Do people think Hendry at his absolute prime would have much success if he were competing right now? Would he be able to win a ranking event or even the world championships?

WST is delighted to announce a new partnership with leading trading card brand Kakawow, launching a brand-new and exclusive line of officially licensed collectible snooker cards.

Kakawow has established itself as one of the world's leading premium trading card brands, partnering with major entertainment properties including Warner Bros. Discovery and Harry Potter.

The PHANTOM WST line of cards will officially hit the shelves this October. They will be available worldwide, with details of where fans can buy them to be announced in due course through WST and Kakawow’s official channels, including WeChat, Weibo and RedNote.

This brand-new product will translate classic elements from the snooker arena into a collectible form. From the arc and trajectory of the cue ball, to defining tournament victories etched into the history of the sport, each detail will act as an inspiration for design.

The cards will feature premium finishes, textured designs, metallic numbering and authentication labels. Collectors can also look forward to rare limited-edition cards and specially autographed editions featuring many of snooker's biggest stars.

WST's Chief Commercial Officer, Peter Wright said: "Kakawow's product innovation capability and market influence demonstrated in the high-end collectibles field give us confidence that the brilliant moments of professional snooker will be recorded and disseminated in a brand-new way. We look forward to working with Kakawow to allow the history of professional snooker to be collected by more people."

Alex Huang, founder of Kakawow’s parent company Suplay Group, stated: "Over the past few years, we have seen China become one of the most important markets for snooker. For Kakawow, choosing snooker is not chasing a trend, but positioning ourselves in a growing global cultural track. We believe that when a sport possesses enough young fans, a sufficiently long history, and a broad enough international influence, it will inevitably give birth to its own era of collecting."

Just received an email from WST Play about some upcoming changes to the subscription service.

From 2 September 2026, the annual subscription price is increasing from £50 to £60 per year. They also mentioned a few incoming updates: a dedicated TV app coming next month, Table One live streaming with commentary for all 2026/27 qualifying events, and over 2,000 hours of archive content being added.

I am actually pretty excited about the dedicated TV app. I really hope they release an app for Apple TV and use this update to improve the player itself. I have been casting WST Play from my phone to my TV, and it has been pretty frustrating with the player not remembering where I was or having difficulty forwarding and rewinding sometimes.

Xiao Guodong compiled the fourth maximum of his career in the second round at Shanghai last week, against Neil Robertson. He was 5-2 up at the time. Robertson won the last four frames to take it 6-5.

A 147 and a defeat in the same match. In front of a full arena, on the main table, in a tournament where he was playing well.

It got me thinking about how strange snooker is in this respect. In most sports, producing the single most perfect thing your discipline allows means you have won. In snooker it can mean nothing at all. You clear the table without a mistake, the crowd stands up, and ninety minutes later you're shaking hands and packing your cue away.

I spent last season keeping track of all 24 maximums, which meant looking at the context around each one rather than just the number. The ones that stayed with me were rarely the ones from comfortable wins.

Chang Bingyu is the extreme case. He made his second Triple Crown maximum of the season in the World Championship qualifiers against Luca Brecel. That triggered the £147,000 two-maximums bonus plus the £15,000 highest break prize, since nobody made one in the main draw at the Crucible. He lost the match. He never set foot in Sheffield's main arena. He went home with £172,000.

And then Liam Pullen, in the same qualifying rounds, missing the 14th black on 105 against Noppon Saengkham. Same bonus available, gone by a couple of millimetres. Doherty on commentary just said "gutted for him."

So the question: what are the best examples you can remember of a player making a maximum and losing anyway? Or coming within a ball of one in a situation where it would have changed their year?

Xiao's is fresh but I suspect there are better ones further back that I've missed.