Post a reply

Interesting interview with Steve Davis (13.04.2010)

Postby Monique

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2010/ap ... is-snooker
Steve Davis still snooker loopy after all these years

Snooker's grand old man remembers the night he was defeated by Dennis Taylor in the most memorable world championship final

Image
Steve Davis at his home in Romford, Essex. Photograph: David Levene

It was the best and the worst moment of my career all wrapped up in the same moment," Steve Davis says as he remembers how, 25 years ago this month, he lost the most memorable snooker match of all time on the last ball of the last frame of the 1985 World Championship final to Dennis Taylor. Now, on a quiet afternoon in Essex, at the counter of a small bar in his snooker room, the spotlights burrow down into the deep lines and sagging folds of Davis's face. Those marks of ageing offer a stark reminder of the time that has slipped by since he succumbed to Taylor on a black-ball finish that transfixed 18.5 million viewers long past midnight – at the pinnacle of an era when snooker outstripped football in the ratings.

"My overriding memory is of reaching saturation point with the pressure," Davis says. "No one is immune to that kind of pressure and I was in shock. I remember going to the party afterwards and getting absolutely smashed. It's always depressing when the world championships are over – because it's such an intense event there's bound to be a comedown. It's easier to handle if you've won. Imagine how you feel when you've won it the last two years, you're world No1 and you've just lost on the black ball of the 35th frame?"

Davis smiles ruefully. But he is too amiable and balanced a man to wallow in personal misery. He understands how that unforgettable frame is buried in the British sporting consciousness. "People have called it a JFK moment," Davis quips, as if he cannot help but laugh at the absurdity of comparing a snooker match in Sheffield to the assassination of an American president. "And it still surprises me how often I get stopped by people who want to tell me where they were when they watched it and how it merges into the story of their lives. I'm proud of that. Mind you, I can only say that because I won a lot of tournaments afterwards [including three world championships to match the trio he had secured before 1985]. If I'd never won another world title it would be very different. But I can now look back at it fondly."

At this year's world championships, where Davis will make a remarkable 30th appearance, nostalgia for the 1985 final will veer between the sickly and the ridiculous. Even the famously approachable former champion cannot avoid sounding sardonic. "A girl phoned me from a newspaper and said, 'I hear you're reconstructing the last frame of the 1985 final.' She must have been told that me and Dennis are going to play an exhibition match at the Crucible [on 29 April]. But I was amused she seemed to think we could play exactly the same shots we had done 25 years ago – leaving the balls in the exact same spots. If we could pull that off, then we'd still be at the very top of the game."

Taylor has long since retired from competitive snooker but Davis, aged 52, is still good enough to be ranked 23 in the world. A reason for his continued competitiveness can be heard in the way he describes the pain of losing to Taylor. "I remember the absolute turmoil of being 8-0 up and yet ending that first day only 9-7 ahead – having collapsed. I felt like a long-distance runner who completely stalls. That night, in the hotel, was awful. You remember what [US secretary of state] Colin Powell said [when America were about to declare war on Iraq]? He said, 'I slept like a baby – and woke up screaming every half an hour.' That was me."

Davis shakes his still gingery head as if he can't believe how, being such a remorseless player at his peak, he allowed Taylor back into a match that was eventually deadlocked at 17-17 with just the black ball left. "I can hardly remember anything about the second day because it was such a scramble to the line. But I've seen the whole of the last frame on video and it's shocking how many balls we missed.

"There were quite a few dark moments afterwards. I'd find myself sitting somewhere – and suddenly realise that 10 minutes had passed and I hadn't moved. I'd just been thinking about one of those shots I missed. So it obviously affected me. But it was also quite funny. Soon after the final my manager, Barry Hearn, who is my best mate, told me he'd just signed Dennis Taylor. That really lightened the blow! Barry said, 'It's just business. I need the world champion.' I laughed but a few weeks later I had to do an exhibition in Sheffield – which was the last place I needed to be. I had a lot of beers and I remember hunching over the table and seeing two balls instead of one. I thought, 'Bloody hell, I'd better sober up here.' But I coped OK."

Davis continued to dominate snooker throughout the 1980s and, even now, he has won more professional tournaments than any other player in the game. He has also not forgotten what shaped his extraordinary drive. "You need to be intense, single-minded and angry. It's not necessarily a chip on your shoulder but there is a testosterone-fuelled anger in the best sportsmen. As you get older you get softer in the centre and all you can do is attempt to relight the flame every now and then.

I treat snooker more as a hobby these days. But when I was younger I had the right kind of killer instinct. They used to boo players like me and Stephen Hendry, and that shows how popular snooker was then. You boo football teams, not snooker players. But we regarded it as the ultimate accolade. To get someone you've never met before and make them feel that they can't help themselves while they boo you? Wow – you must have done something right to have that effect on people."

