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How highly do you rate Ken Doherty?

Postby SnookerFan

Ken Doherty seems to be one of those players who most people would say that they liked. I don't know many people who'd say they hated him as a player. (I have my doubts towards his as a commentator, but would always watch him when he was playing and support him.) I got more seriously interested in snooker, as oppose to being a casual fan, about a year before he lost in the World Final, then the UK to Mark Williams. So I'm interested where do people rate Ken as a player?

Personally, I'd rate anybody who wins the World Title as great. They don't hand them out to anybody. However, that was the only major that he won in his career, probably the most prestigious other tournament he won was the Welsh Open. And he picked up a few more wins in tournaments in Thailand and Malta. Despite being a finalist a couple more times at The Crucible, and several times in the UK, a second major alluded him.

My opinion is that though he's a great player, he's not an all time great. But I'd be interested in how other people view him. Am I giving him too much/little credit? Discuss.

Re: How highly do you rate Ken Doherty?

Postby Rocket_ron

in the early 00's ken doherty was my 2nd fave player behind ronnie. his missed black 147 chance at 2000 masters gutting. i enjoyed his 9-2 win over hunter at the regal welsh. i think overall he was a underachiever. but he is very liked <ok>

Re: How highly do you rate Ken Doherty?

Postby Roland

I wouldn't say he's an under achiever - look who he had to face in his prime years: THE BIG FOUR!!!

He was rarely beaten by lower ranked players and he was one of "the rest" who would guarantee to give the big four a decent game. He wasn't scared of them and he won his fair share of rankers and reached a lot of semis and finals only be thwarted by one of those pesky four players. He was a natural born winner and scores 9 to 9.5/10 on all attributes of the game for me which makes him one of the best all rounders of all time.

Re: How highly do you rate Ken Doherty?

Postby Wildey

in the Naughties Ken Doherty almost pulled off something only Davis and Hendry has done.

win 3 Ranking Tournaments on the spin nobody else has come as close to do it.

he won the welsh Open and Thailand Masters and reached the final of the next Tournament but lost to Ebdon in the final.

i agree with Sonny he hasn't really underachieved but unlike Hendry,Williams,Higgins,Davis and Ronnie, Ken Never had a outstanding part of His Game but he did most things well.

Re: How highly do you rate Ken Doherty?

Postby Roland

When were you first aware of him? For me it was the Grand Prix final against Jimmy White. I remember thinking it was in the bag for Jimmy because I'd never heard of Doherty, but by the end of the final I knew he was a future World Champion. I was seriously impressed.

Re: How highly do you rate Ken Doherty?

Postby Smart

Sonny wrote:When were you first aware of him? For me it was the Grand Prix final against Jimmy White. I remember thinking it was in the bag for Jimmy because I'd never heard of Doherty, but by the end of the final I knew he was a future World Champion. I was seriously impressed.


was that 1992........... <ok>

Re: How highly do you rate Ken Doherty?

Postby Roland

I think it was '94. It's funny now because I would be more aware of younger players before their breakthrough but in those days I was a student and didn't watch much tv apart from BBC snooker when it was on.

Re: How highly do you rate Ken Doherty?

Postby Wildey

Sonny wrote:When were you first aware of him? For me it was the Grand Prix final against Jimmy White. I remember thinking it was in the bag for Jimmy because I'd never heard of Doherty, but by the end of the final I knew he was a future World Champion. I was seriously impressed.

when he won the 1989 World Amateur Championship beating Jon Birch in the final there was a lot of talk about this kid from ireland when he turned pro in 1990 but the first time i saw him play was the 1991 classic in blackpool he made the quarters or last 16 Jimmy Beat him cant remember the score.

he Turned pro with Mcmanus but Mcmanus made a quicker impact on the Sport than Ken.

Re: How highly do you rate Ken Doherty?

Postby GJ

decent player top man and good for a laugh

Re: How highly do you rate Ken Doherty?

Postby Tubberlad

Very nice guy and a very nice player too. I think he'll be disappointed to finish his career with just one major having made eight finals between Worlds, Masters & UK, and I think six rankers is a little bit below where he was.

