Stephen Hendry snooker blog
Elisabeth
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Posts by Elisabeth
Cue outrage for snooker’s ne’er-do-wells
0764 days
by Elisabeth
in Uncategorized
“Bad boys, bad boys, whatcha gonna do? Whatcha gonna do when they come for you…”
While the bad boys of snooker aren’t particularly dangerous, their many deeds still shock people. Because snooker is a gentlemanly sport, the acts of the bad boys are perhaps looked upon more severely compared to, let’s say, boxing.
So what is the worst action ever committed by a professional snooker player? Well, there are quite likely a few things that never reached the public and that will be forever buried in the past.
There are also a lot of different categories, most of which involve match-fixing. Australian Quinten Hann might be the worst case ever revealed. He agreed to lose a match with Ken Doherty in the 2006 China Open in return for money, but gave himself away during an interview with an undercover journalist. He ended up with a £10,000 fine and an eight-year ban which has probably marked the end of his career.
There was a similar incident involving Peter Francisco who was banned for five years after being found guilty of match-fixing in a World Championship match against Jimmy White. His uncle, Silvino Francisco was accused of match-fixing as well, but was never found guilty.
There have also been a few cases of drug use throughout the years. The 1980 world champion Cliff Thorburn was banned from two ranking tournaments after having taken cocaine. Bill Werbeniuk, who suffered from essential tremor, used to drink eight pints of beer before every match. Alex Higgins is another infamous example of a heavy drinker. Ronnie O’Sullivan was tested positively for marijuana after having won the 1998 Irish Masters against Ken Doherty. The title was taken away from him and given to Doherty who, however, refused to accept the trophy.
Spats are another quite frequent occurrence in this context. Hann once wanted to go outside to fight with Andy Hicks after a match, and O’Sullivan has sure had his arguments with other players and referees. But the most violent player has to be Higgins, who once punched a referee in the face and threatened to have Dennis Taylor killed.
The most harmless of all the bad boys of snooker is probably Tony Knowles. Knowles was a lover, not a fighter. The women admired him and Knowles had no intention of disappointing them. He eagerly shared passionate stories about his bedroom activities with those who wanted to hear and those who didn’t. Eventually he went over the line and was fined for bringing the game into disrepute.
Bad boys are a distraction from the game and mostly a bad one. But one has to admit that some of these stories – like the ones about Tony Knowles – do add a certain spice to the sport.
Hong Kong Fuey a world champ in 2010?
0769 days
by Elisabeth
in Uncategorized
About five years ago, Swedish Eurosport snooker commentator Kim Hartman predicted Marco Fu from Hong Kong would be a world champion within the next years. The prediction has yet to come true.
The first jaw-dropping event involving Fu happened in 1998 when he, as a 20-year-old, beat Ronnie O’Sullivan and Peter Ebdon in Grand Prix and reached the final. He also qualified for the World Championship that year. In 1999 he became WSA Young Player of the Year and WPBSA Newcomer of the Year.
He appeared in the top 16 for the 2000/01 season but dropped out just as quickly. The prediction about him becoming a world champion one day didn’t seem as convincing anymore.
Hope was born anew when he reached the quarter final of the 2003 World Championship and then three years later the semi-final. Fu seems to have an affinity for the Crucible. Every now and then he appears in the World Championship and does extremely well. In recent years he has also won the Grand Prix (in 2007) and was the runner-up in the 2008 UK Championship. He’s now back in the top 16.
Fu definitely has the potential of becoming a world champion but something seems to be missing. Ability to control his nerves perhaps? Who knows, if he can become a complete player and use his talent to the max, he might be lifting that trophy sooner than we think.
Davis v Taylor still the mother of all finals
0770 days
by Elisabeth
in Uncategorized
Ask people about the most memorable moment in snooker history and it’s pretty safe to say that you will get ”the 1985 World Championship final” from the majority of them.
Yes, even from those who were too young to watch it. The historic moment of the last black ball waiting to be potted by either Steve Davis or Dennis Taylor proved just how exciting the sport can be. It opened up the eyes of a lot of people who weren’t previously interested in snooker but who immediately became fans.
