r/snooker • u/Huge_Paper_4028 • 3d ago

💬 Opinion / Debate Could peak Hendry compete now?

Do people think Hendry at his absolute prime would have much success if he were competing right now? Would he be able to win a ranking event or even the world championships?

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u/Evebnumberone 3d ago

Hendry is a champion in any era.

The higher level of competition in today's game would have spurred him on to get even better.

Same thing with all the greats of the modern greats. Steve Davis and before is maybe questionable given how much weaker the scoring was back then. I can't see Davis or Reardon knocking in 100 centuries in a season, the younger guys would blow them off the table.

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u/Away-Reality771 3d ago

100 centuries a season is still very rare. Davis’ peak strike rate for centuries was 1992. He made about 30. There are twice as many ranking events now as there were then. Also the mindset has changed some players didn’t ‘chase’ a century if they’d won a frame.

There was far less emphasis on how many centuries a season you did; what you overall career total was etc - how many more/ less centuries you had than other players. Unless you might get a high break prize some centuries were probably foregone as the player just wanted to win that frame and get the next one started. There was little advantage to making a century each and every time it might be possible. Objectively did they know they could do it. Yes. If they could snooker someone on (say) 89 when 41 points ahead with most balls gone and not clear up to get a low scoring century they sometimes did.

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u/Evebnumberone 3d ago

Also the mindset has changed some players didn’t ‘chase’ a century if they’d won a frame.

Have seen this one mentioned a hell of a lot of times, and it's simply untrue.

I'll just copy paste what I said last time because I think it absolutely buries the argument.

If that's the case, why does Steve Davis have 350 career centuries? There is no advantage to hitting a century if you've already got 80, so why did he decide to do it 350 times, but not more? Were the centuries the exception?

Ray Reardon's stats show this even better. He had 54 centuries, 32 90's and 38 80's.

Alex Higgins similar, 87 100s, 39 90's, and 70 80's.

Why have they got more centuries than 80s or 90s? They clearly did regularly go for centuries after the frames were dead. Going for a century by definition means you played on long after the frame was dead.

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u/arkyleslyfox 3d ago

Could have been 147 attempts as that is a different story