how impressive was Hendry's 5 in a row?

S

smashmouth

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Williams, Higgins, and O' Sullivan all with multiple word titles

not once did they even make the finals the following year after their championship, yet alone 2 wins in a row

yes maybe the the talent pool wasn't as thick, but it wasn't that far off from today's standards
 
smashmouth said:
Williams, Higgins, and O' Sullivan all with multiple word titles

not once did they even make the finals the following year after their championship, yet alone 2 wins in a row

yes maybe the the talent pool wasn't as thick, but it wasn't that far off from today's standards
Click to expand...

Impossible to say. No matter what, Hendry and Davis are the greatest snooker players (and potentially all around greatest cueists) of all time.

The talent pool was nowhere near what it is today. There was a bigger skill level gap between the top 16 and rest of the tour, these days there are regular new additions to that elite group. Far more so than even five years ago it seems.

Furthermore I can remember watching a match from 2003 or 2004 where the commentators were gushing over players making a 50 or better in each frame. That's pretty common now.

I think it helped Stephen that Jimmy White was his opponent in most of those finals. Jimmy's a great player, but when you keep pounding a player in a particular scenario your confidence level begins to pick up for sure.

I think Stephen would probably have won 7 world titles regardless of the talent pool, he was that good. I just feel that in his prime, with todays standard of snooker itd just taken him longer to do it.

To answer the question, pretty damn impressive. But then so was (is) Stephen Hendry.
 
smashmouth said:
Williams, Higgins, and O' Sullivan all with multiple word titles

not once did they even make the finals the following year after their championship, yet alone 2 wins in a row

yes maybe the the talent pool wasn't as thick, but it wasn't that far off from today's standards
Click to expand...

It's incredibly impressive. It's similar (but greater IMO) to Steve Mizerak's 4 consecutive U.S. Open 14.1 titles from 1970-1973. Since Hendry's 5 straight titles there hasn't been any kind of streak at all in snooker, yes, it is harder to win today...the player ranked say #25 is certainly better than the #25 ranked player of 1992 but I still believe Hendry would have had at least some kind of streak in today's game as well. Maybe 3 in a row, or 5 in 8 years.

And lets not forget the 5 consecutive Master Championships he won as well!
 
Cameron Smith said:
Furthermore I can remember watching a match from 2003 or 2004 where the commentators were gushing over players making a 50 or better in each frame. That's pretty common now.
Click to expand...

They used to have separate prizes for maximums and the highest break. Now they just have the highest break prize. Players can crank out centuries like crazy.
 
SirNoobs said:
They used to have separate prizes for maximums and the highest break. Now they just have the highest break prize. Players can crank out centuries like crazy.
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Well the maximum prize was cut in order to save and re-allocate money I think. They still aren't that common. Maximums seem to go hot and cold. We had a lot in the 2010-2011 season I think because of the increase in tournaments. But in 2009 there were only 2 made.

With the loss of the prize for the maximum, I expect we won't see that many accomplished anymore. Why take a tougher just to stay on the black when you can just roll forward for the pink?

It's hard to say how any past legend would do these days. I think Snooker is being played to a higher level than any other cue sport right now.
 
I suppose we will just have to wait to see if anyone can top this record:

Only one player over 40 has made a 147, and Hendry has made two.
 
Cameron Smith said:
Well the maximum prize was cut in order to save and re-allocate money I think. They still aren't that common. Maximums seem to go hot and cold. We had a lot in the 2010-2011 season I think because of the increase in tournaments. But in 2009 there were only 2 made.

With the loss of the prize for the maximum, I expect we won't see that many accomplished anymore. Why take a tougher just to stay on the black when you can just roll forward for the pink?

It's hard to say how any past legend would do these days. I think Snooker is being played to a higher level than any other cue sport right now.
Click to expand...

All special prizes for maximum breaks were withdrawn in the 2010/11 season, but there were still several compiled so if the opportunity is there I am sure that players will nevertheless go for them as long as they have won the frame.

I understand that the maximum prize was withdrawn from the 2011 World Championship because they couldn't get the insurance to cover it.

Best wishes.

Alan.
 
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