Stephen Hendry reflects on the 'gimmick' that left him fuming ahead of crunch Crucible clash

In the latest episode on his award-winning Stephen Hendry Cuetips YouTube channel, the seven-time world champion looked back on his career in snooker’s blue riband event, and whether he could have lifted the iconic trophy on more occasions.

A 16-year-old Hendry turned professional for the 1985/86 season. Bullishly, in an interview with a Scottish newspaper, the rookie declared that he would become world champion within just five years.

At the end of his debut term on the sport’s top flight, Hendry won four qualifying matches to reach the main draw, televised stages of the 1986 World Championship at the Crucible. In round one proper, he narrowly lost 10-8 to number 11 seed Willie Thorne, although 12 months later, he returned to venue and gained revenge on Thorne, defeating him 10-7 in the opening round before bowing out 13-12 to then title holder Joe Johnson in the quarter-finals.

Hendry would serve a Crucible apprenticeship over the next couple of years, too: narrowly losing 13-12 to number two seed Jimmy White in the last 16 in 1988, and 16-9 to the all-conquering Steve Davis in the 1989 semi-finals.

But come the turn of a new decade came the dawn of a new, powerful snooker dynasty as Hendry kept good his promise with the press from a few years earlier by claiming his maiden world championship crown after defeating his snooker idol White 18-12 in the 1990 showpiece fixture.

Aged just 21 years and 106 days, Hendry became, and is still the youngest-ever winner of the premier prize. Newly-minted world champion Wu Yize is now the second youngest-ever.

“That gave me a lot of pleasure” Hendry names his favourite world crown

If you ask Hendry which of his seven world titles gave him the most enjoyment, he won’t hesitate to say 1993. However, an unexpected situation earlier in the tournament threatened to disrupt his concentration and left the future 36-time ranking event winner ‘absolutely fuming’.

Speaking on his CueTips channel, the 57-year-old said: “People always ask me ‘what was my favourite world title?’

“Obviously winning your first is special, winning the seventh was special - that broke the record - but I think the one that gave me most satisfaction was '93, because I beat every opponent pretty comfortably, beat Jimmy in the final a session early. It's the one I look back on and think, that gave me a lot of pleasure.”

The 1993 edition of the world championship is not generally viewed as the most vintage year amongst the neutral snooker fraternity, despite the competition setting a new record for century breaks with 35. Nine of the 16 opening round matches were won by margins of five frames or more, and there was just one deciding frame contest throughout the entire 17 days.

Hendry left annoyed and fuming over pre-match Crucible ‘gimmick’

Hendry - who reclaimed the world title in 1992 after being another ‘Crucible Curse’ victim during the 1991 quarter-finals - pretty much romped his way through to the one-table set-up in Sheffield in 1993, dropping only 12 frames across three matches after wins over Danny Fowler (10-1), Darren Morgan (13-4), and Nigel Bond (13-7).

In the final four, Hendry faced fellow Scot Alan McManus - the first all-Scottish semi-final in World Snooker Championship history. In honour of this occasion, tournament organisers arranged for a bagpiper to play a rendition of ‘Scotland The Brave’ in the Crucible arena as the two cueists walked out for their opening session - much to the bemusement of world number one Hendry who wanted to remain focused for his baize task ahead.

Reflecting on that situation, Hendry explained: “My manager came into my dressing room and said 'they’re going to get a bagpiper to pipe you and Alan out for the semi-final’; I was fuming. Absolutely fuming.

“Because I'm psyched up, I'm like a coiled spring ready to go, I don't want change - I don't want anything to muck that up, I just want everything to be the same...it just really annoyed me.”

Ultimately, it didn't affect Hendry's focus too much as he saw off his compatriot 16-8 before recording a thumping 18-5 final win over White with a session to spare to secure back-to-back world titles for the first time.

Perhaps one of the reasons why Hendry was so dominant in the 90s was his single-mindedness, and looking back on his dismay over the inclusion of a bagpiper for his semi-final outing, the ‘Golden Bairn’ added: “It's one of the things, I get this reputation of being so miserable - I don't want anything remotely like fun or anything to change the dynamic.

“It's the world championship semi-final I thought...this is like, it's not the place to do gimmicky things.”

Hendry would go on to win five world championship titles in-a-row between 1992 to 1996 before his record 29-match winning streak at the Crucible was stopped by Ken Doherty in the 1997 final. He would go on to collect a record seventh world title for the modern era in 1999. Ronnie O’Sullivan equalled that benchmark in 2022.