Hendry can wind back years like my granny did the TV
“TERRY GRIFFITHS is snookered on the brown, which, for those of you watching in black and white, is the ball directly behind the pink”.
Whenever that iconic line from Ted Lowe back in the day gets rolled out it always reminds me of my late granny.
She loved the snooker and she also had an old black and white telly in her room, the kind with the dial like an oven knob that went through the channels in a weird order.
One, three, two, four... She’d always stop on BBC Two to tune into the boys on the baize and for some reason she loved Jimmy White.
It was Stephen Hendry for her grandson though. Growing up in the eighties in Scotland, at a time when kids would be taken to the smoke-filled snooker halls rather than soft plays, Hendry was our generation’s Tiger Woods.
A Scottish lad with a cue like a magician with a wand, making reds and blacks disappear even if the telly pictures were in black and white.
There’s talk this week about John Higgins being our greatest player. There’s no doubt he has a shout after a quarter of a decade at the top and another sensational win last weekend when he clobbered ancient rival Ronnie O’Sullivan in the Players Championship.
But even Higgins may bow to the original master.
Hendry’s star might not have shone for as long as Higgins and O’Sullivan but blimey it was bright. The kid who popped up on Junior Pot Black in the mid-eighties was Tiger on the cloth in the nineties.
Seven world titles in 10 years, five of them on the spin. Hendry was untouchable. He stayed formidable in the early 2000s but the magic was gone and the force of nature was gone by the time he decided to chuck it in 2012. Getting walloped by Stephen Maguire – he admitted he gave up mid-match – was the final act. Well, we thought it was. The fact there’s an encore on the way this week is a thrill to those of us who grew up marvelling at the man back in the day.
Hendry is back in action for the first time in nine years at the Gibraltar Open – which is being held in the snooker bubble in Milton Keynes.
Talk about a buzz. We know it will be impossible for him to capture the old glories at 52. Blimey, even thinking Hendry is now 52 is enough to make us all feel old.
The man himself isn’t making wild predictions but it seems he has the
It’s a thrill to us who grew up marvelling at the man back in the day
hunger back. He wants to go out on his shield rather than his stool like he did in 2012. Fair play.
The great thing right now is snooker is hardly a young man’s game. There’s some top talents who have come through in recent years but watching Mark Williams, Ronnie and Higgins still doing the business will give him hope.
Hendry points to the Woods redemption story at the Masters in 2019 as an inspiration. If Tiger can return to beat the big-hitting young team, there’s no reason the greatest player to pick up a cue can’t rediscover some of his old magic.
It’s going to be fascinating watching him having a bash. In glorious technicolour. Finally.
RICHARLISON grabbed his fifth goal in as many games to breathe life into Everton’s Euro crusade.
The Blues now sit two points off a top-four spot – and with a game in hand on their rivals – after the Brazilian rounded Fraser Forster nine minutes in to decide a borefest.
Incredibly, it was the only shot on target until the final minute when Toffees keeper Jordan Pickford saved well from Jannik Vestergaard.
Goodison boss Carlo Ancelotti, whose side had not won at home since December, said: “To fight for European places, we need to improve the home run. This performance and victory can help us have a better run at home.
“It will be a dream to be in the top four at the end of the season.”
Southampton showed precisely why they have won on this ground only once in their time in the Premier League, the club finding themselves 14th and just seven points off the relegation places.
St Mary’s defender Jan Bednarek said: “It’s a tough moment but we’ve got to work hard and stick together. There is always sun after the rain.”