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Re: Pink Ball’s Top 50 Iconic Snooker Players of All Time

Postby Pink Ball

29. John Parrott
He should probably rank far higher considering his success as a player and prominence as a commentator and pundit – in horse racing as well as snooker.
But Parrott has never captured the limelight in the way players of similar ability have, for whatever reason. That said, as a former World and UK Champion and a familiar face on our screens, it would be remiss not to have him here, and he comes in at a heady-enough 29th position.

Re: Pink Ball’s Top 50 Iconic Snooker Players of All Time

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28. Kirk Stevens
His all-white attire is still the best-known the game has ever seen. Kirk Stevens had the world at his feet and lost it all – at least as far as his snooker career was concerned.
His memorable 147 at the 1984 Masters remains one of the game’s best-known and best-loved maximums but, sadly, that was the peak of his career, and he will be remembered instead for what might have been having seen his talent crumble under the weight of his addiction issues.

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27. Bill Werbeniuk
Werbeniuk was an unmistakeable presence.
Morbidly obese, fond of a cigarette, and tragically fond of a pint, Werbeniuk’s off-table habits and rotund figure sadly overshadowed the fact that he was actually a very good snooker player.
He was a much-loved figure, though, and is still fondly remembered today by all of us who grew up watching the game during snooker’s glory years. Bill Werbeniuk is a must on this list.

Re: Pink Ball’s Top 50 Iconic Snooker Players of All Time

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26. Ken Doherty
Here’s another man who should arguably be higher when you consider what he achieved in the game, but his influence on the sport in the Republic of Ireland – he’s the best player to ever emerge from this part of the world – is beyond doubt.
He memorably denied Hendry his six-in-a-row at a time when Doherty looked in danger of not delivering on his undoubted ability, and on the same night, Dublin’s Gardaí (police) reported their quietest work shift on record.
His extraordinary run to the final six years later remains the stuff of legend as he pulled one scarcely believable comeback after another out of the bag, very nearly taking the title in the process. His punditry has made him even better-known, even if he has never really established himself as one of the BBC’s top contributors.

Re: Pink Ball’s Top 50 Iconic Snooker Players of All Time

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25. Shaun Murphy
Murphy is a pantomime villain and, more importantly, a very successful player.
He was something of a curiosity when he shocked the snooker world in winning the World title in 2005, drawing no little attention for his devout religious beliefs – a new one for our sport. That side of his life has faded – probably thanks in no small part to a notorious incident with an escort.
Murphy has never been shy of giving his opinion on just about anything, something which hasn’t endeared him to fans and fellow players alike, but his status as one of snooker’s most iconic figures is beyond doubt and, love it or hate it, his media profile will only push him higher up the list in the years ahead.

Re: Pink Ball’s Top 50 Iconic Snooker Players of All Time

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24. Fred Davis
Joe’s not-as-well-known brother was clearly a very good player; you can’t play near the top for as long as he did without having something about you. But much of his fame probably stems, ironically, from being in the shadow of his brother, a Godfather-like figure in the sport.
He was hugely successful in his own right after Joe stepped away from the limelight, however, and his name is still one of the first you’ll hear mentioned by snooker anoraks all over the world.
That he kept his game in good enough condition to appear during snooker’s golden years – albeit briefly – only helped establish him as one of snooker’s best-known names.

Re: Pink Ball’s Top 50 Iconic Snooker Players of All Time

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23. Rex Williams
Rex Williams was a decent snooker player, but his snooker exploits paled in comparison to what he achieved in billiards, a sport in which he was one of the very best.
However, his high ranking here stems only partly from his moderately successful snooker career; it’s what he did – or didn’t do –during a notorious reign as the sport’s chairman that puts him in 23rd position. He is unlikely to appear on Clive Everton’s Christmas Card list even now, and with good reason.
While his impact as a player was questionable, his influence as an official surely contributed to the sport’s fall from grace during the 1990s and 2000s, a decline it only recently began to recover from.

Re: Pink Ball’s Top 50 Iconic Snooker Players of All Time

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22. Eddie Charlton
The original Jimmy White in that he was a runner-up at the World Championship on three occasions – one of which included a defeat in a deciding frame.
Unlike White, however, Charlton was by no means a popular figure, and his fellow players, most notably Alex Higgins, never took a shine to him.
His spikey personality coupled with an illustrious career and, perhaps, tragic World Championship record make him one of the best-known figures in the game’s history, and he still managed to keep himself in the limelight for long enough to appear during snooker’s glory years.
Last edited by Pink Ball on 30 Jul 2020, edited 1 time in total.

