OnlineSnooker

BORN 22nd August 1957
BIRTHPLACE Essex, England
TURNED PRO 1978
EARNINGS 00/01 Ł57,276
RANKING 21
HIGHEST RANKING 1

Achievements

1981, 1983, 1984, 1987, 1988, 1989 - Embassy World Championship
1984, 1985, 1986, 1987 - UK Championship
1983, 1984, 1987, 1988 - International Open
1985, 1988, 1989 - Grand Prix
1986, 1993 - British Open
1992 - Asian Open
1993 - European Open
1994, 1995 - Regal Welsh Open
1984, 1988 - Classic
1982, 1988, 1997 - Benson and Hedges Masters
1983, 1984, 1987, 1988, 1990, 1991, 1993, 1994 - B&H Irish Masters
1982, 1983, 1984 - Scottish Masters
1987, 1988, 1989, 1990 - Matchroom Premier League
1980, 1983 - UK Championship (non-ranking)
1988 - World Matchplay

Biography
By the start of 1999, Steve Davis, a living legend in his sport, had collected 73 titles and appeared in 99 finals, and his dominance in the 1980s will never be forgotten. Recently he has also turned his hand to 9-ball pool and is rapidly achieving status and respect amongst the world's best players.

Steve spent a record twenty seasons in the top 16 before being edged out by Joe Swail in May 2000 by a margin of just 90 points.

Davis was born in Plumstead in 1957, and his snooker mad father Bill, who still accompanies Steve around the circuit, didn't wait too long before introducing his prodigy to the game. At the age of two Steve was given a 2ft toy table as a Christmas present.

When he was five years old Steve was taken by his father to watch him play at Lee Green Workingmen's Club. Steve got his first glimpse of a full size table and was hooked.

School came first though and, unlike many players, Steve enjoyed his school days and as well as continuing with snooker, played football and cricket with equal enthusiasm. But for a bout of 'flu, when he was ten, he might have turned to a football career, but he was unable to turn out for the Woolwich and District schools' team.

As he grew, so the snooker table presents grew until, at the age of 14, he started playing on a full size table. Steve's two early influences that shaped his entire career were his father Bill, who spent countless patient hours coaching him and what he calls "the bible" - Joe Davis' book on how to play snooker.

Davis notched his first snooker century in 1975 and by 1976 was appearing in, and winning amateur competitions all over the London area. By some lucky chance, one such event was at The Lucania Club in Romford, where he met Barry Hearn, who had bought the chain of Lucania Clubs in 1974. From that moment on destiny took over, as Davis and Hearn forged one of the most enduring partnerships in snooker. Combining Steve's talent on the table and Barry's business acumen, the Matchroom Team was born. By the mid 1980s, Hearn managed most of the top players in the game and the so-called "Matchroom Mob" took snooker to countries far and wide as the game enjoyed an unprecedented boom.

Nobody who saw it will ever forget Steve's first Embassy World Championship win as Hearn appeared like a projectile from the audience to nearly flatten his star player at their moment of triumph. Such was his dominance that he was virtually unbeatable throughout the 1980s, but as Stephen Hendry came to the fore, Davis' pre-eminence diminished. Although Davis still won tournaments after Hendry took over as world champion and world No.1, his fearsome dominance of the game was at an end.

One of Steve's greatest moments came in February 1997 in the B&H Masters, as he beat Ronnie O'Sullivan 10-8 to pick up a cheque for Ł135,000 - Steve's biggest one-off pay day. His win completed his hat trick of B&H titles and it gave him great satisfaction to prove that he could still challenge among all the talented players in the 1990s.

Although he'd rather forget it, he was part of the biggest night in the history of BBC snooker when 18.5 million people - watching live coverage after midnight - saw him lose the world championship final to Dennis Taylor on the last black in 1985.

Davis was the first to make a ratified maximum break in a major tournament when he hit a 147 break against John Spencer in the Lada Classic at Oldham, Greater Manchester on 11 Jan 1982. Three consecutive century breaks were first compiled in a major tournament by Davis; 108, 101 and 104 at Stoke-on-Trent, Staffs in September 1988.

Life outside the top 16 has proved difficult for Davis. His best performance in a ranking event last season was in reaching the last 16 of the British Open. He also lost out on an invitation to the B&H Masters. But Davis is still not ready to retire despite failing to reach The Crucible for the first time since 1979.