He had a great all round game, and was the main challenger to the big four along with Ebdon. He's one of my favourites, I wouldn't call him an all time great, but he will do down as a very, very good player.

Re: How highly do you rate Ken Doherty?

Postby Wildey

Wild wrote:in the Naughties Ken Doherty almost pulled off something only Davis and Hendry has done.

win 3 Ranking Tournaments on the spin nobody else has come as close to do it.


correction Ronnie came close in 2008

Winning World,NIT and Runner up to Walden in shanghai.

Re: How highly do you rate Ken Doherty?

Postby Wildey

Tubberlad wrote:Very nice guy and a very nice player too. I think he'll be disappointed to finish his career with just one major having made eight finals between Worlds, Masters & UK, and I think six rankers is a little bit below where he was.

He had a great all round game, and was the main challenger to the big four along with Ebdon. He's one of my favourites, I wouldn't call him an all time great, but he will do down as a very, very good player.

yes i think he was every inch on a par with Ebdon so maybe he has undercooked it slightly.

Re: How highly do you rate Ken Doherty?

Postby Eirebilly

Wild wrote:
Sonny wrote:When were you first aware of him? For me it was the Grand Prix final against Jimmy White. I remember thinking it was in the bag for Jimmy because I'd never heard of Doherty, but by the end of the final I knew he was a future World Champion. I was seriously impressed.

when he won the 1989 World Amateur Championship beating Jon Birch in the final there was a lot of talk about this kid from ireland when he turned pro in 1990 but the first time i saw him play was the 1991 classic in blackpool he made the quarters or last 16 Jimmy Beat him cant remember the score.

he Turned pro with Mcmanus but Mcmanus made a quicker impact on the Sport than Ken.


Ditto for me. Itwas his Amateur World Championship win that turned my head and he has been my favourite player ever since.

Re: How highly do you rate Ken Doherty?

Postby Wildey

the first player i remember being hyped up prior to turning Pro was Brian Morgan mid 80s but Ken was the second.

some you win some you don't :redneck: .

Re: How highly do you rate Ken Doherty?

Postby SnookerFan

Wild wrote:the first player i remember being hyped up prior to turning Pro was Brian Morgan mid 80s but Ken was the second.

some you win some you don't :redneck: .


Ken was never going to live up to Brian Morgan's class, let's be reasonable.

Re: How highly do you rate Ken Doherty?

Postby randam05

Smart wrote:Great all rounder and he really loves the game. I do not think he takes it for granted either. He has done well out of snooker but he also puts a fair amount back in, he is a real gent too. :)


real gent certainly :clap:

Re: How highly do you rate Ken Doherty?

Postby GJ

I like kens style on his twitter a funny man

Re: How highly do you rate Ken Doherty?

Postby SnookerFan

GJ wrote:I like kens style on his twitter a funny man


Does he actually have a twitter? I did see some guy who was pretending to be him on Twitter, and kept calling Virgo a hammer. <laugh> Apparently though, some people at World Snooker weren't amused, because it clearly wasn't Ken.

Re: How highly do you rate Ken Doherty?

Postby Monique

here is how Ken rates Doherty
http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528, ... 38,00.html?
Ken Doherty says he has been given a new lease of life by Barry Hearn's rejuvenation of snooker, telling skysports.com he is still good enough to get back into the world's elite once again.

1997 world champion Doherty may have reached veteran status at the age of 41, but he insists he still has the game to get back into the top 16 from his current ranking of 30.

Dubliner Doherty says interest in the game for spectators, and match practice for players had both been diminished before Hearn took charge, with as little a six tournaments being played each year.

Since Hearn has taken charge, more tournaments have been introduced, more sponsors have come on board, and new formats of the game have been played, none more different than the one-frame Snooker Shoot Out in Blackpool this weekend.

So much innovation has reinvigorated the sport of snooker, and it has also given new life to those players becoming disillusioned with the lack of action.

Influence

"Barry's been great since he came in," Doherty told skysports.com. "I'm all for changes especially if it brings new fans to the game.

