I have great admiration for the sportsperson who knows when their time is up and retires from the game whilst still well regarded and with the public wanting more but even I am wondering if Stephen Hendry may be a little premature in considering retiring from snooker in the summer. On the face of it his heavy defeat to Mark Selby losing 13-4 in the World Championships may focus his mind after an inconsistent last few years where he has failed to win a ranking event and his position in the top 16 is in jeopardy.
   The main difference is that as snooker is an individual sport you are only going to let yourself down and there are enough supporters still keen enough to watch him play and to be in the top 20 of any sport is to still be competitive. The difference of course is knowing within yourself that from the heights that you have achieved to be on a downward path it may be better to end it before the choice is no longer yours and you are unable to qualify for events. Again there is conflicting role models in Jimmy White who struggles to qualify but who can still draw a large audience and obviously loves the game and Steve Davis who again is a shadow of the player he was but there is still affection for him and people are genuinely pleased to see him play even if he is not as competitive, perhaps because he remains self deprecating and the nostalgia glow when watching him can mask some shortcomings.
   For Hendry, I believe he could still be competitive for a few more years yet but he may wish to avoid the gradual slide down the rankings and if he does, snooker will be for  the worse without him.