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Fred Davis

Postby Badsnookerplayer

Just thought I would post this as it made me smile. All courtesy of Wikipedia

Fred Davis:

Forced to concentrate on snooker, Fred first played in the World Snooker Championship in 1937 but lost 17–14 to Welshman Bill Withers in the first round, a defeat that Davis put down to ignoring his worsening eyesight.His brother Joe considered this defeat an affront to the family honour and hammered Withers 30–1 in the very next round.

Fred played professionally well into old age, making his last appearance in the World Snooker Championship at the Crucible Theatre in 1984 aged 70, where he lost to Bill Werbeniuk 10–4.

Davis only retired in 1993, aged 79, having lost to future world champion Ronnie O'Sullivan (62 years his junior) 5–1 in the Grand Prix qualifying during his last season. Davis lost 10–1 to Peter Daubney in the first round of qualifying for the 1992 World Championship, an effort which still netted him £500. Just four months later he would lose 6–0 to Mark Davis in the sixth round of qualifying for the 1993 event; it would be Davis' last World Championship match.

On 14 August 1993 Davis turned 80, and still held a ranking of 259. Even then he stated that he would have loved to continue playing, but was prevented from doing so by the severe arthritis in his left knee which made it painful to walk. Indeed, it was Davis' attempt to redistribute his stance which contributed to such heavy defeats in his final snooker matches

Respect.

Re: Fred Davis

Postby KrazeeEyezKilla

Badsnookerplayer wrote:Forced to concentrate on snooker, Fred first played in the World Snooker Championship in 1937 but lost 17–14 to Welshman Bill Withers in the first round, a defeat that Davis put down to ignoring his worsening eyesight.His brother Joe considered this defeat an affront to the family honour and hammered Withers 30–1 in the very next round.


That wasn't a "lovely day" for Bill Withers

Re: Fred Davis

Postby Pink Ball

KrazeeEyezKilla wrote:
Badsnookerplayer wrote:Forced to concentrate on snooker, Fred first played in the World Snooker Championship in 1937 but lost 17–14 to Welshman Bill Withers in the first round, a defeat that Davis put down to ignoring his worsening eyesight.His brother Joe considered this defeat an affront to the family honour and hammered Withers 30–1 in the very next round.


That wasn't a "lovely day" for Bill Withers

I hope he had somebody to lean on.

Re: Fred Davis

Postby PLtheRef

Withers second round defeat came a time where all of the frames were played. I'm fairly sure had it been just best of 31 that Joe would have won the match in a whitewash

Re: Fred Davis

Postby Pink Ball

PLtheRef wrote:Withers second round defeat came a time where all of the frames were played. I'm fairly sure had it been just best of 31 that Joe would have won the match in a whitewash

The tour hasn't been the same without Withers. Ain't no sunshine when he's gone.

Re: Fred Davis

Postby Dan-cat

Pink Ball wrote:
PLtheRef wrote:Withers second round defeat came a time where all of the frames were played. I'm fairly sure had it been just best of 31 that Joe would have won the match in a whitewash

The tour hasn't been the same without Withers. Ain't no sunshine when he's gone.


Lolz Pinkie.

I love this... Fred making a century against Kirk Stephens at the age of 65. Even the ref claps. Brilliant.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adO-TFmUTEg

Re: Fred Davis

Postby Badsnookerplayer

Fantastic Dan-Cat I really enjoyed watching that. Interesting to see the crossover between the last vestiges of the era of Fred Davis and co. and what was about to come. Great!

Re: Fred Davis

Postby Dan-cat

Badsnookerplayer wrote:Fantastic Dan-Cat I really enjoyed watching that. Interesting to see the crossover between the last vestiges of the era of Fred Davis and co. and what was about to come. Great!


It's utterly joyous isn't it :)

Re: Fred Davis

Postby Alex0paul

I love Fred Davis

Re: Fred Davis

Postby mick745

I looked up the match Joe Davis v Bill Withers from the 1937 WSC. It turns out that although Joe won the first two frames Withers won the third to make it 2-1. Joe Davis then reeled off an astonishing 28 frames in a row. The match was played on 4, 5 & 6th March 1937. Withers highest break was 58 although not in the frame he won.

Also, it is remarkable that Fred Davis, despite his advancing years and deteriorating health managed to win a frame off a young Ronnie O'Sullivan in 1992.

Re: Fred Davis

Postby SnookerEd25

Badsnookerplayer wrote:That is a great stat from the 1937 match. It would seem that Joe was feeling quite ruthless.

I looked the match up too and was surprised how many frames Withers scored relatively highly given the result.

http://cuetracker.net/tournaments/world ... p/1937/941

I would have expected far more very one sided frames.


Just a thought - they played out 'dead' frames in those days (IE in a best of 35, all 35 frames would be played regardless of when one player hit 18); did they also play out 'dead' points as well? IE, if a player was, say 65 behind with 35 on, the frame would continue until the final black had been potted? Not necessarily, the player far behind playing for Snookers, but maybe more that it was somehow seen as ungentlemanly to concede a frame, so they saw playing it out as potting practice? I don't know for sure, but it would explain some of the higher scores. I bet Clive knows...

Re: Fred Davis

Postby Badsnookerplayer

Hey snookered25 I think you could well be right although I have never heard of that before. All of the frame scores are above 100 in total. I think that sometimes they decided matches by aggregate point scores too(?).

