Cueing Back The Years
The Snooker Legends Tour breaks off at the home of snooker, Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre in April bringing the likes of Alex Higgins and Cliff Thorburn back to the green baize.
The Seniors Tour in Golf is almost as competitive as the regular PGA Tour, with guys well into their fifties hitting the ball miles and shooting lower and lower scores.
In fact, it was only last summer that 60-year-old Tom Watson led The Open Championship with one round to go.
Steve Davis is the closest comparison in snooker. The Nugget reached the final of the UK Championship in 2005 at the tender age of 48.
Davis remains the Tour Elder, now 52, so even he has quite a way to match Watson’s heroics at Turnberry.
Perhaps the creation of a Seniors Tour might keep the older players competitive though.
Jason Francis and his Premier Stage company is behind the Snooker Legends Tour, which involves 18-dates, taking some of snooker’s legendary venues including The Hexagon in Reading, home for many years of the [Rothman’s] Grand Prix, Derby’s Assembly Rooms and The Pavillions in Plymouth.
It is ten years since Peter Bainbridge launched Seniors Snooker with the World Seniors Championship taking place at the prestigious Royal Automobile Club in London’s Pall Mall.
Willie Thorne won on that occasion and still markets himself as the World Seniors Champion, and why shouldn’t he?
Back in 2000, the number of big names who were eligible for a seniors event were limited and those that were eligible were not all competitive.
2010 is a different story though. Crowd favourites, Jimmy White and John Parrott easily meet the criteria (sorry boys), life has already begun for world champions, Stephen Hendry and Ken Doherty and Peter Ebdon is also fast approaching the big 4-0.
The Snooker Legends Tour involves White, Parrott and Doherty as well as Alex ‘The Hurricane’ Higgins, Cliff ‘The Grinder’ Thorburn and ‘JV’ himself, all played under the watchful eye of Michaela Tabb.
Francis told Global-Snooker.com, “Everyone remembers the snooker boom in the 1980s. The Taylor black-ball finish, Cliff’s first maximum Davis’ dominance, Jimmy’s Crucible heroics, and of course Alex’s antics. The game had a bit of everything. It had rivalries that were obvious to see.
“And we are keen to re-ignite some of those adversaries. A lot of water will have passed under the bridge since many of these guys played each other last, but I have no doubt there competitive spirit will not have been washed away”.
The promotional material claims that each stop on the Tour will be 'One Unmissable Night'. Tickets for the Crucible showdown are already sold out and the rest of the tour is proving to be as popular. To find out more information and how to book your night with the Snooker Legends click here…
