Retiring Ken Doherty on toughest foes, celebrity tales, greatest matches and snooker scandal

Ken Doherty will no longer compete on the professional snooker tour, but it’s fair to say he has made the most of his 36 years taking on the best players on the planet.

The 56-year-old confirmed on Wednesday that he is hanging up his cue when it comes to the professional game, still to play in seniors competition, but stepping away from the main tour he joined in 1990.

‘It’s been coming for a while,’ the 1997 world champion told Metro. ‘I was sad initially that I’m not going to be competing on the main tour anymore, but it’s probably relief as well. The time is right.’

One of the finest players in the world for much of the 90s and 00s, Doherty’s game started to slip after 20 years on tour and he says he has been hoping to rediscover the magic for a long while now.

‘I was trying to search for something, thinking maybe things will improve,’ he said. ‘I played with a new cue to maybe get a bit of confidence, but no, it’s just not there anymore.

‘You just come to realise you can’t play the way you used to and it becomes frustrating. You feel a bit embarrassed sometimes with your performances and I don’t want to go through that again.

Are you snooker loopy?

You’re in the right place. I’m Phil Haigh, and I cover the game we all love for Metro.

In my newsletter, The Table, I analyse the biggest talking points, pull back the curtain on the sport and crown the biggest winners and losers every week.

Sign up here.

‘I’ll say thank you, I’ve had a great time, great memories. I’m delighted to have won the things I’ve done. Disappointed to lose some of the matches and finals that I’ve lost, but winning the World Championship was the greatest day of my life as far as being a snooker player’s concerned. And to do it with a £2 cue and against one of the greatest of all time was the icing on the cake.’

The 1997 World Championship win over Stephen Hendry was one of six ranking titles on Doherty’s CV, but he had a number of other close calls in big events.

Two more Crucible finals, three at the UK Championship and two at the Masters, with the Darlin of Dublin experiencing the vast difference between winning and losing those huge matches.

‘When I won it in ’97, I came home on an open-top bus, 250,000 people lining the streets. Then the following year after losing in the final to John Higgins, came back to Dublin airport the next day and I had to get a f***ing taxi home! That’s the difference between winning and losing in a final! But that’s life.’

Crafty Ken duked it out with legendary names for years, experiences that will live for him forever.

‘Playing all the greats: [Ronnie] O’Sullivan, [John] Higgins, Hendry, Jimmy [White], [Steve] Davis, playing all those great players, some of the greatest players that will ever play the game, that was a joy,’ he said.

‘That was a joy to compete against them and play them in big matches. And overcome them, not all the time, but I did overcome them through my career, I beat them all.’

The most testing opponents are of little surprise, with Doherty saying: ‘Stephen and Ronnie, John Higgins and Williams, they were the toughest.

‘They were the ones I loved to have battles with, funnily enough, even though they were the toughest. Whether it be at the Masters or the UK or the World Championship, playing those guys at those championships, they were great occasions. And that’s what I miss. Those big, big matches against the big players.

‘I think the best one was I played Ronnie in the final of the Irish Masters at Goffs [in 1998]. He beat me, he played really well. The atmosphere was electric, it was just amazing.

‘But of course he failed a drugs test, there was marijuana in his system, so he had to hand me the trophy and the cheque for an extra 30 grand. It was the most expensive joint that he ever smoked in his life! He never spoke to me for about six months afterwards.’

Outside of the most obvious nightmare foes, Doherty remembers one of his punditry colleagues being a serious test.

‘I tell you who was really tough and he was such a clever player who I loved playing against, because it was a battle of strategies, was Alan McManus,’ he said.

‘He was he was such a wonderful player, he knew every inch of the snooker table. They called him Angles because his safety was was second to none, he was brilliant. It was a great battle of mind games against him, he was a quality player.

‘Although he won the Masters, which was great, he doesn’t get the proper recognition that he probably deserves. But he was a top player for a long, long time.’

The 1997 Sheffield final will never be topped, but there are plenty of other contests that stick in the mind of the Irishman.

‘There’s a few finals,’ he remembers. ‘I beat John [Higgins 9-8] from 8-5 down in Malta in the final. And then both got so drunk we got thrown off the plane and we’re on the front pages and the back pages when I got home!

‘The Williams World final that I lost 18-16 in 2003, the semi-final against Paul Hunter from 15-9 down to to win 17-16. That was probably one of the greatest matches and greatest comebacks I’ve ever had. The UK final I lost 10-9 to Williams. That was in the same season, 2002-2003. He pipped me in two of the major finals that year. There’s been lots of great matches.’