Re: Pink Ball’s Top 50 Iconic Snooker Players of All Time

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21. Neil Robertson
Robertson is one of the top ten players to play the game, so his ranking here might be a little low when you consider that.
That’s thanks in no small part to his largely inoffensive personality. He has drawn ire at times for some over-the-top celebrations, and there have been a few accusations of gamesmanship over the years, but once the game is out of the way, the excellent Australian player, World Champion in 2010, is widely regarded as one of the nicest figures in the sport.
Rate it or not, his 100 tons in a season, which hesecured in 2014, is a unique achievement (for now at least), and will only make him better remembered by the snooker fraternity in the long term.
Last edited by Pink Ball on 30 Jul 2020, edited 2 times in total.

Re: Pink Ball’s Top 50 Iconic Snooker Players of All Time

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20. Tony Knowles
He never delivered on his enormous potential, but Tony Knowles was a very, very good player all the same.
A tragic defeat to Cliff Thorburn in their 1983 World Championship semi-final might have put paid to his potential; he had days in the sun after that, but did he ever recover fully? Would he have beaten Davis in the final that year, just one year after thrashing him 10-1 on the opening day of the 1982 championship? It was certainly possible.
Alas, we’ll never know what might have been had he sank the ball that would have put him into his only world final, but the housewives’ favourite’s carry-on away from the table secured his rating forever as one of the sport’s most colourful figures.
Tony Knowles brought something to the game that has never really been replaced since his career entered into decline.

Re: Pink Ball’s Top 50 Iconic Snooker Players of All Time

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19. Stephen Lee
Lee was a huge presence in snooker, in more ways than one.
He was a fine player on his day, and his record doesn’t compare unfavourably even against the likes of Ken Doherty, Paul Hunter, John Parrott, Peter Ebdon, Stephen Maguire and Stuart Bingham – all very good players.
But it was his morbid obesity, sadly, that marked him out from the crowd. And, even more sadly, it’s a pity that it didn’t stay that way.
There had often been suspicions about Lee’s performances, but these were confirmed in 2013 when he was handed a gargantuan 12-year ban from the sport for a litany of match-fixing offences – including, most shamefully, a match in the biggest tournament of all.
Lee is a disgraced figure whose stupidity and greed made him thoroughly deserving of having his career destroyed.

Re: Pink Ball’s Top 50 Iconic Snooker Players of All Time

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18. Cliff Thorburn
As snooker became one of the most popular sports in the UK, Cliff Thorburn was one of its first household names.
In those early days, he was probably the main challenger to Steve Davis, and had he not won the world title in 1980, he would have gone down as one of the best players never to win the sport’s biggest event.
A heated rivalry with the game’s most popular figure, Alex Higgins, has always been one of the first talking points during discussions about Thorburn’s career, but he will be best known for being the only player in history who is remembered more for a maximum break than he is for actually winning the World Championship.
His legendary break arrived in the 1983 Championship and it was the first in the tournament’s history – and that secured The Grinder’s fame within the sport forever.

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17. Paul Hunter
Paul Hunter had it all. He became one of snooker’s few teenage ranking-event winners in 1998, but it was his first win in the Masters and his notorious ‘Plan B’ that catapulted him to relative super-stardom by snooker measures.
He was regarded by many ladies as one of the most handsome players the game had ever produced, but his play was by no means ugly either – and it was very effective. He won three memorable Masters finals, including a stunning 10-9 victory from 2-7 down against a very-much-in-form Ronnie O’Sullivan in the 2004 decider.
Sadly, Hunter was diagnosed with cancer just over a year later and, a little over a year after that, he died just shy of his 28th birthday.
Debate will continue to rage over whether Hunter’s reputation as a player grew out of proportion from his ability following the tragedy that befell him, but he was clearly very talented, and he was a hugely colourful character at a time when the sport was struggling for superstar names.
What’s beyond doubt is that it’s immensely sad that we’ll never know what he would or would not have achieved had he returned to good health.

