Stephen Hendry makes his long-awaited return to the tour on Wednesday January 20th, in Group G alongside Gary Wilson, Lu Ning, Martin O’Donnell, Liam Highfield, Jamie O’Neill, Zhao Jianbo and Rory McLeod.
Play will begin at 10am each day at the Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes and the fixtures for each group will be released shortly, along with details of how to watch online. The new WST Pro Series will have total prize money of £420,500.
Players are split into 16 groups of eight for the initial round-robin phase. All matches are best of three frames, and the top two in each group will progress to the second group stage.
The second phase will feature 32 players split into four groups of eight. Once again the top two in each group will go forward.
The player who finishes top of the final group of eight players will be crowned the champion.
The dates for the event are:
January 18-25: Groups one to eight March 9-16: Groups nine to 16 March 17-20: Second group stage March 21: Final group
Scottish ex-world snooker champ Stephen Hendry raking in cash with £56 personalised shoutout messages online
Kevin Duguid
STEPHEN Hendry is raking in cash by flogging personalised shoutout messages online.
The ex-world snooker champ, 51, records videos for punters at £56 a pop.
He is giving out personalised messages on Cameo
Telly pundit Hendry — who’s planning a comeback to the game he ruled in the 90s — has had rave reviews for his efforts on the Cameo app.
One fan gave him five stars, saying: “Thank you!”
In another clip, legend Hendo wishes a man called Michael a Merry Christmas.
The cue king, from Dalgety Bay, Fife, said in November: “I believe you’re looking forward to my return, which will be some time next year.
“I’m still doing lots of practice to get ready for it.”
Last night a source added: “Sports stars are getting in on the act. It can be lucrative. Fans are desperate to surprise pals with a message.”
IF this is true – and I hope it’s not – it’s extremely sad. Does Stephen need money so really badly? Possibly, alas. For a start, divorces in the UK can be very expensive, especially for the men. In his book Hendry wrote that he ended his career in debts, and he left their house to his ex-wife. Could his decision to return be linked to his financial worries?
That schedule is a bit worrying for Ronnie fans, in that it gives him plenty of time to reconsider. I predict that this event could be very messy for the players: they get called on to play 7 best-of-3 matches in one day, potentially on either table at short notice. It’s a recipe for mayhem.
And I do wish they’d fix the name of one of the players in Ronnie’s group. What happened to quality control?
quality control probably done by someone dylsexic …
Personally I’m surprised he is actually there. I would expect he plays if he feels the need for practice. But even here it was said and I don’t know to what extent it is true that the CLS did not help much to players to prepare for the Masters due to the different table (brand).
I have seen Kurt Maflin offer this sort of greetings on something called Memmo. I recon Maflin’s finances are in decent shape from his last two years on tour. I am guessing it’s just easy money, and they certainly got time on their hand, with most things being closed.
Yes, whatever Stephen Hendry does is entirely up to him, and I don’t feel the need to pass judgement or single anyone out. One good thing to come out of his comeback is that it will connect him with the younger generation of players, so he can be better informed as a pundit. Some of the BBC pundits seem to be completely unfamiliar with the players they are commenting on.
Ronnie O'Sullivan 
That schedule is a bit worrying for Ronnie fans, in that it gives him plenty of time to reconsider. I predict that this event could be very messy for the players: they get called on to play 7 best-of-3 matches in one day, potentially on either table at short notice. It’s a recipe for mayhem.
And I do wish they’d fix the name of one of the players in Ronnie’s group. What happened to quality control?
quality control probably done by someone dylsexic …
Personally I’m surprised he is actually there. I would expect he plays if he feels the need for practice. But even here it was said and I don’t know to what extent it is true that the CLS did not help much to players to prepare for the Masters due to the different table (brand).
I have seen Kurt Maflin offer this sort of greetings on something called Memmo. I recon Maflin’s finances are in decent shape from his last two years on tour. I am guessing it’s just easy money, and they certainly got time on their hand, with most things being closed.
Yes, whatever Stephen Hendry does is entirely up to him, and I don’t feel the need to pass judgement or single anyone out. One good thing to come out of his comeback is that it will connect him with the younger generation of players, so he can be better informed as a pundit. Some of the BBC pundits seem to be completely unfamiliar with the players they are commenting on.