Stephen Hendry retires

First topic message reminder :

Following his thrashing at the world champs, Stephen hangs up his cue.

I loved that piece they did on Hendry and White yesterday, especially Whites comment "the main difference between us was that i liked to go out and enjoy myself, Stephen liked to pick up tropheys".

Eight and a bit years after retirement, Hendry's coming back.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2020/sep/01/seven-time-world-champion-stephen-hendry-to-come-out-of-retirement

At the recent World Seniors Championship, Hendry received plaudits for the manner in which he defeated Nigel Bond and Canavan, although he was quite comfortably beaten by Jimmy White in the semis. It seems the fire has been reignited by playing in that competition.

No idea what level he can get back to, but it will be interesting to see. I'd be astonished if he even got close to winning another ranking event, though maybe he can make it back to the Crucible again.

Ronnie getting closer, or needs some money. Interesting to see how he performs.

Just John wrote:Ronnie getting closer, or needs some money. Interesting to see how he performs.

Or simply that he found the competitive fires re-ignited by his recent entry to the World Seniors.

Stephen Hendry is 51.

I suppose the key at his age is whether or not he is able and willing to put in the time to train and practise and to go round the minor tournaments collecting ranking points.  

If he can do all that then it will be interesting. Presumably it will take him a year or so to get his professional ranking up high enough to qualify for the top level tournaments including the majors.

No name Bertie wrote:Stephen Hendry is 51.

I suppose the key at his age is whether or not he is able and willing to put in the time to train and practise and to go round the minor tournaments collecting ranking points.  

If he can do all that then it will be interesting.  Presumably it will take him a year or so to get his professional ranking up high enough to qualify for the top level tournaments including the majors.

As I understand it the invitational tour card affords entry at a certain stage to tournaments so he, Ken Doherty and Jimmy White won't be having to go through the very early rounds of qualifying. That is as I understand it.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/snooker/56507475

The completely random 1st round qualifying draw for the World Championships has thrown together Stephen Hendry against Jimmy White, just for old time's sake.

The odds on that must be astronomical!
Or 1 in 8128.

JuliusHMarx wrote:The odds on that must be astronomical!
Or 1 in 8128.

Random number?

No, I think mathematically the odds of any 2 players being drawn together in a 128 player field are 1 in 8128.

The odds of Jimmy White and Hendry being drawn together was actually 1 in 32. Qualifying is a fixed variable draw where Jimmy White was preselected based on seeding to play in the first match, there were only 32 players who he could be drawn against.

I didn't know they used seeding.

Even with a random draw, odds of 1 in 8128 only apply to facing each other in the first match. Thereafter it gets a bit messier odds wise.

Hendry defeats White in Crucible qualifier

Alan McManus has retired after falling in qualifying. Jimmy White is going to keep buggering on for another two years.