Steve Davis is a professional snooker player (billiards), has long been world famous for his brilliant technique.
General biography
Davis is an ordinary English family man who spent his whole life on improving the skills of playing snooker. And, of course, the zeal was not in vain: Steve Davis is one of the most famous snooker players around the world. He 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, they shot a film called “The Billiard Brotherhood” (The Rack Pack). In 2011, Steve became one of the members of the Snooker Hall of Fame.
A family
It was not without reason that Davis was 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 was 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 well-known card or billiard players is simply amazing: they are no worse than their husbands always balance on the edge of a knife, and it is they who need to be on their guard all the time. Such custodians of marriage should have unlimited trust in their husband, no matter what. Therefore, probably, when Davis made an offer to his beloved woman, he could not hope for her consent.
Successors
In a happy marriage, two sons were born - not only the successors of the clan, but, perhaps, of the father's work. But do not guess now, while children still have time to think about their lives in the future. After all, so far the family has 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 - in the county of Essex.
Childhood
According to the classics of the genre, the Englishman Steve Davis, whose date of birth occurred on August 22, 1957, was born in the capital of his native country, in London. Surprisingly, the father of the famous player, Bill Davis, was also an avid snooker player - perhaps it was from his father and son that a love of this sport was instilled. This is not to say that Steve’s father played well, but he managed to explain in detail all the rules to his son, who in the future will eclipse not only his father, but also many other talented players with his technique.
At age 12, Steve Davis decided to try to start playing snooker. Naturally, at first it was hard for him to keep the bar on a par with adults, but soon, after long and hard training, the guy finally got his own style, and he began to play for real.
early years
After the first successes, the young Steve Davis perked up his spirits: now he could, without embarrassment of his own mistakes, adequately finish the game in the game with an adult, and the results each time got better and better.
For 4 years the guy, not giving himself rest or making indulgences, desperately tried to hone every movement to elegant automatism. He enjoyed watching the game of professionals, and tried to adopt from each of them the maximum number of good tricks. The world of snooker was increasingly dragging Davis, which he did not resist at all.
First meeting with a professional snooker
At the age of 16, young Steve Davis, whose height is now 188 cm and 72 kg, respectively, resolutely came to 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 precisely controlled by a cue. At first, the guy suffered only because of the participation of his father, but soon many began to notice one feature: the white ball, which Davis timidly sent around the table, always went in 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 began to go to the club with his father, they stopped seeing empty space in it. Now many members of the club treated the guy in a friendly manner, occasionally giving advice or correcting his mistakes. In 1976, Steve decided on a very serious step - a statement about himself. He applied for participation in the National Championship among players under the age of 19 years. The young snooker player prepared carefully for this event: he practiced blows, tested himself for his reaction and visual acuity, practiced a lot both at home and in the club.
And again, training and patience gave good results: Davis became the winner of the tournament. After that, he began to notice the largest people in the world of sports. One famous businessman named Barry Hearn watched the young winner for a long time after the championship, and shortly thereafter, he offered Steve cooperation.
Already in 1979, the first serious snooker season between real opponents took place in Davis' first life. Davis had to work hard on himself 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 at once in two major championships: his home country, Great Britain, and the world.
The Age of Steve Davis
This is precisely the name that the 1980-81 years received, when the popularity and number of games played by Davis simply reached its 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. Each time, Steve showed stunning results, forcing opponents to fear him, and the audience to admire him. It was in those years that the master of his craft became a recognized favorite in the struggle for the world title in Sheffield. Having played many games and reaching the finals, he beat his rival, Doug Mantjoy, with a score of 18:12. Such an easy victory finally strengthened the opinion of the judges of the championship that Davis deserves his title. Thus, Steve Davis, whose personal life has now been absolutely traded for sports, has become one of the youngest world champions in his sport.
In the next season, the player was much less fortunate, but 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 again in the semifinals, in order to compete for the preservation of the world title, only here everything turned against him. Already in the first round, the enemy showed that he had more powerful equipment, and therefore Steve began to lose to Tony Noulsom 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 Knowles. This first major loss was almost immediately concealed by a series of major victories, with which Steve managed to regain the name of the world champion in snooker.
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 unreasonable losses on the part of Steve, but also a strong psychological depression of the player himself.
In the World Cup, victory is again pulled out of his hands. This time it was Dennis Taylor, a player from whom no one could have expected such a breakthrough. From the very beginning, Davis held the lead unconditionally, but almost at the very end the situation suddenly changed: Taylor seemed to be more agile and faster than his opponent, but Steve lost his agility and scattered his attention, relaxing in front of the “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 finale itself the fiasco of a legend named Steve Davis was invariably repeated, whose biography has now undergone major changes, since once again the title was taken from the champion’s hands. This time, the contender was Joe Johnson.
And yet, despite such setbacks, 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 Rewards
Having received so many titles for spectacular and professionally performed parts, Davis simply could not stay away from awarding outstanding people. He and his several colleagues in this sport were awarded the Order of the British Empire for their contribution to the development of sports. Such a high award elevated Steve to a rank higher than other players and, of course, added solidity to him.
Player Qualities
Few knew that the short boy, who was even afraid to shake hands with a stranger, was now a famous snooker player named Steve Davis. Interesting facts: in childhood and throughout the teenage period, Davis was an impossibly shy child. He did not feel very comfortable in large companies and constantly blushed at any word spoken by someone else or even by himself. If the guy did not get into snooker, he most likely would not have gained his current confidence.
Both spectators and former rivals of the athlete are unanimous that Steve Davis was always very calm and even phlegmatic. He rarely succeeded in getting himself a bad game, but a good one - it aroused excitement in the player. Everyone knows that Steve Davis has been a successful snooker player for 40 years, but no one can even suspect the qualities of this person outside the pool table.
In fact, a man has a wonderful sense of humor - he knows how to joke and, when appropriate, can laugh at himself. For his easy character and quick grip on the whole new Steve, they gave 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 something new from a wide variety of players - both those who are much older and the younger generations.
Current activity
According to official data, 2016 was the year of the end of his long career. Having achieved incredible results and setting world records, Steve now with a clear conscience can go on sports retirement. It is worth noting that he was engaged in snooker until his 58th birthday, and the age did not interfere with the results of a man.
Now this person is spoken of as one of the best players not only in snooker, but in general in billiards.