By Elliott West
Introduction
Sometimes when you are trying to think of a piece to write, you come across a match that has totally slipped your memory. Today’s piece is one of those and involves a meeting between a young rookie at the time, Stephen Hendry and his counterpart Joe Johnson. Cast your minds back to the 1987 World Championship, Johnson had won the title the previous year in glorious fashion, defeating the favourite Steve Davis 18-12 and was now hoping he could retain the title and win back to back championships. A path that was made more difficult by his draw against Stephen Hendry in the quarter-finals.
A Classic
Joe Johnson had reached the quarter-finals by defeating Eugene Hughes 10-9 and Murdo MacLeod 13-7 while Stephen Hendry had beaten Willie Thorne 10-7 and Steve Longworth 13-7. So set up an encounter that would pitch young talent against experience, Stephen in a suit with his trademark haircut of the period and a dapperly dressed Yorkshireman, Joe Johnson. Neither player knew what was to ensue and the snooker classic that would unfold before their eyes.
In the beginning, it looked like Joe could not set a foot wrong and quickly built an 8-1 advantage again the Scot in this best of three sessions. A surge by his opponent and a rallying cry by Johnson left the scoreline at 12-8 to Joe’s advantage. However, Stephen then displayed some of the early genius that would be heaped on his opponents in future years by taking four frames in a row to take the match to a deciding frame.
At 12-12, the match was so close, it was almost impossible to pick a winner but it seemed likely that Johnson would use his reserves of experience to win the match. In a decider, the player just needs one chance and that is exactly what Joe got. The heat of the combat and prestige of the occasion was bearing heavily on both players’ shoulders but in the end, Stephen was the first to crack, missing a red and let Joe in to make a match-winning break of 46.
The Aftermath
Both players looked drained after the match in their post-match interview with David Icke. However, it was clear that Johnson was clearly aware of the close shave that he had been given by this budding talent and marvelled in the early signs of what this player would become over the next twenty years of the sport. This wouldn’t be Joe’s year but was definitely a World Championship which oozed his brilliance as a player, going on to defeat Neal Foulds 16-9 and set up a second successive final against Steve Davis.
Sadly Johnson was at the receiving end of a defeat in the final but produced a performance that was worthy of any holding champion, only losing the match 14-18. Davis had licked his sores from the 1985 and 1986 defeats and was in no mood to lose a third successive final and pulled out all the stops but Joe was almost the player to win the World Championship two years in a row, a rare feat and so nearly accomplished.
