I DON’T WANT IT TO END THIS WAY
Still struggling with the death of his mother, Rose, Ken Doherty is pondering one last run as a pro
PONDS Forge sports centre is a stone’s throw from Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre but last Monday night, it felt a world away for Ken Doherty. There were no television cameras, no hushed and reverent crowds, just a bunch of snooker players and referees, all within touching distance of the world championship but with none of the glamour.
Since dropping out of the World’s top 16 in 2009, Doherty has found the world championship qualifiers something of a grind but, while he has made it back the Crucible three times via this route, this year was particularly difficult.
He wanted one last dance in the famed theatre to mark the 20th anniversary of his thrilling World Championship final win over Stephen Hendry. It has driven him all season. This past few weeks, though, he’d found it hard to focus after losing his mother Rose who had kept the trophy in her Ranelagh living room for the year that he was world champion.
‘It would have been nice to mark the 20th anniversary by playing in the Crucible and it’s a shame I won’t get to do it,’ he sighs. ‘Even if it was only for the first round, just to go out on a high like that. It was the goal but it has been a tough few weeks after losing my mam.
‘My head has been scrambled and I didn’t practise enough. I knew that. I only managed about a week’s practice because it was a bit of a difficult time and hard to get through for all the family.’
The 10-4 defeat to Ben Woollaston not only ended his Crucible dream, it also meant that Doherty, at 47, lost his tour card. As a former world champion, and still one of the most popular figures in the game, he has the offer of a two-year wild card but hasn’t decided if he will avail of it.
‘I’ll go home after the world championships and talk to my wife. I don’t want it to end the way it has. I wanted to go out on some sort of high, play one last match at the Crucible but my head is frazzled so I won’t make a decision yet.’
It’s hard to believe that 20 years have passed since that magical Monday evening when he defeated Hendry in one of the great Irish sporting moments. RTÉ took the BBC feed to show the final session and the story goes that between 7pm and 10pm that May night, there wasn’t a single phone call to a Garda station in Dublin. As the joke went at the time ‘even the criminals watched Doherty become world champion’.
‘It doesn’t feel that long; it’s gone by far too quick,’ he says. In the intervening two decades, the only Irish player to come close to repeating that feat was Doherty himself in 2003, when he almost won the hardest world championship ever (beating all the favourites along the way) only to fall short against Mark Williams in the final.
Mark Allen and Fergal O’Brien, after entering the record books during the week by playing the longest frame in snooker history, are Ireland’s representatives at the Crucible but there doesn’t appear to be another Ken Doherty coming down the tracks.
Doherty feels that social change has contributed largely to that. ‘The world is different now to when I was growing up. There aren’t as many snooker clubs around. They are expensive to run and take up a lot of prime real estate. During the boom, many closed down. It wasn’t just in Ireland, it happened in the UK, too.’
He feels there are lessons to learn in how the sport has exploded in China. ‘The government is behind it there, and they are promoting it in schools. Of course, it helps that they have Ding Junhui. When we go over with the tour, we see what they have done in schools which would have 10 full-sized tables and 10 threequarter sized ones. Snooker is seen as alternative sport that kids can play on sports day.’ A couple of years ago, he donated two tables to his old school on Westland Row and feels with snooker clubs closing down, that there are plenty of other tables that can be given to schools. ‘They put the tables in an old classroom and they have been a great success. Teachers are using it as an incentive for students. If they haven’t done their studies, they won’t play snooker. It has gone down really well, from what I am told.’
The former world champion has set up his own academy in Terenure, but accepts it is a tough business. And it is a hard life for any youngster (Doherty had to leave home at 17 and relocate to London to become a pro). But he believes that the talent does exist in Ireland.
‘RISBA (Republic of Ireland Snooker and Billards Association) are doing their best and I do believe that the talent is out there. When we did the Lucky Breaks show for Setanta a couple of years ago, I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of players. We had more than 100 kids from Dublin and 90-odd from Cork and they were excellent; the trick is to keep them interested cos it’s a hard life going on tour.’
If someone is to follow in his footsteps, it probably won’t be his own son. At nine, young Christian Doherty is already showing sporting talent, but at tennis. He is part of the Ireland Under 12 squad.
‘He is more into his tennis. He can play a bit of snooker alright, but he would be more interested in watching Roger Federer on television.’
Still, when he does see footage of that win over Hendry, it’s because Christian has put it on YouTube. Incredibly, he doesn’t have a copy of that famous final, although he is likely to see a lot of it over the coming two weeks as BBC relive those unforgettable final few frames.
It started on Friday evening at a gala dinner celebrating 40 years at the Crucible. All the surviving past champions met up, including John Parrott, Steve Davis and Dennis Taylor who, along with Doherty, will provide expertise in the commentary box over the coming two weeks. Doherty is rather comfortable in the pundit’s chair these days and gets plenty of practice with the Saturday morning sports show he co presents with Reggie Corrigan on Dublin’s Sunshine 106.8 FM.
He was excited by the prospect of his old friend O’Brien meeting defending champion Mark Selby in yesterday’s opener. They met up on Thursday, only hours after O’Brien had won his marathon final frame with David Gilbert. ‘I was slagging him, saying he must have worn out two pairs of shoes walking around the table for that last frame.’
As for the name Doherty believes will join his own on that famous trophy? ‘Judd Trump. The big-hitters – Selby, Ronnie [O’Sullivan], Shaun Murphy and [Neil] Robertson – are on the other side of the draw so Trump has a decent path. He has been knocking on the door and is more mature now.’
And not for the first time over the next fortnight, he is asked for his most memorable moment as world champion. ‘Walking out to the centre-circle at Old Trafford with the trophy,’ he says recalling being guest at Manchester United’s league clash with West Ham.
‘I remember Alex Ferguson brought me in to meet the players. They were in the canteen. Alex introduced me and everyone just looked around. There was this long silence and then Eric Cantona got off his chair, walked over to me and shook my hand, saying “Congratulations, Mr Doherty”.
‘I was shaking. I didn’t know what to do. Cantona was such a hero. All I could think to say was “Thank You Mr Cantona”. What I didn’t know at the time was that was his last game for United.’
Memories such as that will get plenty of airing in the next fortnight. He may not have one last dance in the Crucible, but Ken Doherty’s famous win 20 years ago will be remembered, nonetheless.