Snooker 2020

[pigamus]

Hendry has been sad to watch since his last world final. Would probably have won 10-12 world titles if it wasn't for the yips. It's mad he won all 7 of his world titles in the same decade.

Hendry never had the yips. He could still hit brilliant shots, breaks, maximums on his day - he just started missing the easy ones.

[BlodwynPig]

10:30 at night, the sadness in their eyes.

[Blue Jam]

White Lines...you couldn't make it up

I thought Hendry's only vices were children's party entertainers half his age and botox.

[Flouncer]

White vs. Hendry on now. Jimmy was 3-1 up, making a 130 break to seal the 4th frame. Hendry has battled back to bring it to 3-2.

[BlodwynPig]

The ref's mike (today and last night) makes him sound like he's fathoms under the ocean

[BlodwynPig]

It's really great to see these old masters at the bottom of their game

[BlodwynPig]

Rob Walker must be on a low salary, surprised to see him mincing around with Doherty here.

[BlodwynPig]

Is Jimmy back on the crack?

[Blue Jam]

Rob Walker must be on a low salary, surprised to see him mincing around with Doherty here.

He's not actually employed by the BBC. He's a freelance journalist. He's probably a Deliveroo rider in the off-season.

Been considering that option myself tbh :(

[BlodwynPig]

OH JIMMY!

[BlodwynPig]

OH KEN!

[BlodwynPig]

GET IN!!!!

[Flouncer]

This is mental! I can't believe he's done it.

[BlodwynPig]

3 TIMES WORLD CHAMPION!!!

BBC shambles with the hot mics.

[Flouncer]

"He'll be fuckin' devastated."

[BlodwynPig]

Be good to have a Doherty clone in the studio commenting on the Doherty crumble on the baize

[BlodwynPig]

"He'll be fuckin' devastated."

Taylor: "Doherty's just cost me 500 quid, the Irish *inaudible*"

[BlodwynPig]

"This one's for Ronnie Wood, see you later mate (for some crack)"

[druss]

Hendry never had the yips. He could still hit brilliant shots, breaks, maximums on his day - he just started missing the easy ones.

Well precisely... He missed easy ones because of the yips. Seems like the most plausible explanation as we haven't seen Higgins, Williams or O'Sullivan fall in the same fashion, all 3 making world finals well in to their 40s. Hendry wasn't exactly lacking in mental toughness in the 90s so something must have happened, yips seems most likely.

The yips? Didn't he blame his crappy old cheapo queue getting smashed up by some clumsy baggage handler?

To be fair I imagine being used to using a cue that wasn't even straight and then having to cue with a perfectly straight one must have been a challenge.

I don't think it was the cue, his decline started way before he broke it. His last 'triple crown' title was in 1999 and before that, 1996. He broke the cue in 2003. No chance the Hendry of the early 90s would have missed that black against Williams in 1998.

I fucking hated Hendry in the 90s and was delighted to see his decline as it was happening, but there won't ever be a player as dominant as he was again.

[Puce Moment]

Isn't he the highest earning snooker player, particularly when inflation is taken into account? He made most of his millions in the 90s so I always assumed he just lost the drive and determination to practice.

I have noticed that when speaking about other players, particularly the older lot from around his generation, he often cites practice as the major factor affecting performance and tournament success. I always assume he is projecting a bit, although of course he has a point (although perhaps not where ronjo is concerned).

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Anyone reckon he could crack into the top 30 if he commits to returning? He's not that old when you think the top guys are mid-40s now.

He was way off his best when he retired but he still could have made QFs and the odd SF.

Has a hint of Michael Schumacher about it so line up Hendry for brain damage from a skiing accident in 3 years time, having notched up a Losing Finalist in the 2022 Skopje Turds Classic.

[Puce Moment]

If he put in 6 hours of practice per day instead of sitting around watching Curb I think he would comfortably crack the top 16. Perhaps it's because I disliked him as a player so much that he seemed extra dominant in the 90s. I have memories of so many tournaments completely ransacked with his ultra-consistent play.

[pigamus]

Must just be bored. What else do you do if you're Stephen Hendry?

[sevendaughters]

Hendry seemed a bit of a shell of himself at the Seniors, but maybe it wasn't worth his while after the Lord Mayor's show and all that.

[MidnightShambler]

Hendry didn't have the yips, he lost his focus due to being far and away the most successful player of all time. Once he'd beaten Davis's record of world titles, there was nothing else left to do. He was hardly going to practice with the same fervour for the Regal Welsh after he'd done that.
And snooker, no matter how talented you are (and this is one of the reasons Ronnie saying he doesn't practice is complete bullshit) is all about practice and consistency. The less you play, the worse you get, it's not even a debate. You start to miss the tricky red to the middle on a 38 or don't leave the right angle to go into the pack at 50 and lose the frames, all of a sudden you're losing tight matches. And then the feeling of 'do I really need to be arsed, I've achieved everything anyway' kicks in properly.

Plus he had a shitload of personal issues around that time, affairs, bad investments, you name it. I was playing with Mark Williams (we both played for Wales, even though I'm not Welsh. At all.) in a pool international at Butlins in 2001 and some of the things he was telling me about Hendry's personal life would shock you. The cue going was the straw that broke the camels back really.

Also, that black against Williams was a straight, dead weight, against the nap, white on the cushion, nightmare of a pot at 1-1, never mind on a re-spotted black at 9-9 in The Masters final at Wembley. If you think missing that denotes the yips then I can't help you.

He must have got rid of them by the time he won the World Title again the following year though.

Him coming back is a mistake though, there's every chance he completely embarrasses himself, like Bjorn Borg did. Still, be good to see just on the chance he doesn't. He could beat most of the young lads on reputation alone.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Ronnie, July 2020: "anyone aged under 40 playing snooker these days is a dog shit eating AIDS wraith who a thalidomide donkey could beat'

Hendry, September 2020: 'more professional snooker for me please'

[monkfromhavana]

Plus he had a shitload of personal issues around that time, affairs, bad investments, you name it. I was playing with Mark Williams (we both played for Wales, even though I'm not Welsh. At all.) in a pool international at Butlins in 2001 and some of the things he was telling me about Hendry's personal life would shock you. The cue going was the straw that broke the camels back really.

Saw an interview with John Higgins yesterday where he suggested that Hendry had a fair few commitments in China that were raking him in the money, but also eating into his time for playing tournaments etc. He had to make a choice and chose the money.

[Blue Jam]

Hendry was meant to be putting out his own video game this year but it looks like it's been nixed now:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Snooker19/comments/fb1yu2/comment/fja2n16

No idea how much he stood to make from it or if this has anything to do with his decision to come out of retirement though.

[buttgammon]

Hendry was meant to be putting out his own video game this year but it looks like it's been nixed now:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Snooker19/comments/fb1yu2/comment/fja2n16

No idea how much he stood to make from it or if this has anything to do with his decision to come out of retirement though.

Isn't this in the title of the thread about the other snooker game (which you possibly started)?

[Blue Jam]

Isn't this in the title of the thread about the other snooker game (which you possibly started)?

Yes.

It looks like Stephen Hendry's game was the more serious one with a bigger budget and nicer graphics, but the studio was taken over by another one who are cigs about snooker and now want to make it purely a pool game.

Looks like he was still plugging it on his Instagram last month so I don't know what's going on:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CEKHSoYBLgG/