The Davis name runs through Snooker like a vein of pure gold.
Sat, 08/28/2010 - 10:13 | Chris Lloyd
It's remarkable how the name Davis has been associated with snooker from it's earliest times as a world class sport. First there was Joe, born in 1901 and so 26 years old when he won the first ever World Snooker Championship. From Newsreel footage, we can see that Joe invented shots, while many players were content to hit and run with twenty breaks or thirty breaks, Joe was creating ways to split the pack of red balls and attack the game. Thus becoming famous for increasing the tournament record break year after year almost. Joe was a vigorous promoter of the game and travelled around giving exhibitions, even playing on a stage with a huge angled mirror above the table, so the audience could see what was going on, on the table. To many, Joe Davis was synonymous with professional Snooker.
Fred Davis was Joe's younger brother and played the game of snooker with a permanent smile on his face. Fred and Joe are incidentally the only two players in cue sport history to win, both the World Championship at Billiards and Snooker.
Fred Davis was a favourite with the public well into his sixties, making it to a Crucible semi final when 64 years of age. A staggering achievement. One of Fred's century breaks can be seen on the Century Breakers DVD produced by the BBC, this programme also shows Fred's attitude around the table, ie his chuckling after the break and the great pleasure that he still derived from the game even after playing it for so many years, an inspiration to us all perhaps?
The famous Davis would be Steve. No relation to the Davis brothers but a Snooker legend nevertheless. A man who in the more modern era amassed many ranking tournament wins and six world titles.
Steve studied Joe's manual, How I Play Snooker with his father Bill for hours and even though as a taller player with a differing physique from Joe, he managed to adapt it's principles and make himself into a top class player.
As a business person Joe must have felt that Snooker needed to keep hitting the headlines to establish itself as a mainstream sport. To this end, he promoted all record breaks that he made by ensuring that they were recognised as world records and that a commemorative cue model was issued by either Peradon, E J Riley or Thurston in the United Kingdom. Examples of these and other Joe Davis cues can be found on this site for you to enjoy. I hope that you like seeing the efforts of my lengthy search for these cues and that you remember the Davis dynasty while doing so as fondly as I do.
