You wouldn’t think that century breaks were far fewer back in the 1970s and 80s; and even if you did, you wouldn’t expect how significantly less these occurred. The whole of the 1970s saw a total of 173 centuries. This rose to 706 in the 1980s. The numbers then skyrocketed to 1678 in the 1990s and 1857 in the 2000s. So far, according to CueTracker, the top 4 century makers alone this decade (2010-19) have accumulated more than 2000 centuries between them. Why has this changed so much?
It mainly comes down to two things: the change in attitude towards the game and changes in playing conditions over time. In the 1970s and 80s, according to Steve Davis it was considered bad sportsmanship to continue on a break where the frame was clearly won and it was unnecessary to make the century. Another reason that came into it as well was that players often liked to intentionally end their break once they have already made enough points and continue to the next frame to try and keep their rhythm going.
Enter Stephen Hendry. I won’t delve too much as I will be writing a post in the near future about how Hendry changed the game but it’s safe to say one of the key ways he did this was with his table clearing mentality. I doubt Hendry was thinking about century records during his dominance however, he always had the mind-set of wanting to pot every ball on the table. This approach has since been emulated and to this day is maintained as the popular way to play snooker. More competitors matching this playstyle, combined with the forever increasing standard of competition = more century breaks.
Considering how Higgins, Robertson and Trump are closing in on Hendry’s tally, it really is overshadowed how impressive Hendry’s total actually was because of how fewer tournaments/frames there were back in the 1990s. The players mentioned above haven’t had the career-span of 27 years that Hendry had so imagine the numbers they will achieve once their careers are closing.
The chief ways that playing conditions have changed the frequency of century breaks made are down to finer cloths and lighter balls. More so the former than the latter. Back when it may have been more difficult to get the cue ball to travel across a table will have contributed to the number of centuries made. This would have made it so there wasn’t a lot of one-visit snooker. Finer cloths also make shots like breaking into the pack a lot easier as well. There’s still an argument as to the nature of pocket sizes and if they have become more generous over the years but that’s a whole different debacle.
When people argue that there isn’t an increased standard of play in the post-Hendry era only need to look at the centuries per tournament stats where the 1990s exhibited an approximate of 7.4* centuries per tournament, 9.8* in the 2000s and has only risen since. Centuries are something that are targeted a lot more nowadays, with commentators often mentioning a player’s ton total as they make them. This is a style of play that won’t be going away especially as players are gearing towards records to make a name for themselves in this era.
*Figures look at top 10 century makers and their ratio to available tournaments
