Willie had style they all adored
IN the 1980s there were only four television channels, and snooker was always on one of them.
To be more precise, Steve Davis was always on one of them, winning.
But Davis was simply too good to ever be loved by his whole public.
The gambling classes that followed snooker fell for the free-spirited chancers Jimmy White, Alex Higgins and Willie Thorne – players who brought with them the wheeler-dealer charm of the backstreet clubs they came from.
Thorne, who died last week aged 66, was as fluent a player as any.
And at the start of every frame he played, there was the sense of anticipation that he might produce another magical maximum 147.
Nobody made more perfect breaks on the practice table, and pal Gary Lineker was on the receiving end of 38 of them at Thorne’s club in Leicester.
Thorne told me Lineker made a break of 132 against him – but the footballer mostly spent their matches watching Thorne pot balls.
Under the TV lights, Willie would wobble – noticeably in the 1985 UK Championship final. Thorne had the invincible Davis at his mercy – and then missed the simplest of blues.
“My legacy is that blue,” recalled Thorne, whose only major success was at the Classic months earlier.
“I was one of the best players in the world then, but I doubted myself for two or three years after that blue.”
Thorne was a rarity. He wasn’t just a nice bloke when the cameras were on him – he was just a nice bloke.
“Willie was too nice,” said a pal. “Friends would run up huge bar bills at hotels and give the staff Willie’s room number. Willie was too soft to say anything, and he had the money to pay.”
Only Thorne knew how much his gambling cost him. He was banned from York races after losing £250,000 in a few days and once lost £150,000 on a single football match.
Thorne won £5,000 betting that Lineker would score first in the 1986 FA Cup Final for Everton – but lost more after Liverpool ran out 3-1 winners.
If he had a hunch, Willie would lump thousands on it. He was known as ‘Mr Maximum’ and played life to the full.