horse/motor racing etc.)
Generally i don't consider something a sport if there's no direct competition. In golf, sprinting or high jump, you can't make things more difficult for your opponent- you just try to score less, run faster or jump higher and hope the other person can't match you. I don't consider motor racing a sport- although i am a fan of F1- because players don't compete on a level playing field. One guy drives a Brawn GP wondercar and the other a Ferrari prank-mobile.
It's just a mildly alternative definition of a word though, really.
