Ken Doherty

gimmick

I had the pleasure of seeing him play in a small tournament in Cork over the last few days. Also there were Stephen Hendry, Steve Davis and Dominic Dale (whose wife is incredible).

Doherty played some of the best snooker ive ever seen played. He disposed of Davis 5-0 in a very scrappy match, but then brushed Hendry aside 6-1 in the final, compiling breaks 121 twice, 106, 78 and 73. Hendry, funnily enough, did a break of 121 also.

I know a small tourny like this isnt a good gauge, but Dohertys confidence was unreal. If he plays as confidently over the next few months, he could do very well at The World Championships. Between the 2 sessions yesterday, he missed 3 balls he took on, the rest just fell down the pockets for him.

The only pity was that it was more of a match, but thats not a complaint, just a musing!

djmarkus

He's dropped badly in the rankings since he with 3rd in the world in 97/98, now i think he's ~14th or so provisionally so i do hope he does well in the worlds to push him up in the rankings again and to put ireland on the snooker map again.

miju

the exhibitions are always the best things to go to in order to see the real snooker players, the players are always much more relaxed and it always bodes them well as alot of pros always say

but yeah i agree dohertys form seems to on the up and up

Michael Collins

djmarkus wrote:

He's dropped badly in the rankings since he with 3rd in the world in 97/98, now i think he's ~14th or so provisionally so i do hope he does well in the worlds to push him up in the rankings again and to put ireland on the snooker map again.

Sure he won the Malta open which has him provisionally up to 4th, with a good Crucible performace he could ACTUALLY be 4th next year.

eirebhoy

gimmick wrote:

Doherty played some of the best snooker ive ever seen played.

As I said in a few times on this forum, I believe Doherty at his best is the best player in the world. Confidence is what makes him so inconsistant and we rarely get to see the best of him.

OMcGovern

I remember the famous 2003 Embassy World match, when Ken was down 10-2, and leveled the match to 11-11....

I had been absolulutely dying with a bad flu, and spent the weekend glued to the TV, incredible entertainment.... if I wasn't so ill, I would've missed it.
I was living in Rathmines then, and rooting for the local lad !

Only thing is, Ken does make mistakes, and I usually end up saying "Ahhhh Ken!!!" when he misses important shots he was expected to pot.

Saw him once in the Ranelagh chinese takeaway, am suprised how short he seemed. I'm 5' 10" and I could swear he was much smaller ?
Height is a definite advantage to stretch over the table.

Still, I'll always make the effort to watch his matches.

regards,
Owen