Davis and Hendry

There are some facts about Davis and Hendry that I probably should have known as a snooker fan, but have only learnt through doing the rankings revisit.

Davis
I'd always been under the impression that he was invincible in the 80s, and that the 85 and 86 finals were massive shocks.
Truth is he was dominant, and was the clear number one for a long time. He wasn't unbeatable though. He lost his fair share of matches against the other top players of the day.
The two finals were surprise results no doubt, but they weren't as shocking as they have been made out to be. I think the other top players in the 80s are thought of as being of a much lower standard than they actually were, and that they should be given more credit when we look back on snooker's 'golden days'.
Steve was better than they were, but not by as much as is thought.

Hendry
For some reason, I'd been under the impression he turned pro around 89-90 and immediately started winning everything.
Truth is he was around for the whole second half of the 80s. There must have been a lot of good matches that he won and lost at the business end of tournaments that have been forgotten. It would be great to talk about (and watch) those early matches from the 80s to see how he grew into the great he became.

Yeah, but which one won more Gibraltar Opens?

chengdufan wrote:Davis
I'd always been under the impression that he was invincible in the 80s, and that the 85 and 86 finals were massive shocks.
Truth is he was dominant, and was the clear number one for a long time. He wasn't unbeatable though. He lost his fair share of matches against the other top players of the day.
The two finals were surprise results no doubt, but they weren't as shocking as they have been made out to be. I think the other top players in the 80s are thought of as being of a much lower standard than they actually were, and that they should be given more credit when we look back on snooker's 'golden days'.
Steve was better than they were, but not by as much as is thought.

Bear in mind, in the 1980s Steve Davis only won The Masters twice. (Adding an unexpected third win in 1997.)

For him to only win it a couple of times in the decade that he reigned would be seen as a poor return. But could also indicated that he wasn't perfect after all, and still had a bogey tournament.

The same could be said, possibly more so, of John Higgins now. A two time Masters champion, sure. But other than that his record at the tournaments stinks. (And he's played at Wembley Conference Centre, Wembley Arena and The Ally Pally, so disliking the venue can't be used as an excuse.) Seems an anomaly for a player of his success.

If there were as many ranking tournaments in the 80s as in the 90s, I’m sure Davis would have a healthy lead in the total ranking wins. Isn’t he ahead in terms of all professional titles won?

Iranu wrote:If there were as many ranking tournaments in the 80s as in the 90s, I’m sure Davis would have a healthy lead in the total ranking wins. Isn’t he ahead in terms of all professional titles won?

Yeah, but weren't most of those 'tournaments' just him and a couple of other Matchroom players having a knockabout.

Joking aside about the Gibraltar Open, that has a lot more prestige than some of the exhibition events that Davis won and counted towards his professional tournament count.

I left Harrogate in October, 1987, headed back home to Chicago. I saw this young Scottish whippersnapper by the name of Stephen Hendry play in two, perhaps three tournaments in about the last year before I left. There were four channels on telly in those days, the Beeb 1 and 2, ITV, and Channel 4. Snooker was on often enough so I certainly watched more pro snooker then than I do today. I remember thinking to myself, "This kid looks like he might do well at this game." He wasn't on a televised match regularly like Steve Davis or Jimmy White, but he got his share of face time on telly.

After my plane touched down in Chicago, I probably didn't think much about professional snooker again for at least 20 years. (I had purchased a table for my own pleasure within about two or three years from that time.) There was no internet then, no international sports coverage, little news beyond the local other than the obviously very important happenings in the world. Sadly, I never knew anything of Paul Hunter until well after he had passed.

I suppose I only say this because it is interesting to hear someone obviously a bit younger than myself say they thought Hendry started playing in 1989 or 1990. I think at the time, he was the youngest to ever play in the World Championship at Sheffield in 1987. If I recall, he just passed his 17th birthday. By the time I crossed paths with Professional Snooker again through the miracle of the internet in about 2010, a lot of snooker history had passed me by.

But there was just something about that Scottish lad that stood out way back then...

acesinc wrote:I left Harrogate in October, 1987, headed back home to Chicago. I saw this young Scottish whippersnapper by the name of Stephen Hendry play in two, perhaps three tournaments in about the last year before I left. There were four channels on telly in those days, the Beeb 1 and 2, ITV, and Channel 4. Snooker was on often enough so I certainly watched more pro snooker then than I do today. I remember thinking to myself, "This kid looks like he might do well at this game." He wasn't on a televised match regularly like Steve Davis or Jimmy White, but he got his share of face time on telly.

