Snooker greats who followed Joe Davis as the player to beat
J oe D av is, the most dominant player in the history of snook er, was born on A pril 1 5 , in 1 9 0 1 in W hitwell, D erbyshire.
D av is won the first 1 5 consecutiv e world championships from 1 9 2 7 to 1 9 4 6 , at which point he retired undefeated to focus on playing ex hibition matches.
R ecog nised as the 'founding father' of the g ame by most seasoned observ ers, D av is, who died in 1978 aged 77, firmly deserv es his status along side fiv e more of the g reatest players to pick up a cue.
Fred Davis
T welv e years young er than his illustrious sibling , F red D av is nev ertheless also established himself as one of snook er's top players, winning eig ht world titles between 1 9 4 8 and
1 9 5 6 . D av is continued playing into his later years, reaching the world semi-finals in 1 9 7 8 at the ag e of 6 4 , and the q uarter-finals the following year with a v ictory ov er K irk S tev ens. H e died in 1998attheageof84.
Alex Higgins
W ith only two world titles to his name, A lex H ig g ins cannot compare with his fellow snook er g reats in terms of pure silv erware. B ut where H ig g ins eclipses all of his contemporaries is in an outrag eous and swashbuck ling natural talent which saw him hurl snook er out of its smok efilled history and into the brash modern ag e. H ig g ins' 6 9 break ag ainst J immy W hite in their 1 9 8 2 W orld C hampionship semi-final is commonly reg arded as the best the sport has seen.
Steve Davis
Nerv eless and supposedly uninteresting , S tev e D av is (pictured) dominated the g ame in the 1 9 8 0 s, winning the world title six times and ex uding such a natural calm it was felt he had beaten most opponents before he ev en stepped up to the baiz e. Nev ertheless for all his superiority, D av is is destined to be remembered for his famous missed black in the deciding frame of the 1 9 8 5 world final ag ainst D ennis T aylor.
Stephen Hendry
I t was not felt anyone could dominate the sport q uite lik e D av is, but up stepped H endry to eclipse his illustrious predecessor, winning sev en world titles in nine years in the 1 9 9 0 s. H endry's first world championship came at the ag e of 2 1 and propelled him into a lucrativ e career which also saw him clinch fiv e U K titles and six M asters - fiv e of which he won consecutiv ely. H endry scored a max imum on his final appearance at the C rucible in 2012.
Ronnie O'Sullivan
D espite being a fiv e-time world champion, the feeling is O 'S ulliv an could hav e won many more. I t is all the more remark able that in a career mark ed by sporadic absences and well-documented battles with loss of form and mental health, he has established a record 1 9 'triple crown' v ictories, and shows few sig ns of slowing down as he edg es deeper into his fifth decade.