{"id":14723,"date":"2026-06-23T05:04:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T05:04:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news678.top\/?p=14723"},"modified":"2026-06-23T05:04:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T05:04:08","slug":"stephen-hendry-names-top-16-snooker-players-of-last-50-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news678.top\/?p=14723","title":{"rendered":"Stephen Hendry names top 16 snooker players of last 50 years"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Seven time world champion Stephen Hendry has picked out his top 16 from the last 50 years (Picture: Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Stephen Hendry has named his top 16 snooker players of the last 50 years and it is sure to cause plenty of debate.<\/p>\n

The seven-time world champion has named a top 16 for the Crucible era, which dates back to the 1976\/77 season.<\/p>\n

Some very big names miss out, including a string of former world champions, while three players who have never conquered the Crucible do make the cut.<\/p>\n

Hendry has leant towards the modern player more, with the likes of Ray Reardon, Cliff Thorburn and John Spencer missing out.<\/p>\n

Also getting the chop after being initially considered were the likes of Ken Doherty and John Parrott, despite winning the greatest prize in snooker.<\/p>\n

Hendry, of course, had to put himself on the list, and obviously that came at the business end after his immense career.<\/p>\n

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You’re in the right place. I’m Phil Haigh, and I cover the game we all love for Metro<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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Phil has been reporting on snooker for over a decade<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Here are the 16 players Hendry considers the best of the last 50 years, as revealed on World Snooker Tour\u2019s Snooker Club podcast.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\"Halo\t<\/div>
2024 world champion Kyren Wilson made the cut (Picture: Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

15 = Kyren Wilson<\/h3>\n

World Championships: 1
Triple Crowns: 2
Ranking Titles: 10<\/p>\n

15 = Mark Allen<\/h3>\n

World Championships: 0
Triple Crowns: 2
Ranking Titles: 12<\/p>\n

14. Alex Higgins<\/h3>\n

World Championships: 2 (1 in Crucible era)
Triple Crowns: 5
Ranking Titles: 1 (world rankings began after some of Higgins\u2019 titles)<\/p>\n

13. Paul Hunter<\/h3>\n
\n
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Paul Hunter tragically died at just 27 years old (Picture: Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

World Championships: 0
Triple Crowns: 3
Ranking Titles: 3<\/p>\n

12. Neil Robertson<\/h3>\n

World Championships: 1
Triple Crowns: 6
Ranking Titles: 26<\/p>\n

11. Ding Junhui<\/h3>\n

World Championships: 0
Triple Crowns: 4
Ranking Titles: 15<\/p>\n

10. Shaun Murphy<\/h3>\n

World Championships: 1
Triple Crowns: 4
Ranking Titles: 13<\/p>\n

9. Zhao Xintong
\n<\/h3>\n
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Zhao Xintong won the world title in 2025 in style (Picture: Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

World Championships: 1
Triple Crowns: 2
Ranking Titles: 6<\/p>\n

8. Jimmy White<\/h3>\n

World Championships: 0
Triple Crowns: 2
Ranking Titles: 10<\/p>\n

7. Steve Davis<\/h3>\n

World Championships: 6
Triple Crowns: 15
Ranking Titles: 28<\/p>\n

6. Judd Trump<\/h3>\n

World Championships: 1
Triple Crowns: 5
Ranking Titles: 31<\/p>\n

5. Mark Selby
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Mark Selby added another Triple Crown title to his collection last season (Picture: Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

World Championships: 4
Triple Crowns: 10
Ranking Titles: 25<\/p>\n

3 = Mark Williams
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World Championships: 3
Triple Crowns: 7
Ranking Titles: 27<\/p>\n

3 = John Higgins<\/h3>\n

World Championships: 4
Triple Crowns: 9
Ranking Titles: 33<\/p>\n

2. Stephen Hendry
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\n\t\t\""Ronnie\t<\/div>
Stephen Hendry gives Ronnie O\u2019Sullivan the edge over himself (Picture: Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

World Championships: 7
Triple Crowns: 18
Ranking Titles: 36<\/p>\n

1. Ronnie O\u2019Sullivan
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World Championships: 7
Triple Crowns: 23
Ranking Titles: 41<\/p>\n

On his top two, Hendry said: \u2018I\u2019m tempted purely for argumentative purposes to put myself above Ronnie because the backlash would be huge.<\/p>\n

\u2018He\u2019s got to be above me for the fact that he\u2019s won eight Masters and eight UK Championships. 17 maximums, 1,400 century breaks.\u2019<\/p>\n

Explaining how he came to his decisions over the whole list, Hendry said: \u2018Obviously what they\u2019ve won has got to come into it, how successful [they\u2019ve been]. I think players I enjoy watching will have to come into it. <\/p>\n

\u2018John Spencer and Ray Reardon I didn\u2019t play against and didn\u2019t really watch a lot of them actually playing, so I probably won\u2019t include them for the simple reason I didn\u2019t watch them play a lot.\u2019<\/p>\n

Arrow<\/title>\n<\/svg>MORE: Former world snooker champion burgled while playing in tournament<\/span><\/p>\n

Arrow<\/title>\n<\/svg>MORE: Snooker bosses scolded for \u2018unacceptable\u2019 conditions but not everyone agrees<\/span><\/p>\n

Arrow<\/title>\n<\/svg>MORE: Stan Moody has plan of attack and takes aim at snooker\u2019s big guns<\/span><\/p>\n
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The Table<\/h4>\n

Stay ahead of snooker’s next big break with Metro’s resident expert Phil Haigh in his new weekly newsletter.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Stephen Hendry names top 16 snooker players of last 50 years
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#Stephen #Hendry #names #top #snooker #players #years<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Seven time world champion Stephen Hendry has picked out his top 16 from the last…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14724,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1763,324,235,1765,1762,89,438],"class_list":["post-14723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-hendry","tag-names","tag-players","tag-snooker","tag-stephen","tag-top","tag-years"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/GettyImages-2269882425_1782173068.jpg",1200,630,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/GettyImages-2269882425_1782173068-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/GettyImages-2269882425_1782173068-300x158.jpg",300,158,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/GettyImages-2269882425_1782173068-768x403.jpg",640,336,true],"large":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/GettyImages-2269882425_1782173068-1024x538.jpg",640,336,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/GettyImages-2269882425_1782173068.jpg",1200,630,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/GettyImages-2269882425_1782173068.jpg",1200,630,false],"covernews-featured":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/GettyImages-2269882425_1782173068-1024x538.jpg",1024,538,true],"covernews-medium":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/GettyImages-2269882425_1782173068-540x340.jpg",540,340,true]},"author_info":{"display_name":"admin","author_link":"https:\/\/news678.top\/?author=1"},"category_info":"Sports<\/a>","tag_info":"Sports","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14723"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14723\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}