Steve Davis

Steve Davis - Quick Facts

Profile Overview of Steve Davis

Steve Davis (born 22 August 1957) is an English retired professional snooker player who is currently a commentator, DJ, electronic musician and author. He first turned professional in 1978 and dominated the sport in the 1980s, when he reached eight World Snooker Championship finals in nine years, won six world titles and held the world number one ranking for seven consecutive seasons. He also won the UK Championship six times and the Masters three times for 15 Triple Crown titles, placing him third all time. He won 28 ranking titles during his career, placing him fifth on the all-time list. He is the only snooker player to have won the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award, which he received in 1988. He was made an MBE in the 1988 Birthday Honours and elevated to OBE in the 2000 New Year Honours.

This profile of Steve Davis covers Early Career and Breakthrough, Early success (1980–1984), 1985 World Snooker Championship, Later World Snooker Championship victories (1985–1989) and Last ranking event win (1990–1995).

Davis became widely known for his role in one of snooker's most famous matches, the 1985 World Championship final. Then the defending champion, he led Dennis Taylor 9–1 in the best-of-35-frame final, but Taylor recovered to tie the scores at 11–11, 15–15 and 17–17. The 68-minute deciding frame ended in a dramatic battle on the last black ball that attracted 18.5 million viewers in the UK, still the largest British television audience for any broadcast after midnight and any broadcast on BBC Two. Taylor potted the black to win the only world title of his career. Davis's terse responses in post-match interviews became the basis for a recurring caricature on the satirical British television show Spitting Image, which gave him the sardonic nickname "Interesting".

Davis was the first player to make an officially recognised maximum break in professional competition, which he achieved at the 1982 Classic, and was also the first to earn £1 million in career prize money. During the 1987–88 season, he became the first player to win all three Triple Crown events in a single season, a feat that only two other players have matched. He won his last major title at the 1997 Masters, aged 39, but continued to compete at a high level and was still a top-16 ranked player at age 50. He made the last of his 30 Crucible appearances in 2010, aged 52, becoming the oldest world quarter-finalist since 1983. He retired at the end of the 2015–16 season, after 38 seasons on the professional tour, but remains active as a commentator and analyst for the BBC's snooker coverage.

Outside snooker, Davis competed in nine-ball pool tournaments, which included representing Europe in the Mosconi Cup eleven consecutive times between 1994 and 2004. A keen chess and poker player, he served as president of the British Chess Federation between 1996 and 2001 and competed in televised poker tournaments. In 2013, he featured as a contestant on I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!, an ITV reality television series. A fan of progressive rock, he has an ongoing career as a radio broadcaster, club DJ and musician; with Kavus Torabi and Michael J. York, he co-founded the electronic music band the Utopia Strong, with which he has recorded several albums. He has authored and co-authored books on snooker, chess, cooking and music, as well as three autobiographies.

Early Career and Breakthrough of Steve Davis

Davis was born on 22 August 1957 in Plumstead, London, the elder of two boys; Keith being his younger brother. Davis's father Bill, a keen player, introduced him to snooker at the age of 12 and took him to play at his local working men's club. Bill gave Steve an instructional book: How I Play Snooker by the unrelated Joe Davis. They studied the book, Davis later basing his technique on it during the 1970s. He began playing at the Lucania Snooker Club in Romford. The club manager brought his talent to the attention of Barry Hearn (chairman of the Lucania chain of snooker halls) when Davis was 18 and Hearn became his friend and manager. Paid £25 a match by Hearn, Davis toured the United Kingdom and participated in challenge matches against established professionals such as Ray Reardon, John Spencer and Alex Higgins. Around this time he was nicknamed "Nugget" because, according to Hearn, "you could put your case of money on him and you knew you were going to get paid."

Davis won the English Under-19 Billiards Championship in 1976. One of his last wins as a snooker amateur was against Tony Meo, another future professional, in the final of the 1978 Pontins Spring Open. He defended his title a year later, defeating future rival Jimmy White 7–4 in the final. Davis applied in 1978 to become a professional and was initially rejected, before being accepted with effect from 17 September 1978, becoming the youngest of the professional players. He made his professional television debut on Pot Black, where he played against Fred Davis. He played in his first World Snooker Championship in 1979, having won two qualifying matches, but lost 11–13 to Dennis Taylor in the first round proper.

Early success (1980–1984) of Steve Davis

At the 1980 World Snooker Championship he reached the quarter-finals, defeating Patsy Fagan and defending champion Terry Griffiths before losing to Alex Higgins 9–13. He won his first major title that year, the 1980 UK Championship, beating Griffiths 9–0 in the semi-finals and Higgins 16–6 in the final. After winning his first title, he won the Wilson's Classic in 1980, the Yamaha Organs and English Professional in 1981, and was the bookmakers' favourite to win the 1981 World Snooker Championship despite being seeded 13th. Davis reached the final by defeating White in the first round, Higgins in the second round, Griffiths in the quarter-finals and defending champion Cliff Thorburn in the semi-final. In the final, he won 18–12 against Doug Mountjoy to take his first world championship.

Davis completed a 9–0 whitewash victory over Dennis Taylor in the International Open final and retained the UK Championship with a 16–3 win over Griffiths in the final, winning five events in 1981. On Monday 11 January 1982, Davis compiled the first televised maximum break at the Classic at Queen Elizabeth Hall in Oldham against John Spencer. As Lada were sponsoring the event, they offered Davis a car for completing the break. He reached the final, but lost 8–9 to Griffiths in the final. But later that month Davis defeated Griffiths 9–5 in the Masters final, to win his first title.

Source: adapted from Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Davis), text available under CC BY-SA 4.0.