Professional snooker player Steve Davis: biography

2024 Author: Sierra Becker | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-26 03:46

Steve Davis is a professional snooker (billiards) player who has long been known worldwide for his brilliant technique.

General Biography

Davis is an ordinary English family man who devoted his whole life to improving his snooker skills. And, of course, the zeal was not in vain: Steve Davis is one of the most famous snooker players around the world. Participated in competitions since 1978, and decided to end his career in 2016. The man was awarded many awards, and in 2016, based on the biographies of Davis himself and his acquaintance player Alex Higgins, who also became a legend in the world of billiards, a film called The Rack Pack was made. Steve was inducted into the Snooker Hall of Fame in 2011.

Family

It was not for nothing that Davis was said to be a family man: he really values his family very much, which is clearly seen in their joint photographs. The man is married, and the marriage turned out to be strong from the very beginning: the woman knew what her future husband would do in life, and supported him in every possible way. The wisdom of the spouses of famous card or billiard players is simply amazing: they, no worse than their husbands, always balance on the edge of a knife, and it is for themyou have to be on your guard all the time. Such guardians of marriage must trust their husband without limit, no matter what. Therefore, probably, when Davis proposed to the woman he loved, he could not even hope for her consent.

Successors

In a happy marriage, two sons were born - not only the successors of the clan, but, perhaps, the father's business. But don't think now, while the kids still have time to think about their lives in the future. After all, so far the family has enough of one professional snooker player.

Now the whole family lives peacefully in the small town of Brentwood, which is located in one of the many English counties - Essex.

Childhood

According to the classics of the genre, the Englishman Steve Davis, whose date of birth fell on August 22, 1957, was born in the capital of his native country, in London. The father of the famous player, Bill Davis, surprisingly, was also an avid snooker player - perhaps it was from father and son that the love for this sport was instilled. It cannot be said that Steve's father played perfectly, but he managed to explain in detail all the rules to his son, who in the future will outshine not only his father, but also many other talented players with his technique.

At 12, Steve Davis decides to try snooker. Naturally, at first it was difficult for him to keep the bar on a par with adults, but soon, after long and hard training, the guy finally has his own style, and he starts to play for real.

Early years

After the firstsuccess, young Steve Davis perked up: now he could, without being embarrassed by his own mistakes, adequately complete the game in a game with an adult, and the results each time became better and better.

4 years old guy, not giving himself a rest and not making indulgences, desperately tried to hone every movement to graceful automatism. He enjoyed watching the professionals play and tried to learn from each of them the maximum number of good tricks. The world of snooker drew Davis more and more into it, to which he did not resist at all.

First exposure to professional snooker

At 16 years old, young Steve Davis, now 188cm and 72kg, resolutely entered the snooker club with his father. There he saw real thugs, in comparison with him: almost all were tall, with strong strong hands and fingers, which were invariably accurately controlled by a cue. At first, the guy was tolerated only because of the participation of his father, but soon many began to notice one feature: the white ball that Davis timidly sent across the table always went exactly the way that was given to him by a weak boyish hand. So Davis first gained respect among people who were much older than him.

Participation in the first tournaments

Since Steve Davis started going to the club with his father, they no longer see him as an empty place. Now many members of the club treated the guy in a friendly way, occasionally giving advice or correctinghis mistakes. In 1976, Steve decided to take a very serious step - a statement about himself. He applied for the National Under 19 Championship. The young snooker player prepared carefully for this event: he practiced blows, tested himself for reaction and visual acuity, trained a lot both at home and in the club.

Once again, training and patience paid off: Davis won the tournament. After that, big people in the world of sports began to notice him. A famous businessman named Barry Hearn watched the young winner for a long time after the championship, and soon after that he offered Steve a cooperation.

Already in 1979, Davis had his first serious snooker season between real opponents. Davis had to work hard on himself in order to show others his full potential. And luck smiled at him: in an incomprehensible way, Steve Davis, whose photo can be seen below, managed to break into the World Snooker Championship.

Gradually gaining experience, the player finished the next season even better than the first: he took part in the quarter-finals of two major championships at once: his home country, Great Britain, and the world.

