There were some shouts for Stevens, but Hendry didn’t seem to mind It was the same in the semi-final. He is perhaps sustained by the knowledge that Karen and Glenys would die for him, or at any rate go to Cleethorpes for him, which some might consider a similar sacrifice.Moreover, he has the world featherweight champion, “Prince” Naseem Hamed, in his corner. Naz has declared himself Hendry’s No 1 fan, although in truth he is at least No 3. But Karen and Glenys don’t shake up the opposition like Prince Naseem.

When Darren Morgan was playing Hendry, he had to ask for the boxer to be moved from the table-side VIP seats, because his presence was so intimidating. In some ways, though, there is nobody in sport more intimidating than the inscrutable Hendry himself. In fact it wouldn’t surprise me if, at Naseem’s next world title fight, his opponent asks for Hendry to be moved a few rows back.. There is a game that you can play in bars across America now, after a few beers, and it takes a few beers for it to make much sense. The game goes like this: who was the best, John Elway, Michael Jordan or Wayne Gretzky?

It is not a very smart game, and the conclusion usually depends (unsuprisingly) on whether you are an American football, basketball or hockey fan. The answer is pretty obvious, actually, but we’ll let that pass for the moment. The point is that a nation has just lost three of its sporting heroes, all of them pre-eminent in ways that few individuals could ever dream of in their chosen careers, within the space of a few weeks.

In a country where heroes get built up very big, the sports media have chewed over little else.
The latest to go was John Elway, 38, the quarterback for the Denver Broncos and one of the greatest players of the decade. Elway won more games than any other quarterback in history, and his clean-cut looks made him a favourite for those who didn’t follow the Broncos, or even football. In the same way Wayne Gretzky, late of the New York Rangers, was an icon for the game, the best possible advertisement; and Michael Jordan made the Chicago Bulls not just the leading team in the NBA but one of the greatest sporting formations of any kind, anywhere.The retirement of these three greats has, of course, spurred interest in the next faces on the scene: not just in the sports bars of middle America, but in the boardrooms. For these are the figures who will keep sport booming, keep the value of franchises accelerating by 20 per cent a year and make sure there are names to sell everything from phone cards to chewing tobacco. Given that it takes decades to build the kind of skills, loyalty and character that these three could summon, it is in some ways pernicious to pick names early, but that hasn’t stopped anyone.The easiest place to start speculating is football. Following in Elway’s footsteps, probably the greatest quarterback in the game today is Troy Aikman, 33, of the Dallas Cowboys.

But amongst the younger generation, the brightest star is 29-year old Brett Favre of the Green Bay Packers. He was the first player in NFL history to win three consecutive Most Valuable Player awards and his 110 touchdowns over the last three years leads all NFL quarterbacks. He may be a little cocky, but he’s good and he has years to go.Of the three sports, the one that most badly needs to build up new stars is basketball. When Jordan’s retirement broke up the Bulls, that was bad enough; and few have shone for the last year in a game that is slightly tarnished in the fans’ eyes. The player’s strike helped rip a lot of the guts out of the season, and it is hard to pick any single individual as the obvious heir to “the Air”. For some time, the media has tried to push Grant Hill of the Pistons, but it doesn’t quite work. Kobe Bryant of the Lakers has a big following, but has had a run of weak games.