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.

Davis was born on 22 August 1957 in Plumstead, London, England, the eldest 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.

He is best known for dominating professional snooker during the 1980s, when he reached eight World Snooker Championship finals in nine years, winning six world titles, and held the world number one ranking for seven consecutive seasons.

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.

Davis became the first player to make an officially recognised maximum break in professional competition—at the 1982 Classic—and he was also the first to earn £1 million in career prize money.

In January 1982, Davis compiled the first televised maximum break at the Classic at Queen Elizabeth Hall in Oldham against John Spencer.

He was runner-up to Dennis Taylor in one of snooker's most famous matches, the 1985 World Championship final, which ended in a dramatic black-ball conclusion that attracted 18.5 million viewers, still the largest British television audience for any broadcast after midnight and any broadcast on BBC Two.

As well as his six world titles, Davis won the UK Championship six times and the Masters three times for a total of 15 Triple Crown titles, placing him third behind Ronnie O'Sullivan (23 titles) and Stephen Hendry (18).

During the 1987–88 season, he became the first player to win all three Triple Crown events in a single season, a feat matched by only two other players—Hendry and Mark Williams.

He holds the record for the most professional titles overall, with 84 individual wins, or 98 including team and pro–am competition (see tables below).

His career total of 28 ranking titles places him fourth behind O'Sullivan (41 titles), Hendry (36) and John Higgins (31).

Named the BBC's Sports Personality of the Year in 1988, Davis is the only snooker player to have received the award.

He was made an MBE in the 1988 Birthday Honours and an OBE in the 2000 New Year Honours.

Outside snooker, Davis has competed in nine-ball pool tournaments, most notably 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.

He is a fan of progressive rock and 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.

He has authored and co-authored books on snooker, chess, cooking and music, as well as writing three autobiographies.

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 his last Crucible appearance in 2010, aged 52, when he eliminated the defending world champion John Higgins to become the oldest world quarter-finalist since 1983.

As of 2023, Davis's 30 Crucible appearances are second only to O'Sullivan's 31.

In 2013, he featured as a contestant on I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!.

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.