Modern technology has enabled parts of this classic final to be put up on Youtube. Watching it you can’t help smiling. Both players fought so incredibly hard and were so focused. Davis’s nervousness was more noticeable than Taylor’s who could hide his feelings behind huge spectacles. He was probably just as agitated, however.
Was this snooker’s peak? Will there never be a bigger moment? Maybe all sports have these peaks, events that can never ever be topped? Even if you weren’t there watching in real time, the stories are passed on by one generation to the next.
The excitement of the 18.5million people who saw the match is not hard to imagine. So, what do we need to get really excited about snooker today?
More ranking tournaments, players like the old Steve Davis and Stephen Hendry, more World Championship finals ending on the last black ball? Or isn’t there anything that can make us thrilled anymore?
Maybe people just need to attend more live matches. Let’s hope that the WPBSA and new chairman Barry Hearn can revive the old snooker spirit next year and provide us with more tournaments and more quality moments.
New memories need to be created.
Potted biography makes for interesting read
0771 days
by Elisabeth
in Uncategorized
Professional snooker player Stuart Pettman, ranked 37th in the world, is in the process of writing a book about his current career. The book is called Life as a Pro and can be read for free over at the Prosnookerblog. It’s a quite interesting read for those who are into snooker and have ever wondered what the life as a top player could be like.
In the October chapter Pettman writes:
“The TV cameras can have a slightly less positive effect though because you can’t help but think about the thousands of people who might be watching and talking about whether or not you’re any good. If I miss a black off the spot on TV, I know there’ll be people saying ‘That Pettman’ll never get anywhere,’ […] But sometimes comments do get back to me and it’s disappointing that people can make such hasty judgments based on a couple of shots they’ve seen on TV. “
It’s sad to hear that people think this way and make these kinds of comments. Surely, deep down they know how hard all the snooker players on the pro tour work and that they’re extremely talented. Given today’s competition, they wouldn’t otherwise be professionals. Then again, talent is always relative; usually it’s not very hard to tell who’s the better of a top-16 player and someone in spots 40-70.
Making a living from any sport is something that most people see as close to impossible and very impressive. In the case of Stuart Pettman his total career earnings, according to Wikipedia, amount to £246,245. Spread out over 10 years that makes a pretty average salary. Then add the fact that these guys do what they love the most and get paid for it. Isn’t that what most people only dream about?
Even though we don’t see the players below top 32 very frequently on TV we still have to keep in mind that what they do is still very unusual and that their profession is a rare privilege granted to very few people.
New format comes up short
0778 days
by Elisabeth
in Uncategorized
Inspired by Twenty20 Cricket, Global-Snooker.com recently introduced a new form of snooker. The rules are simple. Players play against each other and try to score as many points as possible in 147 minutes. The name of the game? Oneforseven.
Snooker is facing a lot of popularity problems at the moment. TV channels are complaining that they never know when a match will finish. The same problem affects newspapers that have deadlines to stick to. It has also been hard to encourage younger people to watch a game that often takes many hours to finish. Could it be that snooker is too slow a sport for the MTV generation?
Some old fans, however, think the Oneforseven format takes away the core of the game we know as snooker. It’s no longer even about winning frames, you have to score as many points as possible to win the match.
The players will have no control of a big part of the match as points are being scored even in frames they don’t participate in and every point counts towards the total. To some people this seems like an attempt to attract new fans to a whole new sport, rather than making the game more entertaining to present-day snooker fans.
Instead the die-hard fans have argued that the best-of-nine matches format is too short and that it is these shorter matches that are the equivalent of Twenty20 Cricket, not Oneforseven. People have suggested that regular snooker should instead be better promoted and organised.
Nevertheless, it’s another tournament, and more tournaments are something that is needed right now to keep the sport alive. Oneforseven Wales will be launched today in Cardiff.
Winning’s no Burden for Alfie
0781 days
by Elisabeth
in Uncategorized
Alfie Burden, a 33-year-old from Hatfield, has won the International Billiards and Snooker Federation World Championship.
The event, also known as the World Amateur Snooker Championship was held in Hyderabad, India and the other finalist was Brazilian Igor Figueiredo. It’s regarded as the most important non-professional snooker tournament in the world. 96 players from 43 countries participated in this competition.
