Seven-time world snooker champ Stephen Hendry to finish entire season without a single win.

Joint-record-holder Stephen Hendry won’t be in the running to break his own benchmark of seven World Snooker Championship titles after confirming his plans for the Crucible.

The Crucible will be missing one of its most hallowed names this year.

Seven-time World Snooker Championship-winner Stephen Hendry has announced he won’t be competing in Sheffield next month. The 55-year-old Scot – who won the most recent of his joint-record seven crowns in 1999 – has said he’s “not going to bother” with the tournament amid other commitments.

His decision means snooker icon Hendry is guaranteed to conclude business without a win for the second time in as many seasons. ‘The Golden Bairn’ failed to record a win in four outings across the 2022/23 campaign and came up empty from five attempts this season.

“I’ve not entered the World qualifying this year,” said Hendry on a recent episode of the WST Snooker Club podcast. “There’s a couple of reasons, it starts the day after the Tour Championship finishes. I’ll have been working for TV all week and obviously not had much chance to practice, which I haven’t really done.

“I’m not going to bother this year. There’s a lot of things to do in between the Tour Championship and World Championship, so I thought I’d give it a miss this year.”

It marks just the second time since 1986 that Hendry will be absent from the World Championship altogether. He failed to make the opening round for the first time in his career in 2021 when he lost in the qualifiers, then sat out entirely the following year.

The Queensferry native made his return to the World Snooker Tour when he regained a two-year Tour Card for the 2020/21 season. That licence was renewed for the 2022/23 and 2023/24 seasons, not that he’s had a lot (or anything) to show for his troubles.