Interestingly (?) in the match that Withers beat Fred Davis by 17 frames to 14, the point scores are as below for the frames for which this was recorded:

Withers 892
Davis 815

Re: Fred Davis

Postby SnookerFan

Badsnookerplayer wrote:His brother Joe considered this defeat an affront to the family honour and hammered Withers 30–1 in the very next round.


DECLINE!

Re: Fred Davis

Postby Alex0paul

Fred Davis has declined

Re: Fred Davis

Postby SnookerFan

Alex0paul wrote:Fred Davis has declined


Well, to be fair to him, he's been dead for more than 20 years.

Re: Fred Davis

Postby lhpirnie

mick745 wrote:I looked up the match Joe Davis v Bill Withers from the 1937 WSC. It turns out that although Joe won the first two frames Withers won the third to make it 2-1. Joe Davis then reeled off an astonishing 28 frames in a row. The match was played on 4, 5 & 6th March 1937. Withers highest break was 58 although not in the frame he won.

Also, it is remarkable that Fred Davis, despite his advancing years and deteriorating health managed to win a frame off a young Ronnie O'Sullivan in 1992.


Yes, Fred Davis was pretty terrible at that time, perhaps Ronnie gave him the frame. His knee problem meant he was allowed to wear special shoes. The same of course happened to Ronnie years later when he broke his ankle. How history repeats itself!

A parallel to the meeting of these two champions, separated by 62 years, might be Yan Bingtao meeting Ray Reardon at the World Championship opening ceremony in 2017. Yan was 17 and Reardon 84, but as far as I know didn't play a frame against each other.

Re: Fred Davis

Postby Alex0paul

:hankey:

Re: Fred Davis

Postby KrazeeEyezKilla

The one thing snooker is missing is massive age gaps between players. Too many players born in the 70's/early 80's.

Re: Fred Davis

Postby lhpirnie

KrazeeEyezKilla wrote:The one thing snooker is missing is massive age gaps between players. Too many players born in the 70's/early 80's.

Some would argue that there is too much of an age spread. There are teenagers who are probably too young, and some players over 50 who probably won't be winning many matches. The lower reaches of the professional rankings are too competitive these days to allow players aged 60+ to survive.

Re: Fred Davis

Postby Wildey

Badsnookerplayer wrote:As it says at the end - if it wasn't for Fred keeping the flame burning we might have no snooker now. Probably an overstatement but I challenge you not to smile at the gentleman's skill and attitude.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2xhawtDzto

Well done Jopesalami

Its not far off


In the 50s and 60s you had a hand full of players that just kept the game in the conscious of people and Fred was one of them.


It meant that Rex Williams who was instrumental in forming a governing body to take snooker forward could inspire the likes of Ray Reardon, John Spencer to turn pro and then of course Alex Higgins and then it took off.

Re: Fred Davis

Postby Cloud Strife

Wildey wrote:
Badsnookerplayer wrote:As it says at the end - if it wasn't for Fred keeping the flame burning we might have no snooker now. Probably an overstatement but I challenge you not to smile at the gentleman's skill and attitude.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2xhawtDzto

Well done Jopesalami

Its not far off


In the 50s and 60s you had a hand full of players that just kept the game in the conscious of people and Fred was one of them.


It meant that Rex Williams who was instrumental in forming a governing body to take snooker forward could inspire the likes of Ray Reardon, John Spencer to turn pro and then of course Alex Higgins and then it took off.


And then along came Ronnie O'Sullivan, and the game was never in better shape worldwide.

Re: Fred Davis

Postby Badsnookerplayer

Cloud Strife wrote:
Wildey wrote:
Badsnookerplayer wrote:As it says at the end - if it wasn't for Fred keeping the flame burning we might have no snooker now. Probably an overstatement but I challenge you not to smile at the gentleman's skill and attitude.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2xhawtDzto

Well done Jopesalami

Its not far off


In the 50s and 60s you had a hand full of players that just kept the game in the conscious of people and Fred was one of them.


It meant that Rex Williams who was instrumental in forming a governing body to take snooker forward could inspire the likes of Ray Reardon, John Spencer to turn pro and then of course Alex Higgins and then it took off.


And then along came Ronnie O'Sullivan, and the game was never in better shape worldwide.

bullocks - the game declined massively in Ronnie's prime years.

Only since Judd came along in about 2010 did it take off globally and financially

Re: Fred Davis

Postby Cloud Strife

Badsnookerplayer wrote:
Cloud Strife wrote:
Wildey wrote:
Badsnookerplayer wrote:As it says at the end - if it wasn't for Fred keeping the flame burning we might have no snooker now. Probably an overstatement but I challenge you not to smile at the gentleman's skill and attitude.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2xhawtDzto

Well done Jopesalami

Its not far off


In the 50s and 60s you had a hand full of players that just kept the game in the conscious of people and Fred was one of them.


It meant that Rex Williams who was instrumental in forming a governing body to take snooker forward could inspire the likes of Ray Reardon, John Spencer to turn pro and then of course Alex Higgins and then it took off.


And then along came Ronnie O'Sullivan, and the game was never in better shape worldwide.

bullocks - the game declined massively in Ronnie's prime years.

Only since Judd came along in about 2010 did it take off globally and financially


You're right, the game was on its bottom, and if not for Ronnie it would have been completely stone dead. He was the one that single-handedly kept it alive.