Davis is now an immensely likeable man, regarded with great affection around the country. "I think fallibility comes into it," he says. "If you've been around long enough, you become part of the furniture. You're like a comfy old chair. It also helps if you lose a bit. People don't really like a young winning machine. If it's an older person who wins every now and then, but suffers in between, they really like that. But, as Stephen Hendry said, 'I miss the booing.'"

Davis will be cheered as never before at this year's world championship. And the looming sentimentality has provoked a return to some of his old competitiveness. "The last couple of years I've been like a frightened rabbit in the headlights rather than a seriously competitive animal. My job this year is to be more a killer than a rabbit. My first-round opponent, Mark King, is ranked 16 in the world but we would have probably settled for each other before the draw was made."

There were other players he wanted to avoid more than me outside the top 16 and I definitely wanted to avoid Ronnie O'Sullivan and John Higgins. So we both feel, 'yeah, I could win this one.'"

He pauses when asked if Hearn, returning as chairman of the governing body, can regenerate snooker. "The players are excited and it could reinvigorate the sport. Barry is a great operator and he's dragging snooker into the new world. The long-term problem is that people don't think modern players are 'characters'. It's an unfair perception. If you look at the first Big Brother cast they were quite normal compared to the weirdos they've used since then. But Barry could turn it around by generating much more prize money. If the money goes up, respect for snooker increases, and people will say, 'Bloody hell, let's see them play for that sort of money.'"

In a less cynical age, in 1979, in a first-round match against Taylor, Davis made his Crucible debut. "I lost that one too," Davis says, smiling, "but I also got accused by a bloke from the Daily Star for bringing the game into disrepute. It was a morning game that dragged past lunchtime and a guy came over and said, 'It's going on a bit, Steve. Do you want anything?' I said, 'I wouldn't mind a ham sandwich.' The Daily Star considered it outrageous that I ended up eating it at the table.

"I've only missed two world championships since then, so this will be my 30th. And if you're going to judge how good you've been at something, then longevity is a decent yardstick. We don't have a senior tour like the golfers and so for more than 30 years I've been there or thereabouts. I know that if I drop out of the world's top 64, then it's all over. But I still see myself as a snooker player, even though I started in 1979 and played all through the 80s, 90s and noughties. 2010 marks a new decade – and my fifth at the Crucible. I'm like the last of the Mohicans."

Davis laughs in his self-mocking way. "Imagine what the youngest player this year, Anda Zhang from China, would feel if he had drawn me? He has just turned 18. I was playing at the Crucible 12 years before this kid was even born. His parents were probably still at school when I was eating my ham sandwich at the Crucible. It makes me feel old but, yeah, it also makes me feel very proud."

Re: Interesting interview with Steve Davis (13.04.2010)

Postby SnookerFan

Interesting article on Steve. I get the feeling all we are going to hear this year is what happened in the 1985 final. <laugh> But one thing I've always admired about Steve is that he admits his best days are behind him, he's in his 50s, and yet he loves playing the game still, win or lose. Whether it be the venue, or at the qualifiers in small booths. You can't fault the guys passion for the game. And that he can lose, but stay around for the rest of the time to talk about the game after he's got knocked out.

Re: Interesting interview with Steve Davis (13.04.2010)

Postby N_Castle07

SnookerFan wrote:Interesting article on Steve. I get the feeling all we are going to hear this year is what happened in the 1985 final. <laugh> But one thing I've always admired about Steve is that he admits his best days are behind him, he's in his 50s, and yet he loves playing the game still, win or lose. Whether it be the venue, or at the qualifiers in small booths. You can't fault the guys passion for the game. And that he can lose, but stay around for the rest of the time to talk about the game after he's got knocked out.



Yes very true you have to love Steve Davis he's a true great I'll be wanting him to win his first round more than most. I would love to see him back in the top 16 but it is unlikely. I wish Hendry would adapt to Davis's views on playing snooker because he would enjoy it more and would maybe play better. I think Hendry is too stuborn and stuck in his ways.

Re: Interesting interview with Steve Davis (13.04.2010)

Postby Wildey

it isnt hes stuck in his ways he just wouldnt turn up if he thought he wouldnt win it.

where steve these days play for love Hendry would pack it in if he reached that stage.

Re: Interesting interview with Steve Davis (13.04.2010)

Postby SnookerFan

wildJONESEYE wrote:it isnt hes stuck in his ways he just wouldnt turn up if he thought he wouldnt win it.

where steve these days play for love Hendry would pack it in if he reached that stage.