Re: Pink Ball’s Top 50 Iconic Snooker Players of All Time

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16. Peter Ebdon
Ebdon, ironically, burst on to the scene as a quick-fire player with a lush head of hair. He would, of course, become the polar opposite of all that in the years which followed.
His slow play turned him into yet another snooker pantomime villain, a reputation which reached its peak in 2005 with a performance so snail-paced that it made Ronnie O’Sullivan fall asunder at a time when he finally looked set to dominate the sport.
Ebdon had a hugely successful career, winning both the World and UK Championship, but the shadow left by his 2005 performance never left him.
At times during his career, he came across to some as an unhinged personality, and bankruptcy seemed to underline the opinion that he was a more colourful fella than many gave him credit for.
Sadly, things are a hell of a lot more colourful today after his head-first dive into the world of conspiracy theories and overzealous English nationalism. It remains to be seen what effect this will have on his snooker media career.

Re: Pink Ball’s Top 50 Iconic Snooker Players of All Time

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15. Judd Trump
Judd Trump had been tipped for the top many years before he actually turned professional in the mid-noughties, but for a long time it seemed as though he’d fall well short of what had been predicted.
Then, in 2011, he burst onto the limelight with a terrific win at the 2011 China Open, before his flair caught the public’s imagination as he very nearly won the World title that same year.
When he became UK Champion that winter, he was tipped for dominance. But fame went to his head, and a seemingly lavish lifestyle off the table appeared to be derailing his potential to be an all-time great. He could win tournaments, and he could be brilliant, but frustrating defeats were never far from the surface.
As it happens, his brother, Jack, got him to knuckle down, and since winning the Masters and World Championship in 2019, he has become the game’s undisputed best player.
His style of play coupled with his immense talent will surely see him win much more in the years ahead, and he is likely to break into the top ten of this list before he hangs up his cue.

Re: Pink Ball’s Top 50 Iconic Snooker Players of All Time

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14. Dennis Taylor
Has one game had as big an effect on any player’s popularity as much as Dennis Taylor’s 1985 World title win had?
Taylor, as we all know, won the game’s best-remembered match, the 1985 World Championship final, from 0-8 down against the seemingly unstoppable Steve Davis. 18.5 million viewers saw him finally take the lead at the only point that really mattered as he sank the decisive final black to reach the pinnacle.
His reaction is etched into snooker history, and whether or not the match has been over-discussed or not since, Taylor became a snooker hero that night/early morning.
Taylor has since become one of the best-known figures in the BBC’s snooker coverage and is a very nice, affable fella, even if his punditry and commentary have always fallen well short of the expert level us anoraks look for.
To be fair to him, even if he had never become involved with television after his career ended, he would still be one of snooker’s best-known figures. That’s the effect that match in 1985 had.

Re: Pink Ball’s Top 50 Iconic Snooker Players of All Time

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13. Mark Selby
Mark Selby ranks highly, as you’d expect of a three-time World Champion, although his reputation as one of the game’s great love-him-or-hate-him characters probably has as much to do with his position as the quality of his play.
Selby’s rivalry with Ronnie O’Sullivan has cooled down in recent years, but matches between the two are, still, rarely not memorable, and their rivalry will go down as one of the greatest the sport has ever seen.
Not a whole lot of notice was taken of him in his early years as a professional as, frankly, there was little sign of the player he would eventually become. However, his run to the 2007 World final kick-started an illustrious career that has yielded nearly 20 ranking titles and three World Championships to date.
His style has always divided opinion; he rarely puts even average players away easily, and his tactical approach, while masterful, is not always entertaining to everyone.
But, if anything, that has only strengthened his position as one of the sport’s iconic figures. Love him or hate him, Mark Selby is a snooker legend.

Re: Pink Ball’s Top 50 Iconic Snooker Players of All Time

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12. Terry Griffiths
He won his first ranking title in only his second professional tournament, and that happened to be the biggest tournament of them all – so Terry Griffiths didn’t have to wait very long for snooker immortality.
Surprisingly, he never won the World title again, but he did win the sport’s triple crown, and that alone would have been plenty to secure Griffiths’ status as a legendary figure in snooker.
However, his influence on others’ careers has only backed up that reputation since then. Griffiths has helped many players over the years to come closer to realising their potential, and he is among the most respected figures the sport has ever seen because of that – amongst both fans and professionals.
As a person, Griffiths has always been very likeable and forthcoming, and his contribution to televised snooker has always been intelligent, incisive, and valuable.
He retired as a snooker champion, but his influence was arguably greater than anyone else’s beyond that point. Terry Griffiths is a snooker icon.