The Steve Davis era

That was the name given to the years 1980-81, when the popularity and the number of games played by Davis just reached their peak. In those years, he won a brilliant victory in such famous snooker tournaments as Wilson's Classic, English Professional, as well as in the British Championship. Every time Steve showedstunning results, forcing rivals to fear him, and spectators to admire him. It was in those years that the master of his craft became the recognized favorite in the fight for the title of world champion in Sheffield. After playing many games and reaching the final, he beat his opponent, Doug Mantjoy, with a score of 18:12. Such an easy victory finally strengthened the opinion of the championship judges that Davis was worthy of his title. Thus, Steve Davis, whose personal life was now absolutely traded for sports, became one of the youngest world champions in his sport.

The next season, the player was much less lucky, but even there he showed impressive results: he won more than seven competitions, and many of them turned out to be more difficult than what Davis faced last season. Finally, he is back in the semi-finals to fight for the retention of the world title, only here everything turned against him. Already in the first round, the opponent showed that he had a stronger technique, and therefore Steve began to lose to Tony Knowles from the very beginning of the game. As a result, the fateful meeting for both men ended with a score of 10:1 in favor of Knowlsom. This first major loss was almost immediately covered by a series of major victories, with which Steve managed to regain the title of world snooker champion.

Losing time

Since 1985, a long black streak began in the life of Davis, drunk with luck, which entailed not only a number of ugly and largely unjustified losses on Steve's part, but also a strongpsychological depression of the player himself.

In the World Cup, victory is pulled out of his hands again. This time it was Dennis Taylor, a player from whom no one could have expected such a breakthrough. From the very beginning, Davis unconditionally maintained the lead, but almost at the very end the situation suddenly changed dramatically: Taylor seemed to become more agile and faster than his opponent, but Steve lost his dexterity and scattered his attention, relaxing in front of a “weak” opponent. Thus, the victory went into the hands of another worthy player, leaving the former two-time champion with nothing.

The next season was a repetition of the previous one: it began with bright and easy victories, and in the final itself, the fiasco of a legend named Steve Davis was invariably repeated, whose biography was now undergoing strong changes, since once again his title was taken from the hands of the champion. This time it was Joe Johnson.

And yet, despite such failures, Davis did not lose heart, but continued to train harder and harder. As a result, he took revenge on Johnson, and for the sixth time won the world title.

Snooker Awards

After receiving so many titles for spectacular and professionally performed parts, Davis simply could not stay away from awarding outstanding people. He and several colleagues in this sport have been awarded the Order of the British Empire for their contribution to the development of sports. Such a high award elevated Steve to a rank above other players and undoubtedly added to his solidity.

Personal qualities of the player

Few people knewthat the short boy, who was afraid to even shake hands with a stranger, was the now famous snooker player named Steve Davis. Interesting facts: as a child and throughout his teenage years, Davis was an impossibly shy child. He did not feel very comfortable in large companies and constantly blushed at any word said by someone else or even by himself. If the guy hadn't been snookered, he probably wouldn't have found his current confidence.

Both the audience and the former rivals of the athlete are unanimous that Steve Davis has always been very calm and even phlegmatic. It was rarely possible to piss him off with a bad game, but a good one aroused excitement in the player. Everyone knows that Steve Davis has been a successful snooker player for 40 years, but no one can suspect the qualities of this man outside the pool table.

In fact, the man has a wonderful sense of humor - he knows how to joke and can, when appropriate, laugh at himself. For his easy-going nature and quick grasp of everything new, Steve was given the nickname Self-Taught. And it should be noted that this name really fully embodies the attitude of Davis to snooker. He loves to learn new things from all kinds of players, both from those who are much older and from younger generations.

Current activities

According to official information, 2016 marked the end of his long career. Having achieved incredible results and setting world records, Steve can now retire with a clear conscience. It is worth noting that he was engaged in snooker untiluntil his 58th birthday, and age did not interfere with the results of the man.

Now they talk about this man as one of the best players not only in snooker, but in general in billiards.