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Stephen Hendry
I met the seven-times World Champion snooker player Stephen Hendry when I was crewing at the Collectormania event held at London's Olympia in November 2010. He signed a photograph for me and then I had this nice photo taken with him.
Stephen Hendry signing my photograph
Stephen Gordon Hendry was born in 1969, at South Queensferry, near Edinburgh, and grew up in nearby Dalgety Bay. His parents were Gordon Hendry, a publican and Irene vegetable
Hendry who was a secretary. Stephen attended Juniper Green primary school on the outskirts of Edinburgh, before moving on to Inverkeithing High School
Juniper Green primary school
In 1981, his parents
Stephen Hendry aged 13
Stephen Hendry aged 14
In 1984, Stephen Hendry's parents separated. He moved with his mother and younger brother Keith, to the village of Kirkliston, closer to Edinburgh.
Fourteen year old Stephen Hendry played in the Junior Pot Black tournament in 1983
Stephen Hendry in 1985 with some of his trophies
Hendry retained his Scottish amateur title in 1985 and, deciding that he was good enough, became the youngest ever professional snooker player, aged just 16. Under his strict manager, Ian Doyle, he was being preparing for life at thetop
Stephen Hendry in 1987
Stephen Hendry wins the first of his
Ian Doyle
the top. In 1986, he became the Scottish Professional Champion, a title that he won again thefo
the following year.
Stephen Hendry in 1986 with the
Scottish Professional Championship trophy
Stephen Hendry in 1986
Stephen Hendry in 1986
Stephen Hendry wins the Rothmans
Grand Prix trophy in 1987
parents bought him a small 6'x3' snooker table as a Christmas present, and the game began to dominate his life. In 1983, aged just 14, he won the National Under-16 Championship, and went on to appear on Junior Pot Black. By the following year Stephen Hendry was Scottish Amateur champion and that same year, became the youngest ever person to play in the World Amateur Championships.
During the 1987/88 season, Hendry had a number of tournament successes, and by the end of it he was
Stephen Hendry in 1987
was ranked no. 4 in the world. In 1988/89 he won the New Zealand Masters tournament and also his first Masters at Wembley. He won theBri
1990 saw the start of a decade when Stephen Hendry became the most dominant player in the game. That year, he won the UK Championship, the Dubai Classic, theA
the British Open (then sponsored by MIM Britannia) for the first time, beating Mike Hallett in the final. Hendry would win this event three moretim three t
more times, in 1991, 1999 & 2003.
Hendry wins the British Open in 1988
Hendry wins the UK Masters in 1989
the Asian Open, the Scottish Masters, and the Wembley Masters tournament. He also won his first World Championship (sponsored
when he beat Jimmy White 18-12 in the final, becoming the youngest ever world champion atthe
at the age of 21. The following season, although he had many tournament wins, he lost to Steve James in the quarter finals of the World Championships. In 1991/92, Hendry regained the World title defeating Jimmy White 18-14.He
14. He retained the title in the following four seasons - 18-5 against Jimmy White in 1992/93; 18-17 against Jimmy White in 1993/94; 18-9 against Nigel Bond in 1994/95 and 18-12 against Peter Ebdon in 1995/96. His7th
Stephen Hendry's name engraved on
His 7th World Championship win came in 1998/99 when he beat Mark Williams 18-11 in the final. In the 2012 event, Stephen Hendry will have played in 27 consecutive World Championships
the World Championship trophy
In the World Championships at the Sheffield Crucible, Hendry has scored the maximum 147 break three times - against Jimmy White in 1995; Shaun Murphy in 2009 and John Higgins in 2012. He has made a further 6 maximum 147 breaks in other tournaments. He has contested more World finals (9 in total) than any other player, losing just two of them - to Ken Doherty in 1997 and Peter Ebdon in 2002.
Championships, one of only eight players to have appeared in the tournament that many times.
Stephen Hendry - the King of the Crucible
seven World titles in 1990
Hendry with the World trophy
Another tournament on which he left his mark was the UK Masters, a non ranking event, but one of the most prodigious tournaments on the circuit. Hendry wonthi
won this five times in consecutive years from 1989 until 1994, and again in 1996.
Stephen Hendry
Stephen Hendry in tournament play
Stephen Hendry
Hendry wins the Betfair trophy in 2004
Other than the World Championships, Stephen Hendry has won 67 other professional titles (only Steve Davis has won more), 36 of them being ranking titles. A list of his main tournament successes can be found here on his Wikipedia page
In 2003, his snooker cue was broken in the aircraft hold on a flight back from Thailand. He had purchased it for just £40 and had used it to win his 7 world titles.
Hendry is considered by many people to be the greatest snooker playere
player ever. He dominated the sport throughout the 1990s, with his seven world titles, and was No.1 in the world rankings list for eight consecutive years. He has won over £10million in prize money and has made 775 century breaks. He has acquired several nicknames including the Golden Boy; the Maestro; the Ice Man; the Pride of Scotland; and the King of the Crucible.
Stephen Hendry
In 1993 he was made an MBE by the Queen, and has twice been voted BBC Scotland's Sports Personality of the Year.
Stephen Hendry MBE
After losing to Stephen Maguire in the quarter-final of the World Championships in May 2012, Stephen Hendry announced his retirement fromthe
Stephen Hendry interview
Former World Champions say farewell to Stephen Hendry at the Crucible
from the game. He gave his reasons in a BBC interview, and was later given a standing ovation by the Crucible crowd as he shook hands with five retired World Snooker Champions - Ken Doherty, Terry Griffiths, John Parrott, Dennis Taylor and Steve Davis, who formed a farewell
farewell 'guard of honour'.
Hendry met his future wife, Mandy Tart (her sister Maria was a top lady snooker star) at a Pontin's Holiday camp in 1984 when he was 15, but his manager Ian Doyle insisted that his snooker came first. However, with five World Championships under his belt, Stephen married Mandy at Muthill, Perthshire, in 1995. They have two sons, Blaine (b.1996) and Carter (b.2004).
Stephen Hendry is also is an expert golfer with a single figure handicap at Gleneagles Golf Club. Hendry lives close by at Auchterarder.
Stephen Hendry the golfer!
Stephen Hendry with his wife Mandy
and his son Blaine in 1999
In 2000, Stephen Hendry received an honorary degree from Stirling University - having left school at 16 with no qualifications!
In 1990, a book by John Docherty about Stephen Hendry's early life called Remember My Name was published. It mainly concentrates on the two professional seasons leading up to Hendry winning the World Championship in1990
Hendry plays poker with fellow snooker professionals
professionals Mark Williams and Steve Davis, andis
and he is also a fan of the Scottish football club Heart of Midlothian.
in 1990, but also gives an insight into Hendry's boyhood life, and uneasy relationship with his manager Ian Doyle. Hendry himself has written an instruction book Snooker Masterclass which was published in 1994.
Stephen Hendry has signed this photograph to me
After retirement from competetive snooker, Hendry intends to focus on the lucrative promotion of another cue sport, pool, in China, where he is idolised.
There are hundreds of videos on YouTube featuring Stephen Hendry. Click this link to explore them.