'Stubborn' Ronnie O'Sullivan trait spotted as snooker legend baffled by old school penchant no one else leans on

Snooker icon Ronnie O'Sullivan has been labelled stubborn by Stephen Hendry over his insistence to stick with old fashioned chalk on tour.

The only two men with seven snooker world championships enjoy a cordial relationship since the Scottish superstar bowed out from the top of the game. But Hendry admits he's been left perplexed with the Rocket's insistence to keep using the blue stuff. He reckons it marks tables in a way the modified version does not. Hendry has spoken glowingly about the quality of blaize worldwide which lends itself to an era of the sport which sees it reach a mammoth audience in Asia.

Speaking on his YouTube channel, Hendry said: "The tables are just beautiful now and they used to change a bit from tournament to tournament. But now pretty much consistently the tables are always... But as soon as anything goes wrong, the players are like 'oh my God'. The biggest I'd say is Ronnie will still use the old chalk, which gets kicks and bounces on the cushion. I don't know why he wouldn't use a new one. Whether it's stubbornness I don't know.

"All the other players use the new chalk... You never get any marks on the table. If you watch old snooker matches from the 80s, there would be chalk marks everywhere and get kicks all the time."

O'Sullivan – gunning for a record-setting eighth snooker world championship in May – has had a colourful year even by his own enigmatic standards. He irked WST chiefs over his verdict in the wake of the 'Macau 5' recriminations, branded the Alexandra Palace 'disgusting' during the Masters and engaged in an astonishing verbal crusade aimed at Ali Carter.