After my plane touched down in Chicago, I probably didn't think much about professional snooker again for at least 20 years. (I had purchased a table for my own pleasure within about two or three years from that time.) There was no internet then, no international sports coverage, little news beyond the local other than the obviously very important happenings in the world. Sadly, I never knew anything of Paul Hunter until well after he had passed.

I suppose I only say this because it is interesting to hear someone obviously a bit younger than myself say they thought Hendry started playing in 1989 or 1990. I think at the time, he was the youngest to ever play in the World Championship at Sheffield in 1987. If I recall, he just passed his 17th birthday. By the time I crossed paths with Professional Snooker again through the miracle of the internet in about 2010, a lot of snooker history had passed me by.

But there was just something about that Scottish lad that stood out way back then...

Very interesting story. Never knew you are from Chicago. Why have you left England ? And why were you there in the first place, did you work there ?

Johnny Bravo wrote:Very interesting story. Never knew you are from Chicago. Why have you left England ? And why were you there in the first place, did you work there ?

Witness protection program.

Sshhh! Don't tell anyone....

Actually, I was born a damned Yankee and I will die as one. Not a single drop of British or Irish blood in all my ancestry (although my son does have some English blood going back to Colonial heritage on his mother's side, just a tad). I enlisted after high school and spent nearly three years stationed at an RAF base outside Harrogate. Excellent formative experience for a young man to live overseas in quite a different society than he was used to. I think a minor downside of today's internet influence is that it has made the world a much smaller place as demonstrated in the microcosm of this forum.

I had never in my life heard of "Snooker" until at 19 years old, I stepped off the plane in London, rode the tube and the rails up to North Yorks, and that same night saw my first frame of snooker on telly. Changed my life forever.

So I lived there for just under three years before I came back home. I have tried to spread word of the best cue sport in the world around these parts but to very little avail. Americans will take to it as well as we have taken to soccer. Less even. Just ain't gonna happen. So I have no delusions anymore. Fortunately, I have a few good Irishmen, an Englishman or two, a couple reasonable Americans, and a Canuck all of whom can at least provide some entertainment for me. Best of all is the hours I get to spend with the boy on the table. Great times always.

acesinc wrote:Actually, I was born a damned Yankee and I will die as one. Not a single drop of British or Irish blood in all my ancestry (although my son does have some English blood going back to Colonial heritage on his mother's side, just a tad). I enlisted after high school and spent nearly three years stationed at an RAF base outside Harrogate. Excellent formative experience for a young man to live overseas in quite a different society than he was used to. I think a minor downside of today's internet influence is that it has made the world a much smaller place as demonstrated in the microcosm of this forum.

I had never in my life heard of "Snooker" until at 19 years old, I stepped off the plane in London, rode the tube and the rails up to North Yorks, and that same night saw my first frame of snooker on telly. Changed my life forever.

So I lived there for just under three years before I came back home. I have tried to spread word of the best cue sport in the world around these parts but to very little avail. Americans will take to it as well as we have taken to soccer. Less even. Just ain't gonna happen. So I have no delusions anymore. Fortunately, I have a few good Irishmen, an Englishman or two, a couple reasonable Americans, and a Canuck all of whom can at least provide some entertainment for me. Best of all is the hours I get to spend with the boy on the table. Great times always.

Thanks for sharing.

I don't recall many tournaments being on the telly in the 1980's - other than the big three so it always seemed like Davis won everything. I used to see results in a snooker mag from matches I hadn't seen and players I had not even seen before.

Actually there were loads besides the big three...

Lada / Mercantile Classic

Yamaha Organs / British Open

Grand Prix

World Doubles

Team Classic

Pot Black

Muller wrote:Actually there were loads besides the big three...

Lada / Mercantile Classic

Yamaha Organs / British Open

Grand Prix

World Doubles

Team Classic

Pot Black

International Open, too, which used to kick off the season and (apparently) the current Scottish Open is a direct descendent of (not sure how they work that out, myself...)

BBC had the three they still show, + the Grand Prix & the World Team Classic - ITV had the rest. In fact, during a typical season it seemed barely a week went by without snooker of some sort being shown.