Invitational tour card for Stephen Hendry

[John Flaf]

This randomly appeared on my YT this morning, some great hints and tips also some very nice potting, Also have a look at Gaming Arsenal it's full of snooker stuff, Enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RP1KdZYEJIc

[trains]

apparently he's not entering the uk championship , if its because he's guaranteed making more money commentating this tourney for the beeb it kind of begs the question why don't they just go back to the way it was in the 80's and limit the tour to around 32 , you'd still get the selby's murphy's and gilbert's coming through if there was a few relegated each year , they could spare funds for a healthier amateur game too .

[mikee]

Even Neil Foulds was surprised Hendry had not entered the Uk championship ,personally I think Hendry knows he can't cut it at the top level ,I would love to be proved wrong though .

[Neil Taperell]

Why accept a Tour Card and then not play at every opportunity , and I don’t believe the BBC money has anything to do with it either.

[Mark187187]

I imagine he hasn't practiced much. He's not going to play any tournaments he's not going to be competitive in, so presume he's going to hit the practice table hard for a while before he enters anything. There's plenty (the majority probably) of players on the tour who don't enter every tournament. People seem happy for ROS to pick and chose.

[Starsky]

Personally I think it’s down to his confidence in his ability to compete at that level and not anything to do with finances .
Watching White play so poorly and receiving negative press isn’t going to help either .
I’m wondering if Hendry is regretting taking the card in the first place.

[fkhan]

Why accept a Tour Card and then not play at every opportunity , and I don’t believe the BBC money has anything to do with it either.

Could it be due to the pandemic?

[trains]

This is jimmy whites’ record against random top 64 players , i’m not sure how accurate it is to say that he’s playing poorly its just that these players weren’t around when he made five straight crucible finals with the exception of a young perry davis ebdon king and o’brien .


vs barry hawkins 0 wins 9 losses

vs joe perry 3 wins 3 losses

vs ricky walden 2 wins 2 losses

vs mark davis 1 win 3 losses

vs ali carter 4 wins 4 losses

vs peter ebdon 6 wins 11 losses

vs marco fu 4 wins 4 losses

vs mark allen 2 wins 3 losses

vs stephen maguire 2 wins 7 losses

vs ryan day 1 win 5 losses

vs graeme dott 2 wins 2 losses

vs martin gould 0 wins 3 losses

vs mark king 2 wins 7 losses

vs fergal o’ brien 3 wins 3 losses

vs matthew stevens 7 wins 13 losses

vs michael holt 0 wins 4 losses


I’m not really sure what stephen hendry is waiting for , he won’t get better practice than actual competition and if he fears his record won’t be much better than the above then the experience from a losing first year will give him a better chance of making the top 64 in his second year , no reasoning for his not playing given either , all a bit strange .

[trains]

stephen hendry

@SHendry775
I’ve not entered Uk because it’s still behind closed doors,one of things I missed was playing in front of a crowd so I’m going to wait till things hopefully change,anyway games not ready

haha this tweet completely reminds me of my conversation with him , if he didn't like playing behind closed doors why did he pick now to come back when there was still talk of a second wave , and his game not being ready is complete cobblers , you need competitive competition to maturate your game , taking time out is a decision you take that naturally goes without match practice , i guess ronnie winning the worlds in 2013 after a year out was because his game wasn't ready , oh dear .

[neuronic]

I'm so glad there are people on internet forums that have such deep, hard fact insights of basically everything concerning people they "admire" and are willing to share them with us... thank you. Really, thank you.

[Mark187187]

stephen hendry

@SHendry775
I’ve not entered Uk because it’s still behind closed doors,one of things I missed was playing in front of a crowd so I’m going to wait till things hopefully change,anyway games not ready

haha this tweet completely reminds me of my conversation with him , if he didn't like playing behind closed doors why did he pick now to come back when there was still talk of a second wave , and his game not being ready is complete cobblers , you need competitive competition to maturate your game , taking time out is a decision you take that naturally goes without match practice , i guess ronnie winning the worlds in 2013 after a year out was because his game wasn't ready , oh dear .

Do you think Ronnie was wrong to take a year out? Should he have sacrificed his tour card?

