badtemperedcyril wrote:Between late 1980 and losing at the Crucible to Knowles in 82, Davis absolutely obliterated everyone. I’d make that single period his single most dominant of his career. He was winning so emphatically against the best of his competitors - the Coral UK for instance, where he beat Griffiths 9-0 and 16-3 in 80 and 81 respectively; 9-0 against White; 16-6 v Higgins; 9-0 in the Jameson final v Taylor... just examples I pick from the top of my head but very typical of the overwhelming landslide of his taking over from, not just the old guard (Reardon, Spencer, Higgins, Thorburn) but also those coming through with him (White, Griffiths, Meo, Stevens etc).
Davis was clearly the best player at that time, but I dispute that he obliterated everyone. You may be reading too much into his Wikipedia article.
Between late 80 and the 82 WC he lost to:
Perrie Mans
John Virgo
Jimmy White twice
Ray Reardon 0-6
and Terry Griffiths no fewer than 4 times, including a 9-2 thrashing.
I don't think it's fair to Reardon and Griffiths to say that Davis' taking over was an overwhelming landslide when Reardon whitewashed him in that period and Griffiths was his match most of the time.
And this was when there weren't that many tournaments.
I just think he was more clearly dominant from 84 on, and that the group of players challenging him earlier in the decade was a different bunch from those later on, and so the classification could perhaps be different.