Fred Davis (snooker player)

Fred Davis

Fred Davis with the World Snooker Championship trophy in 1948
Born	(1913-08-14)14 August 1913 Chesterfield, Derbyshire
Died	16 April 1998(1998-04-16) (aged 84) Denbighshire
Sport country	England
Professional	1929–1993
Highest ranking	4 (1976/77)
Career winnings	£46,844
Highest break	140 (1952 World Professional Match-play Championship)
Century breaks	24
Best ranking finish	Semi-final (1974 World Championship, 1978 World Championship)
Tournament wins
Major	10
World Champion	1948, 1949, 1951

Fred Davis, OBE (14 August 1913 – 16 April 1998) was an English professional player of snooker and billiards, one of only two players ever to win the world title in both, the other being his brother Joe. He was one of the most popular personalities in the game. His professional career lasted from 1929 to 1993. He was born in Chesterfield, Derbyshire.

Davis was originally a billiards player; he called billiards 'his first love' and he won the British Boys Under 16 Billiards Championship in 1929. He turned professional automatically under the rules of the Billiards Association and Control Council in 1929. By the time that he was ready to play competitive billiards, the sport was in sharp decline, although he did beat Kingsley Kennerley to win the United Kingdom Professional Billiards Championship in 1951. Davis remarked that once snooker had come to the fore he assumed that he would never play another billiards match.

Forced to concentrate on snooker, he 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. Joe's fury with his brother's performance persuaded Fred to consult an optician who devised a pair of spectacles with swivel lens joints. He reached the semi-finals in 1938 and 1939 and lost only 37–36 to Joe Davis in the 1940 final (although the winning margin was reached at 37–35 as 'dead' frames were still played out). This was the only time they met in the World Championship final. A short clip of the match and a mention of Fred's impending World War II service is recorded in a Pathé news clip. Davis in fact was called up on 20 July 1940, only five days after his marriage to Sheila.

He was the younger brother (by twelve years) of Joe Davis, who dominated snooker from 1927 to 1946; they are no relation to later champion Steve Davis. Joe retired from the World Snooker Championship after his 1946 victory, leaving the way open for Fred to win three times, in 1948, 1949 and 1951. Fred would go on to have the distinction of being the only player to beat Joe on level terms (albeit outside of the world championship as Joe retired from championship play in 1947), a feat he achieved four times between 1948 and 1954. Such victories were especially sweet as Joe had told Fred that he would never beat him. Following a disagreement between some of the players and the governing body, Davis played in an alternative tournament—the World Professional Match-play Championship—which he won on five consecutive occasions from 1952 to 1956. Between 1947 and 1954 Fred's great rival was Walter Donaldson, and they met in eight consecutive finals. Donaldson's 1947 victory over Davis by 82–63 was a huge shock and Davis put down his defeat to a mixture of over-confidence and Donaldson's solid practice regime ahead of the championship which gave him a huge edge in his long potting.