Re: Pink Ball’s Top 50 Iconic Snooker Players of All Time

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11. Mark Williams
Arguably the George Harrison of the famous ‘Class of 1992’, Mark Williams kept a strangely low profile for a man who had won two World Championships.
His approach to the sport in those early days was almost Davis- and Hendry-like, but he never dominated the sport in the way they did, so it seemed he would never become anything like the icon his prowess arguably deserved.
As it so happens, Williams’ career seemed to enter terminal decline not long after his 2003 World Championship, and with it, his reputation amongst fans seemed to grow, ironically, as his personality came more to the fore.
As far as being a player was concerned, though, he had the look of a relic up until 2017 before, remarkably, he found a second wind from nowhere. He won two ranking events in 2017/18 prior to that season’s World Championship, and he genuinely had rediscovered his old sparkle, but a win over the legendary John Higgins in the World final – a tremendous match – captured the imagination of the snooker fraternity.
He had proven that it was possible to reach the very top by, seemingly, not having to take yourself all that seriously – and that inspired people in a way that his previous two titles never came close to achieving.

Re: Pink Ball’s Top 50 Iconic Snooker Players of All Time

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10. John Spencer
Some say Spencer was better than his three world titles suggested. Others argue his peak would be nowhere near good enough nowadays.
Wherever you sit on that debate, Spencer was a three-time World Champion, won the tournament at his first attempt, was the first World Champion to use a two-piece cue, was the first man to hit a 147 in competition, and was the first winner at the legendary Crucible Threatre – and those achievements alone would be enough to chalk him down as an all-time snooker icon.
Spencer won 27 titles during a glittering career but, not unlike Terry Griffiths, he bolstered his status as an icon with what he did after his career was over, cut short as it was by an illness bravely borne.
During those years of ill health, he became WPBSA Chairman for six years, and commentated for almost two decades. While his term as chairman may have been mixed, he was always respected, and his influence included devising a more modern ranking system. He will also be fondly remembered for the often-moving recollections he included in his memoirs.
He died in 2006 after many years of ill health, and three years after being diagnosed with stomach cancer. His life was cut short, but his legacy is beyond question.

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9. Ray Reardon
Had he not been a relatively late starter, Reardon might still be the game’s most successful ever player.
Whatever the case, he was the first dominant figure of snooker’s modern era, and while he had declined by the time the sport was becoming the runaway success story it would be throughout the 1980s, he remained one of the most regular fixtures on our television screens.
Reardon was not shy of some gamesmanship and was not universally loved while he was playing – but great champions rarely are fondly remembered. Respect for the great Welsh player never dimmed, though, and his influence on the career of one Ronnie O’Sullivan was by no means light.
O’Sullivan became the undisputed best player in the world in the mid-noughties when it seemed as though his chaotic personality would fatally undermine his potential – but Reardon was an early port of call and a grounding influence.
He is arguably not as iconic even in snooker circles as his reputation should have it as he has kept a relatively low profile since his glory days, but for those who saw him play and grew up with him on our TV screens, ‘Dracula’ will always be one of the first players to come to mind.

Re: Pink Ball’s Top 50 Iconic Snooker Players of All Time

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8. Ding Junhui
As mentioned at the outset of this list, this attempt at ranking the most iconic players in history is tilted towards the views of a British and Irish audience. Only for that, Ding Junhui would likely be first.
He would easily be in the top 50 even if you left his influence on the game in China to one side, but when you include it, he is unquestionably in the top ten. While Chinese domination has not come to pass yet, it is now by far the strongest snooker nation outside of the UK, and Ding’s influence has been crucial to that.
As a player, he has been hugely successful even if he never became the dominant figure that many expected him to be when he won three ranking events before his 20th birthday. But he will, this year, become the first Asian World Champion, and with that his reputation as the greatest player never to have won the greatest tournament will fall, once again, to Jimmy White.
Over the years, he has been unfairly described as a robotic, emotionless character, despite the reality staring us in the face: his form has varied wildly from year to year, and he has never been shy of showing his emotions.
He is, in fact, a compelling character, and his influence on the sport might be greater than any other player in history has managed or will manage.

