Joe Davis should be in the ArmchairGM Hall of Fame!

by user Alex Holowczak

Joe Davis is a legend in snooker.

Throughout the early years of his professional career, he was a successful billiards player. He quickly noticed that the fans wanted them to hurry through the billiards to get to the becoming traditional game of snooker, held in between billiards sessions.

Seeing the game’s potential, he and Bill Camkin wrote to the BA&CC to organise a World Professional Snooker Championship – after all there was an Amateur version, and billiards had a Professional Championship. The BA&CC took an age to let Davis & Camkin organise it, but eventually it went ahead.

Held all over the country, the 1926-27 season saw the first World Professional Snooker Championship. Davis beat Northern Irishman Joe Brady in his first match 10-5, and beat Welsh Champion Tom Carpenter 12-10 in the Semi Finals to set up a final against Tom Dennis. Davis was victorious 20-11, and won 6s 11d prize money.

Although he didn’t keep it, he spent half of it on the trophy that is still used to this day, and the BA&CC ordered a fee for the title of “World”, which meant Davis had to give up the other half.

Davis went on to win the World Championship every year he entered it, beating his brother famously in the 1940 Final by 37 frames to 36 by making a century break in the final frame.

After the war, he beat Aussie Horace Lindrum for his last win in a World Championship match. He decided to retire after that season from the World Championship. He saw new talent coming through, and with Professional Billiards having gone down the pan financially, he didn’t want his winning everything to ruin the game for the newer generation.

He was still undoubted Number 1 though. In 1955, in the final match at Royal Leicester Square in his own snooker hall prior to it being demolished, in an exhibition match against Willie Smith, Davis made snooker’s first ever maximum 147 break. He did it on a wooden table with dodgy cushions and a think cloth designed to last for years and club players. Nowadays, pockets are more forgiving, the cloth is much thinner, the cushions are tested to ensure fairness, and the balls have much cleaner contacts. Even today only 53 147s have been made in Professional snooker.

Snooker hit the ropes in 1957 though, there were only 6 professionals that could make a wage out of it, and Davis had retired unbeaten from the World Championship and many other professionals didn’t enter the tournament because there was no interest or money in it.

Davis retired himself in 1964, at which point the Championship was reintroduced on a Boxing style challenge basis. Davis wrote to the BBC and they broadcast some videos of his snooker on Grandstand, the most popular sporting programme on TV at the time.

These were popular, and in 1967, the BBC organised a Pot Black tournament, which was a 1 frame shootout designed for half an hour a week. It saw a boom in snooker, and when a knockout World Championship was reintroduced in 1969, snooker never looked back. The TV helped young professionals – they were seen on Pot Black and the crowds could flock to see these new professionals.

Joe continued to support his brother Fred, by now an 8 time World Champion himself. The tournament went all over the World, and Joe went with it watching his brother. In 1977, it settled at its present venue, The Crucible Theatre, in Sheffield. Joe disliked this though – he preferred the matches to be played in snooker style halls, rather than made for TV arenas. He was in the crowd as Fred Davis had his final hurrah, reaching the Semi Finals of the World Championship at the age of 64. But alas, Joe’s heart was not up to it. So involved did he get in the match that he did his heart damage. Two weeks later, Davis died of a heart attack.

But his impact on snooker was profound. His constant effort to get the game recognised across the world on exhibition tours, and bringing the game to the masses on TV set the game up to be what it is today. Davis won the World Championship 16 times, more than anyone else, and was only ever beaten on even terms four times throughout his 43 year professional career – all four by his brother. He never once lost a World Championship match.

For those reasons, I think you should all vote 5 stars for Joe Davis, without whom, snooker wouldn’t exist today.

• Vote for Joe Davis on his page now!