"We're having a World Cup this year in July, I'd love to see a doubles tournament come back as well, but all these new tournaments will just make snooker more appealing to those viewers that we may have lost over the last few years.

"He's had so much success in other sports, particularly darts, and he's trying to bring that to snooker, so I think all the players are happy that they're playing week in week out.

"We've now got more opportunities to play rather than going part-time - we'd been becoming par-time snooker players over the last few years with basically only six tournaments to play in.

"It's good we've got a lot more tournaments and a lot more sponsors and also some different variations to the game as well."

The big events such as at the Crucible, the UK Championship and a Masters must stay near enough the same, as the pinnacle of the sport, but Doherty is delighted to see more events crop up around the world, with big tournaments taking place this year in Germany and Brazil.

"The Masters, the UK Championship and the World Championship should always stay the same, maybe a few less frames in the earlier rounds of the worlds shouldn't hurt that too much, but essentially these ones should stay the same," Doherty added.

World game
"It is a world game. It was great to see the two lads from the Far East making history last week (Ding Junhui beat Marco Fu in the Masters final), we've got an Australian world champion, there's a tournament in Brazil and the German masters is almost a complete sell out.

"I'm just looking at the next one, and the World Cup will be great, and if I can get to Brazil I can't wait to play volleyball on the copacabana!"

Form could easily leave you with such a big gap in between events, but with more snooker now it seems Doherty is beginning to find his best again, with regular time on the table doing him the world of good.

"You're not waiting six weeks in between tournaments anymore," he said. "Which is good for me, I'm playing a lot more and that can only help your game."

A re-energised Doherty has now set his sights for the year on getting back into the world's top 16 and returning to the Crucible stage he loves playing on so much, and he feels he is still good enough to do just that.

"For the year the aim is to qualify for the Crucible, to get back into the top 16 and get back up there competing again," Doherty added.

"Age is only a number and the more you think about it the more it will hinder your. I love playing the game, I've always loved it and I always will and I love competing, I've still got that competitive spirit and I absolutely still think I've got the game to be up there."

Re: How highly do you rate Ken Doherty?

Postby wheelsofsteel

A former world champion - who beat Hendry at his best - and a runner-up a few times as well.

Also lost to Hendry in the UK final when he played like a God and Williams when he was the best player in the world.

On another day (or days) he'd be a legend instead of just being very good

Re: How highly do you rate Ken Doherty?

Postby jojo

i rate him very highly i put him in the same bracket as the likes of ebdon and parrot doherty as has been mentioned had to contend with some very fine players throughout his career when you think he started off he had the likes of jimmy and hendry at their best then the likes of williams higgins and o sullivan came into the picture

they call him crafty ken but he was actually a very fluent player in his time

Re: How highly do you rate Ken Doherty?

Postby Wildey

jojo wrote:i rate him very highly i put him in the same bracket as the likes of ebdon and parrot doherty as has been mentioned had to contend with some very fine players throughout his career when you think he started off he had the likes of jimmy and hendry at their best then the likes of williams higgins and o sullivan came into the picture

they call him crafty ken but he was actually a very fluent player in his time

yes he was very fluent and fast still plays at a good pace but he is more canny these days

Re: How highly do you rate Ken Doherty?

Postby Eirebilly

randam05 wrote:
GJ wrote:I like kens style on his twitter a funny man


hes really funny. and has a lovely accent to match.



Lovely accent??? He is a Dub, its a horrible accent, almost as bad a accent as that of our neighbours up north ;)

For good accents in Ireland, the west is best :wave:

Re: How highly do you rate Ken Doherty?

Postby Witz78

jojo wrote:i rate him very highly i put him in the same bracket as the likes of ebdon and parrot doherty as has been mentioned had to contend with some very fine players throughout his career when you think he started off he had the likes of jimmy and hendry at their best then the likes of williams higgins and o sullivan came into the picture

they call him crafty ken but he was actually a very fluent player in his time


i rate Ebdon and Parrot higher than Doherty <ok>

theyve achieved more and had a longer sustained period at the top.