I was the king of snooker – but I made a huge mistake with Stephen Hendry at 16
YOU didn’t mess with Barry Hearn in snooker’s heyday.
But he calls trying to mess with a young Stephen Hendry the WORST mistake of his career.
Hearn was the predominant promoter in the sport via his company Matchroom Sport and later became chairman of the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA).
His impact on snooker has been profound as he helped to promote events during the sport’s boom in the 1980s.
A lot of that influence stems from his relationship with snooker legend Steve Davis.
The pair met at the Romford Lucania Snooker Club in 1976 and struck up a friendship just in time for Davis’ world championship dominance, setting a record of six tournament wins between 1981 and 1989.
Rather than see the potential for a new wonderkid on the block, Hearn took the invitation as a slight and ordered Davis to “annihilate” the young Scot, insisting it was “kill or be killed”.
The experienced Davis showed no mercy, winning 9-0, 9-1, 9-1 over the piece.
I’m a seven-time world snooker champion, here’s how many attempts it takes for me now to make a century break.
Speaking on Hendry’s Cue Tips YouTube channel, Hearn said: “That was the worst mistake I ever made.
“I don’t think you were quite pro at that time. Your old manager Ian Doyle phoned me up and said, ‘Would you send Steve up here to do a series of exhibitions with this kid I’ve got, Stephen Hendry?’
“And to be fair, because I do my homework, I’d followed a little bit of your career in snooker, I’d seen results and stuff like that. I knew you could play. I knew you as a prospect.
“I said to Davis, ‘I want you to go up there, Steve’. So he said, ‘Really? What, seven days?’
Stephen Hendry career achievements
Seven-time World Snooker Champion
Youngest-ever winner of World Championship
Six-time Masters Champion
Five-time UK Championship winner
18 Triple Crown tournament wins
36 ranking titles
Nine seasons as World No1
Awarded MBE in 1994
Two-time BBC Scotland Sports Personality of the Year
“I went ‘No, you go up there, I want this kid annihilated. I want him destroyed. Every night, night after night. If you’re 100 in front, I want the snooker behind the yellow. I want this kid’s brains in a jam jar on my mantelpiece.
“And he slaughtered you for a week!”
Hendry recalled: “I was the great hope of Scotland and I’m playing these venues with about a thousand people watching me.
“And then I’m getting absolutely taken apart every night, night after night.”
Of course in a few years’ time Hendry had recovered and burst onto the scene, earning the nickname Golden Boy.
He beat Davis in the final of the 1989 UK Championship, a symbolic changing of the guard.
Hearn then admitted: “It was the worst thing we ever did.
“You were supposed to be embarrassed. That was the plan!
“You weren’t supposed to bounce back and learn from it!
“It was horrible. It didn’t work out. It was the worst thing I ever did. I should never have done it.”
Hendry himself was curious about Davis’ thoughts after playing him that week.
But even then, Davis saw something in Hendry and was convinced he was in fact a talented player.
Hendry asked: “What did Steve say about me after that sixth night?”
Hearn revealed: “He came back and said you were a good player.
“I said, ‘Hmm, didn’t sound like it. 9-0, 9-1, 9-1?’ He went, ‘No, he’s a good player.’
“I hoped the job had been done on you. That was the plan. I mean, I know it sounds nasty, but it was kill or be killed.
“You know, Davis was really the first professional snooker player in the real world.
“He practised, he lived the game. He led the right life.
“The (Ray) Reardons and (John) Spencers were all great players but they didn’t have that percentage in their head, you know, the 80-20 shots.
“Yeah. I think Steve recognised that you had similar traits to him in you.”