Crucible must remain home of snooker, insists Hendry

Published on Monday 20 April 2009 23:18

STEPHEN Hendry believes leaving the Crucible on a permanent basis should be out of the question as the Betfred.com World Championship organisers consider the future of their event.

However, the seven-time world champion would welcome a system which would see up to five venues staging the event on a rotational basis.

Hendry, who began his campaign with a 10-7 win against Mark Williams, does not rule out change. But he would be opposed to taking the championships to another fixed venue.

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China and Dubai have expressed interest in staging the tournament, though it is likely Sheffield will secure an extension to their deal which expires after next year's tournament.

Hendry said: "Nobody would like to leave the Crucible, but if it has to...I would like to see a British Open golf type of arrangement, where you have four or five venues and you alternate them so you know you're always coming back to the Crucible. Like St Andrews in golf, it would be like going back to the home of snooker. If there were plans to move it away, I would like to see that system. I think it would work."

Hendry strung together five frames in a row to battle back from 7-5 down. He was rated a 50-1 outsider before the tournament began, after a poor run of results. Hendry turned 40 in January, but insists his tournament-winning days are not over.

Discussing those long odds, Hendry said, with a slight exaggeration: "I haven't won a match for six months and I haven't won a tournament for 16 years, so what do you expect?"

Meanwhile, Northern Ireland's Mark Allen has secured a second-round meeting with Ronnie O'Sullivan by coming through his opener. Left-hander Allen resumed 7-2 ahead against Martin Gould yesterday morning, and survived the scare of dropping the first three frames.

But Allen began to pile on the points, and sealed a 10-6 victory with a break of 88.

Gould came out with a relaxed attitude which helped him to make three rapid frame-winning breaks. Breaks of 87, 90 and 74 secured the first three frames, with Gould capitalising whenever Allen gave him a glimpse of a chance. But Allen won the final frame before the mid-session interval to leave himself requiring two more for victory. That became one to win when he grabbed the 14th, and though Gould pulled one back, Allen found form in the next and his fluent 88 confirmed his victory.

Mark Selby brushed aside the challenge of Ricky Walden to reach the second round.

Selby won 10-6 making three century breaks, 127 in the first frame of the afternoon, 117 four frames later, and 101 to clinch his place in the last 16, although Walden also impressed with a 100 break.

The all-Chinese match between Ding Junhui and Liang Wenbo failed to live up to expectations. Ding, who is in danger of dropping out of the top 16, established a 5-4 lead but was 4-1 in front at one stage.

They will resume this morning.

Hong Kong's Marco Fu advanced to a last-16 meeting with Shaun Murphy or Andrew Higginson with a 10-4 victory over Joe Swail. Joe Perry carries a 5-4 lead over Jamie Cope into today.

• Stephen Maguire was interviewed by police officers yesterday as part of an investigation into alleged match-fixing.

The probe centres on Maguire's match against Jamie Burnett at the UK Championship in Telford on 15 December, which has been the subject of investigations by World Snooker and the Gambling Commission.

Maguire won 9-3, after Burnett missed a black in the 12th frame which would have reduced his arrears to 8-4.

Ironically, the two men will play each other at the Crucible in the first round tomorrow.