Re: Pink Ball’s Top 50 Iconic Snooker Players of All Time

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7. John Higgins
Despite being one of the top-five most successful players in history, it’s perhaps sad that Higgins would probably be much lower than seventh had it not been for the notoriety he gained in 2010.
Up to that point, Higgins had been seen as a universally respected and purely inoffensive figure in the sport, but the Kiev incident, which led to a short ban from the sport, divided fans like no other incident in snooker history has.
That, sadly, will be the first thing that comes to mind when many of us think of John Higgins, and that’s pretty extraordinary when you consider what he has achieved. Wherever you sit on the Higgins debate, while his reputation as an ambassador is long tarnished, rightly or wrongly, he will never be remembered in snooker terms as anything other than one of the finest players we’ve ever seen.
Four successes at the World Championship are a fair reflection of a player who is widely regarded as the sport’s greatest-ever tactician and safety exponent, and his all-round game might be the closest we’ve ever seen to completion in any player.
Serving as the ‘ying’ to Ronnie O’Sullivan’s ‘yang’ made for one of the most compelling rivalries in snooker history, another reason to chalk Higgins down as an undisputed snooker icon.

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6. Joe Davis
Questionable or not, Joe Davis won the World Championship 15 times, and that record will never be broken.
The sport was not rich in strength in depth when he dominated, and many historians will argue that some of the players capable of challenging him were not given a fair crack of the whip – or any crack of the whip – while he held a God-like influence over the sport.
Be that as it may or may not be, Joe Davis did set the sport on the path to becoming a genuine pursuit rather than the parlour game many had perceived it to be. It did not make that transition during his reign, but it would never have done so but for his reign. There may never have been a World Championship – unlikely, but we’ll never know for certain – had it not been for the original Davis setting one in motion, and his reputation remains high even today, despite accusations of skulduggery in his control of the sport.
He also wrote what many consider to be the bible of snooker, ‘How I Play Snooker’, which is in itself a point in his favour when compiling lists such as this one. Whether or not he was anywhere near as good as his World Championship record suggests, on the other hand, does not really matter on this front.

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5. Jimmy White
James Warren White came closer than anyone else to being a universally loved snooker player. This was largely due to his affability, his devil-may-care attitude to life away from the table, his relatable shortcomings as a person, and his unenviable record of playing in 10 World Championship semi-finals and six World Championship finals without ever actually coming away with the only title he really cared about winning.
Ironically, had he actually won one of those six finals – two of which he certainly should have won – he probably wouldn’t be as high as fifth on this list.
But, let’s face it, those losses were huge contributors to what made his career one of the most compelling we’ve seen, and while we can debate the rights and wrongs of renewing his tour card when he’s blatantly nowhere near good enough nowadays, there is something very endearing about White’s continuing will to play – a will which stems from a genuine love of the sport that few players, if any, have matched.
Sometimes Jimmy White is described as snooker’s great loser, but he was never a loser at all. He was a hugely successful player by any measure, and he won the adoration of millions of people because of what he was, not in spite of it. If Jimmy White’s a loser, then who needs to be a winner?

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4. Stephen Hendry
He was never loved by the fans, he never will be loved by the fans, and he won’t care, because that’s what made him what he was.
Stephen Hendry remains the most successful World Championship player of the modern era, and it’s hard to imagine that anyone will ever surpass his record of seven Crucible World titles.
Throughout his career he was cold, ruthless, and rarely showed any traits to the contrary when appearing before the camera, on or off the table. For many, he is the face of snooker’s fall from grace from being the character-filled television sensation it was in the 1980s to near-death in the 2000s.
But that in itself – which is unfair, as it’s something he cannot genuinely be blamed for – makes him an iconic figure. In a sport full of pantomime villains, he was arguably the biggest of the lot – a seemingly humourless winning machine put on this earth to deprive the sport’s most-loved player of the World title.
Since his retirement, Hendry has shown himself to be a hell of a lot more personable than his playing days suggested, and he has been a valuable addition to the BBC and ITV television coverage of the sport. He knows the sport inside out, and he tells it as it is.
He hardly needed to solidify his position as a snooker icon – his success remains an almost-chilling memory to many of us, and he is unquestionably one of the greatest players of all time – but his media appearance won’t do his reputation as an icon any harm. Hendry is a snooker paragon.

