LEWIS: I’LL PLAY PATIENCE AT SILVERSTONE
FIVE days before the World Championship starts, Steve Davis has looked back on the days when he helped send the nation ‘snooker loopy’.
This year’s tournament begins on Friday, and Judd Trump defends a title that Davis won six times in the 1980s in a run which made him one of that decade’s biggest celebrities.
Millions were drawn to their television screens by the epic dramas as Davis duelled with Alex Higgins, Cliff Thorburn and other green-baize legends.
Barry Hearn, at the time Davis’s manager and currently World Snooker’s chairman, said that he and Davis “transformed snooker from a pastime to the most popular sport on TV.”
Davis was reputedly among the country’s best-paid sportsmen in the 1980s, as he topped the world rankings for seven successive seasons.
Davis, 62, recalled: “Around the time I was ready to turn professional, television was looking to expand its coverage.
“I was in the right place at the right time. But when I turned professional in 1978 it wasn’t to make money.
“I wanted to play at a better standard to improve my game. Three years later, I was world champion and the game had gone bizarre. Television took snooker by the scruff of the neck and everything went silly.
“It was quite amazing. I went from being unknown to being well known and it was a real shock to the mind.
“The world was going mad when I walked down the high street. But people at my local snooker club would soon shoot me down in flames. Nobody is bigger than anyone else there. Everyone just takes the p**s.”
To his clubmates, he was ‘Personality Minus’ and TV show Spitting Image gave him a nickname ‘Interesting’ that was latched onto by a public who willed the colourless potting machine to lose.
“I didn’t get upset when people wanted me to lose,” said Davis. “I’m British too, so I understood it.”
The more Davis won, the harder it got to beat him.
“I got used to winning,” he said. “I was going up to the table expecting to pot balls. I was in a
LEWIS HAMILTON will be happy to play a waiting game at Silverstone next Sunday – but old foe
Sebastian Vettel looks set for a season of discontent.
Silverstone will be the setting for the 69th British Grand Prix with Hamilton aiming for a seventh win on home soil. But Vettel and Ferrari will be down among the also-rans – lucky position.” Hearn had discovered Davis after buying into snooker on the advice of his accountant.
“I fell in love with the game,” Hearn said. “It’s a great touchand-feel game, it provides more drama than most sports, and every single frame is different.
“Six months after I bought the billiard halls, the BBC started showing lots of snooker on television. I was very lucky – in a frantic bid to recover, the Italian giants have replaced their entire technical department.
Team boss Mattia Binotto has taken complete responsibility and says his backroom boys are working full-tilt to restore their reputation.
Vettel was lapped by Hamilton with 13 laps to go as the British ace romped to victory in and I’ve always said it’s better to be born lucky than be born good-looking.”
Hearn (above, with Davis in their glory days) added: “I met Steve when he was 18. He didn’t have any personality but he had a steely-eyed determination instilled by his father, Bill.
“Steve didn’t see daylight again until his mid-20s!
“He was a total machine – and he was a secret. He was
Hungary last Sunday, and Scuderia chief Binotto admitted: “To be lapped is a distinct embarrassment. Very painful for the team and fans. “Our current dynamic is completely unacceptable and we hope, working against the clock, we can now reorganise, and stop our backwards steps.”
Over at Mercedes, Hamilton (left) is in mindand unheard of and unbeatable – what a combination! We would travel the country playing anyone. No one had heard of him back then. I would pay him £25 and a cut of the winnings.
“We called him ‘The Nugget’ because you could bet your last tenner on him and still be sure you were going to get paid. You could have bet £1million on him and he wouldn’t care. He just loved playing the game.” blowing form. He was three seconds ahead after just one lap at the Hungaroring and 26 seconds in the lead before his final pit stop, when he grabbed the fastest lap.
He beamed: “That all felt great. I did not push too much for fear I might make a mistake and go off.
“I have lost the championship in the past by just one point, so I know how critical it is to maximise every moment. And that’s my plan for Silverstone. Patience...”