‘Stubborn’ Ronnie O’Sullivan trait spotted as snooker legend baffled by old school penchant no one else leans on
Stephen Hendry has one bug bear about the other legend who boasts seven world championships.
Snooker icon Ronnie O’Sullivan has been labelled stubborn by Stephen Hendry over his insistence to stick with old fashioned chalk on tour.
The only two men with seven snooker world championships enjoy a cordial relationship since the Scottish superstar bowed out from the top of the game. But Hendry admits he’s been left perplexed with the Rocket’s insistence to keep using the blue stuff. He reckons it marks tables in a way the modified version does not. Hendry has spoken glowingly about the quality of blaize worldwide which lends itself to an era of the sport which sees it reach a mammoth audience in Asia.
Speaking on his YouTube channel, Hendry said: “The tables are just beautiful now and they used to change a bit from tournament to tournament. But now pretty much consistently the tables are always… But as soon as anything goes wrong, the players are like ‘oh my God’. The biggest I’d say is Ronnie will still use the old chalk, which gets kicks and bounces on the cushion. I don’t know why he wouldn’t use a new one. Whether it’s stubbornness I don’t know.
“The new chalk is used by every other player… There are never any grades on the table. There would be chalk markings all over the place and frequent kicks if you watched vintage snooker matches from the 1980s.”
Even by his own strange standards, O’Sullivan, who is aiming for a record-breaking seventh global snooker championship in May, has had a colorful year. After the ‘Macau 5’ accusations, he infuriated WST executives with his decision, called Alexandra Palace ‘disgusting’ during the Masters, and launched an incredible verbal assault against Ali Carter.
