Format gets the master's imprimatur

WITH prize money increased to £190,000, competitors in the 19th Benson and Hedges Irish Masters at Goffs Auditorium, from March 26th to 31st, will play first round and quarter final matches of 11 frames, as opposed to nine in previous years. And the world's number one, Stephen Hendry, is delighted by the change.

"I believe that the change to 11 frames will make for much better matches," said Hendry, during a visit to Dublin yesterday. "They will certainly be welcomed by all the top players." The 27 year old Scot is set for an eighth successive appearance at Goffs where remarkably, he was triumphant only once, in 1992.

The quality of the tournament is reflected by the fact that the leading eight players in the end of 1995 world rankings Hendry, Steve Davis, Ronnie O'Sullivan, John Parrott, James Wattana Alan McManus, Jimmy White and Darren Morgan will be in action.

The four wild card choices are Ireland's Ken Doherty (world number nine) and Joe Swail (19), the defending champion Peter Ebdon (10) and a dynamic Scottish debutant, John Higgins (11). Of his compatriot, Hendry saw fit to predict yesterday "You're going to see a future world champion and a future world number one.

For the moment, however, Hendry is very much centre stage as one of the world's finest sportsmen, not only for remarkable achievements that include five world championships and a total of 59 major tournament successes, but for the ease and courtesy with which he handles his celebrity. A typical example came at yesterday's lunch when Kevin Norton, press officer of the tournament, was arranging his umpteenth interview. You re the boss, Kevin," he replied, with a smile.

In one of the previous meetings had with him, he spoke of his love for golf and of the nervousness he felt when standing on the first tee in a pro am. "I still have a long term ambition to get down to two or three handicap," he said this time around. "My exact handicap at the moment is 11.6, which means I play off 12. But after regular outings during the summer months, I'll be able to play to about eight."

Hopes of a reduced handicap should be helped considerably by his imminent move to a new house, near Gleneagles. "That should give me the chance of spending a little time at the driving range," he said. "But the real problem is with my short game.

He went on to reveal that he will be fulfilling a long time ambition in May, when his snooker season ends with the Embassy World Championship at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield. "I've been promised a game with Colin Montgomerie in the pro-am for the Henson and Hedges International at The Oxfordshire," he said. "That will be a bit special."

Hendry has got used to setting himself targets. At 15, he was the youngest ever Scottish Amateur champion as a 16 year old, on July 1st, 1985, he became the youngest entrant into the ranks of professional snooker and, at 18, he won his first ranking event. Since then, he has set a record for the professional game by winning 36 consecutive matches in ranking tournaments, comfortably outstripping the previous target of 22 set, almost inevitably, by Steve Davis.

Profound admiration for Davis has become a dominant element of his career. "Some of the players he's losing to these days shouldn't be at the same table as him," he said. "That's criminal as far as I'm concerned. It has also convinced me that I should quit when I'm still at the top."

On that latter point, it was fascinating to hear him use the same words as Jack Nicklaus has done, in anticipating the time for retirement. At the moment, I go into every tournament thinking I can win it," said Hendry. "But I know there will come a time when, however well I am playing in practice, it just won't happen for me when the gun goes. That will be the time to quit.

"My two main targets now are to beat, the record of six World Championships, established by Steve (Davis) and Ray Reardon and to be the world's number one until the year 2000. If I stay at the top for another four years, I will have been number one for the complete decade of the nineties.

"Money is no longer a major incentive, insofar as I'm financially secure for life. As a consequence, I accept that my competitive instincts have been dulled somewhat. There was never a situation, however, when I was motivated by pound signs hanging over each pocket. That sort of pressure,, would be too much to handle.

Winner of four tournaments already this season, Hendry's dominance shows no sign of waning. If anything, he seems to be scaling new heights. For instance, his 147 clearance against Gary Wilkinson in the US Championship was a record breaking third maximum in a major tournament. And he followed it with a clearance of 146 for a 10-3 win in the final against Ebdon.

Attired in an open neck shirt and a pin striped suit with a distinctly nineties cut, he projected an appropriately successful image. In June of last year, he married his long time girlfriend, Mandy. The other great love of his life is expensive cars he takes particular pride in owning a Bentley Continental Turbo and a Ferrari.

"How long will I keep going? he mused, before offering the reply "as long as the killer instinct is there." On recent form, that represented a fairly bleak message to his long suffering rivals.