HENDRY IS BACK! 2 YEAR TOUR CARD!

I don't think Hendry will get into the top 16.

COLD TAKE!

HappyCamper wrote:He struggled to be competitive.on the seniors tour. It's a pretty big leap to think he can be so against the professional top 16 on the basis of one ok tournament.

It’s up in the air for sure. But in the World Seniors he was a completely different player. A long way to go but his long potting was far, far better.

I’m not saying he’ll do it but it's foolish to completely write off a 7 time world champion.

Iranu wrote:I wouldn’t be so quick to write Hendry off.

Watched Hendry in an exo recently....straight off the plane from the UK to Canada, no practice, ton up first frame.

Whatever his age, Hendry is a threat. Perhaps not so much from a winning events standpoint but he's certainly capable of producing sessions that can beat anyone.

With 1 v 128 tournament format like the UK Hendry would play a top player early and believe me none of them are happy about the prospect. Hendry more than any low ranked player offers the threat of an early exit for the elite.

Time will tell but I for one would love to see Hendry succeed and wish him the best of luck

HappyCamper wrote:He struggled to be competitive.on the seniors tour. It's a pretty big leap to think he can be so against the professional top 16 on the basis of one ok tournament.

A bloody big leap, especially after such a gap. Having said that, would be good to see him go far in a tourney if he somehow gets his old form back for a bit, but won't hold my breath.

HappyCamper wrote:He struggled to be competitive.on the seniors tour. It's a pretty big leap to think he can be so against the professional top 16 on the basis of one ok tournament.

You really cant take anything from the seniors . He was playing golf flying backwards and forwards to china about 10 times a year taking pictures of his food and not practising at all.

Hes not going to come back with that kind of preparation Stephen Hendry is a realist, and he believes he can be competitive, or he wouldn't bother make no mistake about that.

Come on Stephen!

Wildey wrote:

HappyCamper wrote:He struggled to be competitive.on the seniors tour. It's a pretty big leap to think he can be so against the professional top 16 on the basis of one ok tournament.

You really cant take anything from the seniors . He was playing golf flying backwards and forwards to china about 10 times a year taking pictures of his food and not practising at all.

Hes not going to come back with that kind of preparation Stephen Hendry is a realist, and he believes he can be competitive, or he wouldn't bother make no mistake about that.

He may be a realist, but he's 51 years old. With all the preparation in the world he still won't be as good as the top 16 guys.

Holden Chinaski wrote:Come on Stephen!

But which one?

SnookerFan wrote:

Holden Chinaski wrote:Come on Stephen!

But which one?

Come on Stephen Lee!

Imagine all the Ronnie fans reaction if he equalled the ranking titles record by winning the shootout.

SteveJJ wrote:Imagine all the Ronnie fans reaction if he equalled the ranking titles record by winning the shootout.

Doubt he'll even enter that event. And his chances of winning that are even slimmer than winning a regular event.

Johnny Bravo wrote:

Wildey wrote:

HappyCamper wrote:He struggled to be competitive.on the seniors tour. It's a pretty big leap to think he can be so against the professional top 16 on the basis of one ok tournament.

You really cant take anything from the seniors . He was playing golf flying backwards and forwards to china about 10 times a year taking pictures of his food and not practising at all.

Hes not going to come back with that kind of preparation Stephen Hendry is a realist, and he believes he can be competitive, or he wouldn't bother make no mistake about that.

He may be a realist, but he's 51 years old. With all the preparation in the world he still won't be as good as the top 16 guys.

If after this season he hasent enjoyed a few good wins and performances to show encouraging signs he won't be back next season.

Wildey wrote:If after this season he hasent enjoyed a few good wins and performances to show encouraging signs he won't be back next season.

Wildey, if Hendry plays Selbo, who will you support ?

Will you side with your childhood idol who plays/played proper snooker or will you side with the boring grinder who refuses long pots and makes frames ugly and scrappy in order to crawl his way to a win?

I'm a fan of both Ronnie and Hendry. I think Hendry in his prime was amazing to watch. Hendry at his best was so aggressive and such a brilliant break builder. He never backed down, he always played a positive and attacking game. The way he used to knock in those long reds and get perfect position on the black ... I still say he was one of the very best long potters of all time. The amount of long reds he knocked in under pressure is insane. And it's even more insane how many times he got position on the black after the long pot.

