Stephen Hendry ousted Jimmy White in a thrilling final in front of the live television cameras to win the inaugural World Seniors Mr Vegas Snooker title.
Held at the famous Epsom Racecourse, this unique, one-day World Seniors Snooker Tour event featured six of the sport’s most iconic characters competing in single-frame matches with a 20-second shot-clock in operation throughout.
Split into two round robin groups of three players with the top two from each progressing to the knockout semi-finals, Hendry and White both qualified from Group A earlier in the day.
The duo initially met in the second match of the tournament with Hendry coming out on top with the help of a 55 break after White had broken down on 46.
Hendry also came from behind to defeat 1985 World Champion Dennis Taylor in his other group match, registering a run of 56 during the tie. That result set up a winner-goes-through contest between White and Taylor which the former won without conceding a point.
There was a grandstand finish to Group B as all three contestants finished level on one victory each.
In a meeting of former world champions to break the tournament off, Ken Doherty countered with a decisive 60 break to get the win against Joe Johnson.
Former world number two Tony Knowles entered the fray and impressed as he dispatched Doherty, but in the final fixture of the group, Johnson responded from his opening loss to pip Knowles in a close encounter and put everyone level on wins. However, due to the highest break tiebreak rule, it was Doherty and Johnson who both advanced to the last four.
In the semi-finals – pitching group winners against runners-up from the other group – Hendry eliminated Johnson, and White constructed a break of 59 during his frame success against Doherty.
That meant a new chapter to the Hendry-White career rivalry would be written as they squared off in yet another televised final.
Hendry potted the opening red of the title match but was unfortunate to go in-off after deliberately colliding with the pack of reds. However, after receiving cueball in hand for his opponent’s foul, White unexpectedly missed a black off its spot when on a break of 17 to present Hendry with a scoring opportunity.
The seven-time World Champion duly obliged, although whilst on a run of 62, he too missed a relatively straightforward pot, with the winning line very close.
White had a chance to counter-attack with the final three reds remaining, but – despite knocking in a fantastic long pot on the final red – he was unable to convert, and after some subsequent dramatic moments Hendry managed to secure victory on the colours and claim his maiden title on the World Seniors circuit.
The coverage by Channel 5, the commentary, and the punditry were all great. Neal Foulds, Reanne Evans and Rachel work really well together as a team. Rob Walker was there too, working both as MC and interviewer. He’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but I really like his enthusiasm and dynamism.
The set-up, with the fans sat around tables on all sides of the playing area, looked festive and convivial. That was excellent. There were some known faces in the audience, notably Nigel Bond who was interviewed by Rob and was very appreciative about the event.
Stephen Hendry played quite well. It’s actually the best I have seen him play for years.
Those images were shared on social media by World Seniors Snooker and Jason Francis
During his post-match interview in the arena, Stephen Hendry said a few interesting things:
He really likes the format and the atmosphere of the event, notably the setup and the close proximity of the crowd. That gave him the motivation to prepare well, a motivation he struggles to find when facing the prospect of playing qualifiers in soulless venues in front of nobody or nearly nobody.
He likes the quick format as well. No surprise there … his game is, and always was, about attacking and going for his shots.
Jimmy once again failed to beat his Nemesis. He could have won today, probably should have won. It’s hard to explain. Some of the shots he took, and missed, during the final … I thought he wouldn’t have taken them, missed them in the previous rounds, or in the final had he faced someone else. But maybe that’s just me reading too much in some of the missed shots?
The WPBSA World Seniors Tour 