That was part of Hendry's success, I think. His hatred of losing. He doesn't like losing even now. I suspect Hendry hates losing on the practice table. He's probably one of those people that if he was playing his next door neighbour's six year old, couldn't even be talked into missing shots on purpose to make the kid happy. <laugh>

Davis was more the other way around. He played because he loved the game, but he loved the game so much he would play it even if he didn't have to. That was the key to success perhaps. When he was young he had no personality, his personality was snooker. He was a machine, where other players weren't.

Re: Interesting interview with Steve Davis (13.04.2010)

Postby Smart

Steve Davis, snooker legend <cool>

Brilliant interview, very revealing :D

2 things:

Snooker in 1985 more popular than footie, big reason was the back pass rule was in effect.

Steve and Barry both in recent interviews call each other best mates, must be true.

Thanks Mon, excellent as ever.

Re: Interesting interview with Steve Davis (13.04.2010)

Postby Monique

Believe me, Steve Davis hates losing with all his soul, still hates it now! I've seen some reactions backstage you wouldn't expect!
To Steve's credit though, contrary to others ( :john: ), he's almost always capable of keeping his emotions at bay and "delaying" the expression of his disapointment or anger untill he's out of the public eye...

Re: Interesting interview with Steve Davis (13.04.2010)

Postby Wildey

smart

Steve Davis is a very important reason i now back Barry Hearn to the hilt whatever is Barrys plans Steve will be there to reighn it in to the traditionalist point of view.

Steve is snooker through and through and Hearn is Buisness together they will do whats best for the sport.

Re: Interesting interview with Steve Davis (13.04.2010)

Postby Wildey

you know why i like him today, in his prime as a Alex fan i couldnt stand him lol

but reason i like him possibly at this time in his life he could have gone over to pool and had far more successful time of it at that older players than him has great careers at 9 ball but he has stuck at snooker because of the love he has for snooker as apose to cuesports.

Re: Interesting interview with Steve Davis (13.04.2010)

Postby Wildey

N_Castle07 wrote:I think it is about time the Queen changes Steve's name to Sir Steve Davis if anyone in snooker deserves that title it is him.

when you look at the people in sport that has had that bestowed on them yes definitly he should get a knighthood but not going to happen is it.

Clive Woodwood became sir Clive based on one kick from johnny wilkinson in one tournament he happened to win.

Steve been playing snooker at pro level for 30 years and had a longjevity in it at the top when younger players Kirk,Hallett,Meo to even younger Tournament winners like David Gray has come and gone.

what makes some get it and others not.

Re: Interesting interview with Steve Davis (13.04.2010)

Postby SnookerFan

Monique wrote:Believe me, Steve Davis hates losing with all his soul, still hates it now! I've seen some reactions backstage you wouldn't expect!
To Steve's credit though, contrary to others ( :john: ), he's almost always capable of keeping his emotions at bay and "delaying" the expression of his disapointment or anger untill he's out of the public eye...


Actually, I probably wouldn't be surprised. I remember running into Steve Davis outside The Crucible one year, and got him to sign an autograph. As he was signing, I said to him; "So, you gonna make it seven this year, Steve?" Steve wasn't the slightest bit amused, and snapped back; "I'm going to try, but it's not that easy you know." Luckily I had my friend with me who laughed her head off, and we were able to make a joke out of it, otherwise I'd probably still be snake hissed off about it now. <laugh>

Although that wasn't the only story like that I've heard, A couple of people on this site have said Steve Davis was sound when they met him. So, I might have just caught him at a bad time. It was the only time I've ever met him, so am happy to give him the benefit of the doubt. But like you say, it did come across that my -innocently meant- comment touched a nerve with him.

Re: Interesting interview with Steve Davis (13.04.2010)

Postby Smart

I've seen him the last few times at Sheffield and although he does not stop for autographs very readily (I am yet to get one off him), he is polite and puts up with the non-stop "in the public eye" banter - which goes with being such a household figure that he is.

I guess the competitive streak in him has never waned hence his comment back about the 7th title. He probably had a feeling when reaching 6 that it would not be over-taken so it probably does hurt him, deep down. <ok>

Re: Interesting interview with Steve Davis (13.04.2010)

Postby SnookerFan

Yeah, I guess it was ill-advised perhaps. I mean, as a person who never take games seriously, I forget how ultra-competitive they have to be to achieve success at that level. But, the impression he likes to give I think is that he cares less then he does sometimes.

Re: Interesting interview with Steve Davis (13.04.2010)

Postby Smart

SnookerFan wrote:Yeah, I guess it was ill-advised perhaps. I mean, as a person who never take games seriously, I forget how ultra-competitive they have to be to achieve success at that level. But, the impression he likes to give I think is that he cares less then he does sometimes.


correct, when infact it means a heck of a lot <ok>