Did they play?

[samasnookerfan]

I don't think some people realise how players considered modern and players considered from a different era careers overlapped.
Mainly in the early to mid 90s they could have met, when players like Higgins, O'Sullivan, Williams, Doherty and Ebdon were starting out their careers and players like Thorburn, Griffiths, Taylor, Higgins and Charlton were coming to the end of theirs - but there was a few years where they could have played. So I wanted to ask if anyone knew if any of these players played. There were a few years where Ronnie O'Sullivan could have drawn Alex Higgins, or Ebdon faced Thorburn - they probably weren't televised but does anyone know if any of the players mentioned above played the older generation?

[dannyd0g]

Perhaps the best example of the 'old versus the new' was the irish masters final in 87 or 89 when it was hendry near the start of his career versus alex higgins near the end of his. Also Hendry's debut at the crucible where he played willie thorne.

Another good one was a young Kirk Stevens versus the ancient Fred Davis at the world championships in the eighties.

Ronnie refers to matches against Dennis taylor and cliff wilson near the start of his career, in his book.

Of course theres plenty going on currently too, with many of todays youngest pros probably never even having seen the likes of Davis, Parrot, White and Drago in action when they were at the peaks of their form.

[Mal]

With the likes of Terry Griffiths and Dennis Taylor, the overlap was quite a number of years with coinciding periods in the top 16, so there probably was a few meetings.

There were some notable matches such as Ken Doherty beating Alex Higgins in his last Crucible appearance in 1994 (10-6 in 1st round) and Mark Williams squeezing past Terry Griffiths in his last professional match (1st round of WC 1997). (The Hurricane and ken have played some exhibition matches together since)

Also, Dennis Taylor didn't seem to fare well against the new young guns. In the UK championship from 1994 - 1997 he lost in consecutive years to Peter Ebdon, Ken Doherty (twice) and Mark Williams - generally around the last 16/32 stage.
Dennis Taylor and Ronnie O'Sullivan also met at the crucible and Masters with ronnie winning.
There seems to be fewer matches in the later stages of tournaments (quarters on). In 1992 grand prix, Ken Doherty beat terry griffiths in the semi however.
I suppose unsurprisingly the players on their way up on the basis of the above results were more successful against the players of the 70/80s whose careers were winding down. does anyone know of any where the older players showed the youngsters a thing or two? Cliff Wilson beating ronnie 9-8 is one example!

[Rane]

Before anyone else does it, I´ll bring the standard reply. "Ronnie wasn´t in the mood. He has never lost a match when he is"

In fact John Higgins made his first official 147 against Dennis Taylor. I saw it the other night on Youtube.

[Alex0paul]

I know this isn't on the same lines but I am amazed that Hendry and Higgins have never met at the Crucible before and I can't recall many other meetings between them (outisde the Premier League)

[kellie-text]

Yes you would have thought they'd have met more times in competition wouldnt you.

On the times they have met though, their matches never lived up to all the hype. Maybe they respected eachothers game too much.

And with Hendry's decline, we might never see these two produce a real classic now.