Ray Reardon, who has died aged 91 from most cancers, was snooker’s world champion six instances within the Nineteen Seventies, the last decade during which the sport was altering from subterranean people sport right into a TV attraction.
At all times immaculately dressed, a extremely standard and genial ambassador for the sport, ever adept at participating a crowd, he stays the oldest champion and, on the energy of his 18-15 defeat by Alex Higgins on the age of 49 in 1982, its oldest finalist. After his wins in 1970, 1973-76 and 1978 he was nonetheless ok to achieve the 1985 semi-finals, when he was 52, earlier than Steve Davis, the dominant determine of the 80s, trounced him 16-5.
As a participant, he remodeled himself from sensible younger potter into supreme tactician. In later life his deep data of the sport was utilised by Ronnie O’Sullivan, who acknowledged him as a major think about capturing the 2004 world title.
Commercially, Reardon’s peak got here too early; prize cash of £7,500 for successful the 1978 world title, £12,500 for reaching the 1982 closing and £20,000 as a 1985 semi-finalist appears to be like like petty money by right now’s requirements, though it didn’t appear too dangerous in these days, notably because the snooker revival had began from a low base.
Reardon was born right into a snooker household, to Cynthia and Ben Reardon, in Tredegar, south Wales, the place he attended Georgetown secondary college. His father, a coalminer, performed within the native league for the Miners’ Institute, as did his uncles. When Ray was 14, and after a quick stint as a motor mechanic, he grew to become a miner himself. On his seventeenth birthday, in 1949, he made his first century break within the morning and received the primary of six consecutive Welsh novice titles within the night.
In 1956, the household moved to Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, in the hunt for higher job prospects. That very same yr he appeared prone to grow to be English novice champion when he held a 7-3 in a single day lead in opposition to Tommy Gordon within the closing at Burroughes Corridor in London, however his tip flew off along with his first shot the following day, maybe by means of the company of a betting gang. Compelled to play with an unfamiliar cue in these pre-superglue days, he misplaced 11-9.
Eleven years within the pits led to 1957 after he was buried in a roof fall on the Florence Colliery in Stoke, unable to maneuver a muscle for 3 hours. “I needed to breathe by means of my nostril,” he was to recall, “as a result of if I opened my mouth I’d suffocate to demise on the mud.”
With iron self-control he saved calm by imagining he was enjoying countless video games of marbles along with his eight-year-old brother, Ron.
After that he grew to become a police officer in Stoke, incomes a commendation for bravery for disarming a person who was brandishing a shotgun, and one other for crawling throughout a frosty rooftop to drop by means of a skylight on to an unsuspecting burglar.
In 1964 he achieved his ambition of successful the English novice championship, beating John Spencer, himself to grow to be a 3 times world champion, 11-8 within the closing on the Central Corridor, Birmingham.
Knowledgeable profession was hardly price considering on the time, because the World Snooker Championship had lain dormant from 1957 till 1964. However after choice for an novice tour to South Africa he was supplied a return go to as knowledgeable and in 1967 took the plunge on the age of 35, in time for the revival of the championship match and the appearance of BBC Two’s Pot Black. This was a half-hour, one-frame competitors that he received twice (1969 and 1979) and that launched the sport and its main gamers to new audiences.
Then the world championship ran all through a complete season of week-long matches, and in 1970 Reardon grew to become champion for the primary time by beating John Pulman 37-33 on the Victoria Corridor in London. On the Metropolis Exhibition Halls in Manchester in 1973, the primary time the championship was telescoped right into a fortnight, he recovered from 19-12 right down to beat Spencer 23-22 within the semi-finals and from 7-0 down defeated Australia’s Eddie Charlton 38-32 to regain the title.
He retained it a yr later comparatively uneventfully, however within the 1975 closing in Melbourne, Australia, needed to make an epic restoration from 29-23 adrift to beat Charlton 31-30. He disposed of the mercurial Higgins 27-16 within the 1976 closing at Wythenshawe Discussion board in Manchester, and in 1978 grew to become champion for the final time on the age of 45 along with his 25-18 victory over the South African left-hander Perrie Mans at the Crucible theatre in Sheffield.
He retired to Brixham, Devon, in 1991, later shifting to Torquay, however having saved up with contacts on the membership scene that had given him his staple earnings in his early skilled days, he continued with exhibitions in addition to his summer season excursions of Pontins vacation camps, a routine he a lot most well-liked to the unpaid slog of qualifying competitions.
He’s survived by his second spouse, Carol Covington, whom he married in 1987, and by two youngsters, Darren and Melanie, from his first marriage, to Susan Carter, in 1959, which led to divorce.