[trains]

Do you think Ronnie was wrong to take a year out? Should he have sacrificed his tour card ?

obvious answer i suppose , o sullivan wouldn't have taken that decision without discussing it and it being allowed with ws and barry hearn so the sacrificing of his tour card is somewhat moot i think , also i don't know what position i have to say anyone's wrong for taking a year out of any career , its their life , the difference is on what alternate planet was the covid issue over with 2 months ago when hendry decided to come back and re his game not being ready , the idea that he hasn't had decent practice since september or for yonks before that is a croc o crap and you can only do so much in practice anyway , re jimmy white i'm hitting the ball well in practice , hendry knows this as much as anyone , i find it all a bit of a chuckle tbh .

[Mark187187]

obvious answer i suppose , o sullivan wouldn't have taken that decision without discussing it and it being allowed with ws and barry hearn so the sacrificing of his tour card is somewhat moot i think , also i don't know what position i have to say anyone's wrong for taking a year out of any career , its their life , the difference is on what alternate planet was the covid issue over with 2 months ago when hendry decided to come back and re his game not being ready , the idea that he hasn't had decent practice since september or for yonks before that is a croc o crap and you can only do so much in practice anyway , re jimmy white i'm hitting the ball well in practice , hendry knows this as much as anyone , i find it all a bit of a chuckle tbh .

2 months ago there was some prospect of audiences returning, albeit in lower numbers. Now there is no prospect.

Either you think players should play all tournaments or you think it is their choice to pick and chose. Ronnie's done it for years, even putting aside the year out, I don't really see how this is any different. Ronnie's opted out of the UK on 3 occasions, and the Masters twice. But I'm guessing that doesn't bother you, and you're point is only specific to players not called Ronnie.

[trains]

2 months ago there was some prospect of audiences returning, albeit in lower numbers. Now there is no prospect.

Either you think players should play all tournaments or you think it is their choice to pick and chose. Ronnie's done it for years, even putting aside the year out, I don't really see how this is any different. Ronnie's opted out of the UK on 3 occasions, and the Masters twice. But I'm guessing that doesn't bother you, and you're point is only specific to players not called Ronnie.

I never really cared what o sullivans reasons for opting out of those tournaments , they were individual tournaments in a season , why shouldn’t a player take a few weeks off in a season , i didn’t even care when he announced he was taking a break from snooker , it was a break and thats it , a reason was given and it was his choice , who am i to say anything , and o sullivan announced he was coming back at the wc and stuck to it , there was clarity , i was interested in hendry’s reason for not playing in pro events since he received his tour card because its been since september so looking at the calendar thats seven successive events up to and including the uk that he isn’t playing , apparently as an earlier poster mentioned in this thread even neal foulds who works with hendry on itv was surprised hendry didn’t enter the uk , this isn’t random events in a season its seven straight and no reasoning was given , my posts #32 #38 #39 and #42 in this thread are about his reasoning , it could then be asked of me why am i posting about hendry taking a three month break , i wouldn’t be if he said he was taking a three month break , then following on to his reasons in post #42 , even if there was a prospect of a limited audience like the audience at the crucible final i hardly think thats what he meant by playing in front of crowds so again why pick now to come back , its strange , and just my opinion but i doubt the other reason is his game isn’t ready , firstly it would undoubtedly have been more ready had he played in some or all of the first six events this season and i gather he would have had to play either selby kyren wilson shaun murphy or john higgins in the first round of the uk before playing someone i think ranked in the 60’s to stand any chance of getting the 12k uk last 32 prize money , he’s probably getting more than that as a bbc commentator for the thirteen days of the tournament , and i’m not sure about the coverage of the first six events but its probably a reasonable estimation that he was assured more money commentating on some of them on itv or quest than paying his expenses entering them and being confronted with flat draws like for example o sullivan vs little known french amateur brian ochoiski , it had nothing whatsoever to do with favouritism i don’t favour any players at all fyi , did so a long time ago but now i couldn’t care less about that .

[Cue crafty]

I've suspected from the off, that Hendry has only taken up the offer to play on tour as a business proposition, a nice little boost to his earnings and possibly he will enjoy some of the matches too. As said above, BBC pay is pretty good to so he will be balancing his options on playing and commentating and taking which one suits him best at that point in time. Just my opinion.