The victory also means Burden will be returning to the pro tour next year.
He dropped off the circuit last year and has been eager to return ever since. Burden is quite happy about this and says it was his goal all along.
Jimmy White, who won the IBSF World Championship in 1980, is the mentor of Burden and was of course thrilled to hear that he’d won. He found out just after he returned from the jungle where he’d been living during the television show I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!
Burden’s next tournament will be the Oneforseven in Cardiff next week.
The Whirlwind bags a wild card
0782 days
by Elisabeth
in Uncategorized
A few weeks ago Rory McLeod, who reached the last 32 in this year’s UK Championship, won the whole Masters Qualifying Event and received a wild card to the Masters tournament at Wembley next year.
The second wild card was announced today. Jimmy White, who won both the World Series of Snooker in Prague and the Sangsom 6-Red Grand Prix earlier this year, has been chosen by World Snooker. White gave up his place in the UK Championship qualifiers to join the reality tv show, I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here, where he finished third.
The Masters is an invitational tournament where the world’s 14 best players are automatically qualified for the last 16 stage while those in spots 15 and 16 will have to go through a round against the wild cards. McLeod will play against Mark Williams and White will take on Mark King on Sunday 10th January 2010.
One of the favourites to get the Masters wild card this year before White was announced was this year’s Shanghai Master’s finalist, Liang Wenbo. However, World Snooker picked White because of his immense popularity among snooker fans, especially in London where the tournament is going to be held.
Jimmy White won the Masters in 1984 9-5 against Terry Griffiths.
Hendry white hot at 6 Red World Championship
0782 days
by Elisabeth
in Uncategorized
The 6 Red World Championship continues as we’re approaching the final on Friday. One of the more successful players has to be Stephen Hendry who so far has beaten Itaro Santos, Shea Brereton and Lucky Vatnani. He also beat Irishman Patrick Lally 4-0 and made it to the next round.
Just as John Higgins was beginning to get over the fact that he was beaten by the women’s world champion Reanne Evans, he lost to young upcoming star Adiyta Mehta from India. Higgins has, however, advanced to the next round.
John’s namesake, Alex Higgins, quickly recovered from the loss against Alex O’Donoghue and beat Jim Stewart 4-0.
All the 25 professional players participating in 6 Red have now qualified for the knockout phase. Most of them seem to appreciate the different format of 6-red snooker. The reason why some of the pros seem to have a hard time winning matches is that there is hardly any room for mistakes. One miss is very likely to cost you the frame. That way it seems more random but it’s also faster and more intense, which organisers hope will attract new fans.
Sixes and Evans
0783 days
by Elisabeth
in Uncategorized
This Sunday, Ding Junhui beat reigning world champion John Higgins in the UK Championship final and the snooker world was slightly shocked.
Last night, Higgins faced defeat once again, this time to a less obvious player. Reanne Evans, one of the world’s finest female snooker players came out victorious in this year’s battle of the sexes, or shall we say sixes, against Higgins in the 6 Red World Championship.
Evans, who has a daughter from a previous relationship with world top 16 player Mark Allen, has been dominating the women’s snooker scene for a while. She won the match against Higgins 4-3 with a 51 break, which is quite high considering the format. Before beating Higgins, Evans defeated Aaron Doran 4-1 and will most likely move on to the second round. Fans of women’s snooker are excited over these results and believe that she might even have a chance on the pro tour.
The 6 Red World Championship is being played between the 15th and 18th of December in Killarney. The event is sponsored by 888sport.com and 130 players from all over the world will be participating.
In 6-red snooker, also known as Super 6s, only six red balls are used. Aside from that, the rules are the same as in regular snooker. The format was invented to speed up the game and make each frame shorter with the intention of increasing the popularity of the sport.
One of the organisers of the tournament is Irish snooker star and former world champion, Ken Doherty. He started off yesterday by beating John McBride 4-1. Another legend who’s participating in the championship is the notorious but still very respected Alex “Hurricane” Higgins, who won the World Championship in 1972 and 1982. His didn’t get quite as good a start as Doherty as he lost his opening match 4-0 to Alex O’Donoghue.
The 6 Red World Championship will be decided on Friday and €10,000 in prize money awaits the winner.