After Dinner Speakers: Steve Davis, Placebo, Samuel Berger

THE name Davis is synonymous with success in snooker. And in the 80’s, it was a member of that clan who when by the name of Steve who simply dominated the game. Davis is a living legend in his sport, collecting 73 titles from 99 final appearances. Of late however, he has slipped significantly in the ratings, occupying his time more with appearances as one of BB TV’s regular snooker presenters, while also turning his hand to 9-ball pool, rapidly achieving status and respect amongst the world's best players. Steve spent a record twenty seasons in the top 16 before being edged out by Joe Swail in May 2000 - by a margin of just 90 points! Born in Plumstead in 1957, and his snooker mad father Bill, who still accompanies Steve around the circuit, didn't wait too long before introducing his prodigy to the game. At the age of two Steve was given a 2ft toy table as a Christmas present. When he was five years old Steve was taken by his father to watch him play at Lee Green Workingmen's Club. Steve got his first glimpse of a full size table and was hooked. As he grew, so to did the snooker tables, until, at the age of 14, he started playing on a full size table. Steve's two early influences that shaped his entire career were his father Bill, who spent countless patient hours coaching him and what he calls "the bible" - Joe Davis' book on how to play snooker. Davis notched his first snooker century in 1975 and by 1976 was appearing in, and winning, amateur competitions all over the London area. By some lucky chance, one such event was at The Lucania Club in Romford, where he met Barry Hearn, who had bought the chain of Lucania Clubs in 1974. From that moment on destiny took over, as Davis and Hearn forged one of the most enduring partnerships in snooker. Combining Steve's talent on the table and Barry's business acumen, the Matchroom Team was born. By the mid 1980s, Hearn managed most of the top players in the game and the so-called "Matchroom Mob" took snooker to countries far and wide as the game enjoyed an unprecedented boom. Nobody who saw it will ever forget Steve's first Embassy World Championship win as Hearn appeared like a projectile from the audience to nearly flatten his star player at their moment of triumph. Such was his dominance that he was virtually unbeatable throughout the 1980s, but as Stephen Hendry came to the fore, Davis' pre-eminence diminished. Although Davis still won tournaments after Hendry took over as world champion and world No.1, his fearsome dominance of the game was at an end. One of Steve's greatest moments came in February 1997 in the B&H Masters, as he beat Ronnie O'Sullivan 10-8 to pick up a cheque for Ł135,000 - Steve's biggest one-off pay day. His win completed his hat trick of B&H titles and it gave him great satisfaction to prove that he could still challenge among all the talented players in the 1990s. Although he'd rather forget it, he was part of the biggest night in the history of BBC snooker when 18.5million people - watching live coverage after midnight - saw him lose the world championship final to Dennis Taylor on the last black in 1985. Davis was the first to make a ratified maximum break in a major tournament when he hit a 147 break against John Spencer in the Lada Classic at Oldham, Greater Manchester, on 11 January 1982. Three consecutive century breaks were first compiled in a major tournament by Davis: 108, 101 and 104 at Stoke-on-Trent, Staffs, in September 1988. Life outside the top 16 has proved difficult for Davis. His best performance in a ranking event in the 2000/01 season was in reaching the last 16 of the British Open. He also lost out on an invitation to the B&H Masters. And for the past two seasons, having previously been an ever present since 1979, he has also missed out on making the finals of the Embassy World Championship at The Crucible – although Steve says he is still not ready to retire!