Don’t worry, getting thrown off a plane with John Higgins the morning after the 2006 Malta Cup final does not pass by without explanation, as the two created a little slice of scandal.

‘We went out to a nightclub,’ said Doherty of hitting a Maltese town with Higgins after edging him in the final. ‘I got back at 5 o’clock in the morning. The taxi was already waiting for me outside the hotel when I staggered back in to to get my cue and suitcase.

‘I came downstairs, got into the taxi, we were driving to the airport and John was staggering up the road and he was on the same flight as me, the 7 o’clock flight.

‘I checked in and went up to the hotel bar and had another drink. Then John was last to check in, he made it and had another drink with me and then we got on the bus. His cue got stuck in the doors, and everybody started laughing, including me, but you know what my laugh is like, I don’t think people appreciated my laugh at 7 o’clock in the morning.

‘He was last on the plane. I managed to get on and sit down and the captain stopped him as he was staggering up the stairs and said he’s not travelling. I got up to defend him and say, “oh, he’ll be okay, just let him sit down, he’ll be fine.” But he said, “no, he’s not travelling and neither are you. You’re getting off with him!”

‘We got on a flight to Heathrow that night and there were three paparazzi waiting for us as soon as we get off the plane! We were on the front and back pages. Rock n roll.’

Some of that night in Malta might be a haze, but snooker has provided unforgettable moments away from the table for the Dubliner.

‘I think one of the favourites was when Alex Ferguson rang me up and invited me to Old Trafford to parade the trophy,’ he recalls. ‘First of all, I told him to f**k off because I thought it was one of my mates winding me up! He says, “Kenny, this is Alex Ferguson, and I’m not going to f***ing ask you a second time!”

‘So I got there and he took me down to meet the players. Eric Cantona came over and shook my hand. I went out on the pitch and my legs were like jelly carrying the cup. All the United fans singing “there’s only one Kenny Doherty” and all the West Ham fans in the away end singing “there’s only one Ronnie O’Sullivan!”

‘Playing a frame with George Best, shaking Muhammad Ali’s hand at the Sports Personality of the Year in 1999.

‘The Edge, tapped me on the shoulder once, when I was talking to Bono after one of their concerts. I was with Michael Stipe and Roger Taylor. The Edge says, “Ken, Ken, you wouldn’t do me a favour, would you? You wouldn’t come over and say hello to me mother and her two friends?” She had no interest in talking to Michael Stipe, Roger Taylor or Bono, but her and her friends absolutely loved snooker.’

As his professional playing days come to an end, there is a tinge of disappointment of how it has come about.

Doherty has been playing on an invitational tour card in recent years and he has no issue with that no longer being offered, but feels he could have been informed earlier than he was.

‘I don’t think the option was there anyway. They weren’t going to give me a card, so they sort of made my mind up for me, you know?’ Doherty said of retirement.

‘It would have been nicer to find out a little bit earlier, then I could have maybe planned something at the World Championship. The timing could have been a bit better, but it is what it is. I’m happy.’

Doherty’s final match proved to be a 10-5 defeat to Patrick Whelan in the first round of World Championship qualifying, which felt like the end even before the decision was made.

‘I think after this year’s World Championship I knew anyway,’ he said. ‘I tried to practice to have a good year and a decent run, but it just wasn’t there. I felt this could be my last game.

‘I knew it was coming, but I was putting it off, hoping, but in the end I probably could have done it a few years ago.

‘It’s just my love for the game, I wanted to keep on and keep searching for something and that will never die, your love for the game.

‘I’ll still play snooker because I love it and I will play exhibitions and I’ll still do shows and I’m still playing the seniors and I love that as well, but it’s not as much pressure, I can just relax. The time is right.’

Doherty will never be far from big time snooker, as a prominent pundit and commentator on major tournaments and still ready to play seniors events.

He remains and will continue to be one of the sport’s most popular figures and greatest ambassadors, and someone snooker should be grateful for.

‘Well, listen, it’s given so much to me, it really has,’ he said. ‘It changed my life and I’m just so humbled by the amount of support that I’ve had over the years, and not just from fans all over the world, but also the snooker community themselves.

‘I will cherish that. I’ll always try to promote the game as best as possible and I’ll continue to do that.’

MORE: Future of snooker’s Q School under review but ‘important role’ will remain

MORE: Stephen Hendry predicts snooker’s next first time major winner

MORE: Stephen Hendry recalls how ‘smirking’ Ronnie O’Sullivan left him fuming