peak Hendry vs peak Selby

Sickpotter wrote:

Pink Ball wrote:Hendry was an awesome player. Was he up against much? Not really. Do I think the Hendry of 1988-1997 would have been World Champion in any era? Yes, a multiple world champion. Would he have been the best of any era he played? Not quite, because I don't think he was as good as Sullivan.

Brilliant breakbuilder and potter, bang average safety and tactical player.

You think Hendry wasn't up against much?

Jimmy White, Steve Davis, Ronnie (first major in 92), Higgins (first major 94) and Williams were his competition in the 90s.....hard to see how you can consider that as "not being up against much".

You know very little about our great game.

Jimmy White: correct
Steve Davis: I'll give you that one, although he did regress notably at the turn of the decade.
Ronnie: won his first major in 1993, not 1992. Even then, he was eighteen and about six years shy of anything like his peak self.
Williams: only began making a serious impression in the late nineties.
Higgins: won his first major in 1998, not 1994 as you naively claim. Only began to come into his own from around 1998.
You forgot Parrott, who for a short phase was arguably the strongest of this lot outside of Hendry and White.

Outside of these players, who all hit form at different points, their greatness rarely coinciding, there was little by way of strength in depth like what you had in around the 2002/2003 period.

Hendry is arguably the best of all-time -- I would correctly say at least second -- but your debating game will have come up several notches to face me down.

Ronnie...my bad, 93 it was. No matter it was a major meaning he was competing and winning in long format events. I agree you need prime Ronnie to be truly competitive against a prime Hendry but he was still competition from the get go.

Higgins had 5 ranking titles from 12 finals by 98, well into his own by then and serious competition.

Williams may have come late in the 90s but still battled for titles with Hendry in his prime.

Never much liked Parrott, not sure why as he did have a very solid game...so yes, still more competition.

That list shows that your statement that Hendry "wasn't up against much" was ridiculous, he obviously was.

Strength in depth.....another debate for another time, cheers.

The only players who could beat peak Hendry are peak Davis, Ronnie and Higgins. But they would suffer defeats also! As much as i appreciate what Selby is doing, I just don't see him being at the same league. And make no mistake, Hendry had a very good safety and tactical game, perhaps not as good as the other 3 chaps but still very good!

Pink Ball wrote:

Johnny Bravo wrote:

Cloud Strife wrote:According to some, Hendry didn't miss a pot between the years 1990 and 1995, whilst Selby hasn't played a bad safety shot since the old king died. An epic matchup for sure.

Just watched the last few frames of the Mercantile Classic final in 1992 between a prime Hendry and a slightly passed his prime Davis.
Hendry used to miss quite a few and some were very easy balls.
In the past few days I've watched many classic matches from the 90's.

I don't like Selbo, but I must say I've reconsidered my initial opinion on the matter. Selbo wins. Hendry simply doesn't have the all round game to compete with him.
And if we are assessing prime vs prime, I'd also say that the likes of Robertson and Ding also edge Hendry.
Hendry would have an even match with Trump.
Ronnie demolishes Hendry.

What a load of rubbish

selby is a very poor mans STEVE DAVIS...peak hendry would have bashed him every time they met...same goes for Davis if selby met him at peak..selby is lucky theres no dominant world champion around like the 80s & 90s

Andre147 wrote:But even Hendry competed with great safety players: Davis, Thorburn, McManus, Doherty.

And he more often than not won the most meetings by simply potting his way out of trouble from seemingly safe positions.

So safe to say Selby's safety game wouldn't be anough to put Hendry in trouble because he would pot most of them.

spot on

Badsnookerplayer wrote:

sas6789 wrote:

Johnny Bravo wrote:This would be quite an interesting match.
IMO many overrate Hendry's mental toughness. During the 1992-1996 era, he was the best and he knew that. IMO that's the reason he seemed to cope with pressure so good. To put this into perspective: I have a friend that I play every weekend. I give him a 3-0 lead and we play first to 7 frames. Even if he somehow manages to get in front I'm not worried. That's because I know that if I play my best, he can't win. The same happened to Hendry.

Now back on topic. I think everyone will agree that Hendry is miles ahead of Selbo when it comes to scoring power. So based on this stat, he should win quite comfortably. However, given the fact that Selbo is miles ahead of Hendry in terms of safety and tactical play, will Hendry get enough opportunities to score ???
IMO the answer to this question will determine the winner.

My 2 cents: Hendry wins 60% of the time.

You know absoulty f**k all about snooker, stick to netball son.

Selby would definitely beat Hendry at least 80% of the time.

l think BOWLS would be better

TheRocket wrote:Many Selbofans including the likes of Roland believe that Selbo at his best is an unbeatable machine and that he would even dominate and destroy peak Hendry .

What do you think? Let's say they'd play a semifinal or final at the World Championship. How would peak Hendry fare with Selby?

Selby is lucky Davis or Hendry were not in his era..both would have slaughtered him

vodkadiet wrote:Henry wouldn't have been affected by Selby's style. He destroyed all opposition.

totally