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3. Ronnie O’Sullivan
Ronnie O’Sullivan is the most naturally gifted snooker player of all time. Some will debate if any sports person can be described as a genius – but if they can’t attain that status, he has, at the very least, made a better fist of it than anyone else. To quote Clive Everton, he can make the sport look preposterously easy.
He had been tipped for greatness from a short time after picking up a cue as a young fella, and by 1993 he was the youngest ranking-event winner in the sport’s history – a record that has not been broken since – by defeating the all-conquering Hendry in the final of the prestigious UK Championship.
Since then, nothing has been straightforward, and spell-binding brilliance has been peppered by his own chaotic mind-set. Had it not been for Steve Peters’ influence in the early 2000s, he may have remained a three-time World Champion, which would have been a gross underachievement for someone of his talent. Alas, he has now won the championship five times and has more triple-crown titles than any other player in history.
He will, surely, end his career with more ranking titles than anyone else too, a record he shares, for now, with Stephen Hendry.
But it’s his fallibility that has made him loved by many – loathed by others – and even today, arguably past his best, he is by far the sport’s most popular and divisive figure, on this side of the planet at least.
More importantly, considering the competition he has faced over the years – particularly in the late 1990s and 2000s – he is probably the greatest player of all time.
That’s a hell of an achievement for someone who’s been hell-bent on being his own worst enemy.

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2. Steve Davis
It’s three years since Steve Davis retired, but while his playing days are finally over, he might still climb to number one on this list, in time. He is snooker’s number-one ambassador, and his boy-like enthusiasm for the sport has endeared him to the public in a way that his success never could.
When snooker was at its most popular in the UK and Ireland, Davis was its least-popular but most-successful figure. The two often go hand in hand, but Davis’ reputation as a cold, calculating operator, with little by way of personality, wasn’t helped by the man himself – it was a persona he played to perfection.
As so often happens, he mellowed as his game declined, and revealed himself to be a far more engaging and good-humoured character than we’d suspected. He has become a mainstay of snooker’s televised coverage; his insight remains among the most valued, and he is still at the forefront when it comes to promoting the sport in that inimitably dry, wry way of his.
When he retired, he cried as his World Championship qualifier against Fergal O’Brien was the first match of his career that he’d played without his late father watching. A few of us cried with him. We grew up with Steve Davis at a time when he was on the telly more often than the Prime Minister, and while we may not have appreciated his contribution to snooker back then, nobody is doubting what he has done for the sport by now.
‘The Nugget’ is a six-time World Champion, six-time UK Champion, and 28-time ranking-event winner – despite playing during an era when ranking championships were nowhere near as plentiful as they now are – but his influence is greater than even his record suggests.

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1. Alex Higgins
He was hated, adored, and never ignored. He never allowed anyone to do that, even when he was an almost-literal shadow of what he’d been. Alex Higgins remains the most charismatic, obnoxious, entertaining, pitiful, glorious figure in snooker history – and it will take a juggernaut of a person to change that fact.
What he did on the table was nearly always overshadowed by what happened away from the baize, and that’s staggering if you think about it – because he was a wonderful snooker player.
He was actually a very slow operator, but deceivingly so, such was his excitable way. His pace didn’t matter, though – he could pot anything from anywhere, and on the rare occasions that nothing was available to him, he could run for cover better than most.
He was a two-time World Champion and won all three of the sport’s majors, and that wasn’t easily done in any era. Weighing up all that success, though – who cares?
Higgins was all about the show, and he turned his sport into a show. Without him, it would never have become the television sensation that it did become. He completed a process that Joe Davis had inadvertently started 50 years previously, dragging snooker from the parlour room and into the consciousness of just about everyone in the UK and Ireland who owned a television set.
His battle with himself was always a struggle, and it was a fight he did not win – he became a quite pathetic, alcohol-and-cigarette-riddled skeleton who died a lonely death worlds removed from his love of being the centre of attention. But before he was laid to rest, he became the centre of attention one last time as thousands crammed onto the streets of Belfast to say goodbye to snooker’s greatest-ever icon.