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Re: Sad report on Willie Thorne

Postby mick745

Sad to hear this.

He was a better player than his record suggests, a beautiful breakbuilder but lacked killer instinct perhaps.

First player to play Hendry at the crucible, applauding him off at the end.

Seemed like a nice bloke when i met him briefly in cardiff a couple of years back.

Re: Sad report on Willie Thorne

Postby Dan-cat

Pink Ball wrote:I couldn't help but like the fella. Something very loveable about him.


Totally agree, and by all accounts, that's what a lot of the snooker fraternity thought too.

Dennis Taylor @dennistaylor147
Devastating news about Willie Thorne. We laughed our way around the world for 45 years.
RIP Great One. That was my name for him. The Great WT.
Lots of love to his family

Joe Johnson @JoeJohnson86
Devastated to hear of the death of my good friend Willie Thorne who despite his well known problems was one of nicest guys I ever met, first met and played him in the boys Champs over 50 years ago. My thoughts prayers r with his family at this very sad time RIP WT

stephen hendry @SHendry775
Very sad news today,Willie was one of my favourite people in snooker.
I know he had faults and weaknesses(we all do) but he was one of the games greatest ever characters,I’ll miss him

Steve Davis @SteveSnooker
:..-( I Hope you had a lovely time on the planet Willie and any regrets were overshadowed by the fun and games you had and the smiles you put on other people’s faces xxx

Re: Sad report on Willie Thorne

Postby SnookerFan

I remember a while back, I was attending some live snooker. I noticed Willie Thorne in the distance. Went to take a photo. He noticed, "combed" his non-existent hair and posed for the photo.

Re: Sad report on Willie Thorne

Postby Holden Chinaski

SnookerFan wrote:I remember a while back, I was attending some live snooker. I noticed Willie Thorne in the distance. Went to take a photo. He noticed, "combed" his non-existent hair and posed for the photo.

Haha, love that!

Re: Sad report on Willie Thorne

Postby Iranu

SnookerFan wrote:I remember a while back, I was attending some live snooker. I noticed Willie Thorne in the distance. Went to take a photo. He noticed, "combed" his non-existent hair and posed for the photo.

rofl are you able to upload the photo?

Re: Sad report on Willie Thorne

Postby D4P

Ronnie O'Sullivan @ronnieo147
Just want to say what a beautiful man, big heart great company. Had a week in ireland with him I’ll never forget. Will be missed by a lot of people in the Snooker world. RIP WT

Re: Sad report on Willie Thorne

Postby Pink Ball

Dan-cat wrote:
Pink Ball wrote:I couldn't help but like the fella. Something very loveable about him.


Totally agree, and by all accounts, that's what a lot of the snooker fraternity thought too.

Dennis Taylor @dennistaylor147
Devastating news about Willie Thorne. We laughed our way around the world for 45 years.
RIP Great One. That was my name for him. The Great WT.
Lots of love to his family

Joe Johnson @JoeJohnson86
Devastated to hear of the death of my good friend Willie Thorne who despite his well known problems was one of nicest guys I ever met, first met and played him in the boys Champs over 50 years ago. My thoughts prayers r with his family at this very sad time RIP WT

stephen hendry @SHendry775
Very sad news today,Willie was one of my favourite people in snooker.
I know he had faults and weaknesses(we all do) but he was one of the games greatest ever characters,I’ll miss him

Steve Davis @SteveSnooker
:..-( I Hope you had a lovely time on the planet Willie and any regrets were overshadowed by the fun and games you had and the smiles you put on other people’s faces xxx

And you don’t get the sense reading any of those comments that they aren’t genuine.

I think I have an idea of what it was that made so unexplainably likeable. He’s that fella we all know who’s full of bluster, acts and talks like he’s the bee’s knees, but everyone knows deep down that he’s only doing it because he’s very insecure. That was the biggest failing of his career: he lacked confidence. Most players would have brushed off that missed blue. He was still in such a strong position. But he fell asunder.

That was the real Willie Thorne I reckon. Likewise when he was on Good Morning Britain and crying like a waterfall. And everyone liked him for it.

Re: Sad report on Willie Thorne

Postby vodkadiet1

Great tributes to Thorne. He was a larger than life character who just loved being part of snooker.

Re: Sad report on Willie Thorne

Postby PLtheRef

Such sad news, I met him a couple of times and he was always polite and made time to talk to people.

One occasion was the 2005 World Final, the Monday evening session. During the midsession interval, WT was milling around the Crucible lobby, just chatting briefly to people about the match and how they thought it'd finish.

RIP Willie.

Re: Sad report on Willie Thorne

Postby TheSaviour

Mr Maximum was a convincing on his day, for sure. I would say he was a Stuart Bingham of his own time; a massively underrated, highly impressive also, given what all he done.

Certainly a huge loss. But like we all know the time goes by, unfortunaly, I would argue. Sadly, he either probably never received the true fan-base he would had certainly deserved.

But positives; we still have Stu. Stu, or the Finest of Basildon, Ball-run, you name it! Was it a cannon? Is it on now? Was there even a cannon?? Yes, there were (not was). The balls hardly splitted, but still and yet splitted enough! Strikingly beautifull top-game, a bit like Willie also had.

That´s Stu. Original and different cannons. Obviously Willie was different than that, probably only Ben and Brecel plays those same cannons than Stu these days. Willie like to make it obvious and put on a show while the cue ball travelled before the obvious brilliance happened and fancied to receive an applauds which he certainly so obvious deserved, a bit like for example Ronnie, Mark Williams, Mark Selby, Anthony Hamilton or John Higgins fancies to.

Si