Ten seconds of snooker made me £60,000... Now I play golf for fun

SNOOKER champion Dennis Taylor will never forget the day he potted the black against Steve Davis in the 1985 World Championship and made £60,000 in just ten seconds. What did your parents teach you about money? To try to save a little bit. I was brought up in Coalisland, Co. Tyrone. We didn’t have a great deal of money. My dad was a lorry driver and my mum stayed at home to look after us kids. With seven children, she didn’t have much of a chance to do anything else. We lived in a small two-bedroom house with an outside toilet. When I was very young, I used to share a bed with my brother and a bedroom with two of my sisters. What was the first paid work you ever did? Selling ice cream in the local cinema at 13. I had to walk around with an ice cream tray around my neck. I can’t remember how much I made, but it was not a lot – maybe £2 a week. Any money I managed to save from my part-time job I would spend playing snooker. There was a local pub with just two snooker tables in it, and you had to pay to play if you lost. So I learned quickly how to win. Have you ever struggled to make ends meet? I didn’t have much money but I always had enough to pay my bills. I left school at 15 and got a job at the pipeworks. I would set the pipes into an extremely hot stove to dry out. It was a tough job, especially in the summer. With overtime, I must have worked more than 60 hours a week and took home just over £5. How did you turn things around? I took a big risk. In 1974, I decided to pack in my job as the manager of a snooker club and paid my own way to go and play in the Canadian Open Championships. I was married with two young children by then and had just £200 in the bank. That was all the money I had in the world and I spent it going to Canada. But I managed to get to the final and thanks to my performance, I got invited to play on Pot Black, the BBC TV series which helped to make snooker what it is today. I never had any money worries again after that. Ever been paid silly money for a job? Yes, when I knocked that final black in against Steve Davis to win the World Championship in 1985. It took me ten seconds to pot that black, and I won £60,000, which would be like winning £172,000 (€200,000) today. Later that year I made silly money once again when I won the World Grand Prix and picked up another £40,000. What is the most expensive thing you have ever bought, just for fun? A dark blue BMW 750, which I bought in 1986 for £60,000. I never dreamt I would be able to afford a car like that. My first car cost me £15 and I drove it for years. What is the biggest money mistake you have ever made? I haven’t made any big mistakes. I am generally very careful with money. But I once had a tip from a friend to invest in a company that meant I lost £2,000. It was supposed to float and it didn’t. That put me off investing. What is your best money decision? Spending that £200 I had in the bank and going to Canada to play snooker in 1974. Otherwise, I have played things pretty safe in my life. But I think at some stage, you have to take a risk if you want to be successful at what you do. I wanted to get to the top in snooker. In any walk of life, people get into a comfort zone in their jobs and many are quite happy being there. But the ones who get to the top are the ones who take risks. Do you own any property? Yes. I live in a six-bedroom house in a little village in North Wales. I have lived here for 30 years. It has an acreand-a-half of garden and a river runs through it, with a three-arch bridge over it. If someone had told me that I would be living in a place like this when I bought my first house, a twobed terrace in Blackburn with an outside toilet, I wouldn’t have believed them. I also have a holiday apartment near a golf course in Spain and a buyto-let property in the UK. I wish I owned more rental properties. What is your one little luxury that you like to treat yourself to? Playing golf. It is a passion for me. I will play a couple of times a week in the summer. I must spend a couple of grand a year on golf. Your number one financial priority? My family. I learned that when I filmed the reality television programme The Real Marigold Hotel last year. As I went around the world to places such as India and Thailand, I realised your whole life is about your family and so my top financial priority is making sure they are looked after and secure. Three of my kids are in their 40s now, but the other two are still quite young. I like knowing my children will never want for the things I did not have as a child.