Hendry definitely changed the way the game is played. Players like Ronnie and Judd owe a lot to Hendry.

Kinda want Hendry to flop badly to teach any older players that may be considering coming out of retirement, that it's a stupid decision.

If Hendry wanted a break, the longest he should have taken was the entire 12/13 season, but he's been out of the loop too long now and the best he can probably hope for, is beating players around the same age as him and achieving moral victories against everyone else (I would be over the moon if he claimed an 8th WC though)

HustleKing wrote:Kinda want Hendry to flop badly to teach any older players that may be considering coming out of retirement, that it's a stupid decision.

If Hendry wanted a break, the longest he should have taken was the entire 12/13 season, but he's been out of the loop too long now and the best he can probably hope for, is beating players around the same age as him and achieving moral victories against everyone else (I would be over the moon if he claimed an 8th WC though)

It's all about the long potting, imo. I think if Hendry has found a way, maybe with some help from SightRight, to get his long pot percentage up again, he can be a real danger to anyone.

Dan-cat wrote:

Holden Chinaski wrote:It's all about the long potting, imo. I think if Hendry has found a way, maybe with some help from SightRight, to get his long pot percentage up again, he can be a real danger to anyone.

I'd argue that missing simple shots will be his downfall...

I just hope he practised his reverse massé shots.

Maybe missing important shots, irrespective of difficulty, will be his downfall?

Dan-cat wrote:Snooker is quite hard

Factual.

Snooker is a very hard game, someone please give me some coaching one day.

Juddernaut88 wrote:Snooker is a very hard game, someone please give me some coaching one day.

Over to you, Johnny.

Iranu wrote:

Juddernaut88 wrote:Snooker is a very hard game, someone please give me some coaching one day.

Over to you, Johnny.

I suck at coaching people. I mean, if they ask me about how to play a shot, I can show it to them, but I'm not very good at explaining how I do it.
I don't know if that makes sense, but probably it's because I'm self taught and never had a coach. Basically I've learned all the shots on my own by experimenting and watching other players and pros do them. So my way of doing a shot might not be text book/the conventional way.

Anyway, there are many departments where I still need to improve a lot. My long potting has gotten better, but not as much as I wanted to. And I still suck at escaping snookers. I mean, I can hit the object ball from a snooker in some situations, but I usually leave it on. The good part is that I have very good cue ball control, so once I manage to get in I score ok. Even more important than that is my shot selection during a break. I always make things easy by rarely myself in a position where I have to force a shot.

Holden Chinaski wrote:It's all about the long potting, imo. I think if Hendry has found a way, maybe with some help from SightRight, to get his long pot percentage up again, he can be a real danger to anyone.

yea spot on any player needs to get in from his own cue rather than rely on easy pot missed and then pot the recovery long pot when out of position.

im sure Stephen will be ok in the balls but getting chances will be key.

All we got to gage it is seniors performances i reserve judgement until he starts.

He won't be the worst player on tour not even close im 100% certain of that.

Hendry will regularly miss simple pots and lose position in straightforward positions.

He will not trouble the top 37 and is unlikely to scrape into the top 58 at the end of the season.

Wildey wrote:

Holden Chinaski wrote:It's all about the long potting, imo. I think if Hendry has found a way, maybe with some help from SightRight, to get his long pot percentage up again, he can be a real danger to anyone.

yea spot on any player needs to get in from his own cue rather than rely on easy pot missed and then pot the recovery long pot when out of position.

im sure Stephen will be ok in the balls but getting chances will be key.

All we got to gage it is seniors performances i reserve judgement until he starts.

He won't be the worst player on tour not even close im 100% certain of that.

he won't, but I doubt he will trouble the top 16 players. Maybe get one or two good wins over a top 16 player and that's about it.

No disrespect whatsoever, but sadly he isn't the player he once was.

Question: what exactly IS the player he once was?

Because in the few seasons leading up to his retirement he really wasn’t all that good and was protected largely by the two year ranking system and tired draw.

Judging by how unhappy he was with his form then, I doubt he’d be coming back just to match that.