A tribute to the great Ray Reardon

Stalking the snooker tables of the 1970s, Ray Reardon was a predator of positioning and potting, a dominant force in the game, who won six world titles between 1970 and 1978.

Living up to his nickname of ‘Dracula’, Ray was ruthless on the table and once he sensed blood in a snooker match, Reardon never flinched.

A proud Welshman to the core, Ray’s second love was Torbay, where he settled down with his wife Carol and swapped the snooker table for the golf course, proudly gracing the fairways of Churston Golf Club.

“I had been living in Brixham for 18 years and then moved over to Torquay and have been there for about the same length of time. I came down here on tour and fell in love with the place. It’s magic and standing on that golf course you could be anywhere in the world.”

Ray Reardon was born in the Welsh mining community of Tredegar in 1932, getting his first glimpse of cue sports at the age of eight. Billiards was his original choice, a game that honed his skills in cue ball control.

Snooker, however, was just a hobby, as Ray followed in his father’s footsteps to become a miner at the Ty Trist Colliery. He married his first wife Sue in 1959 and, after being trapped by a rockfall, he quit the mining life to become a police officer in Stoke-on-Trent.

Alongside the day job, Ray enjoyed great success in amateur snooker, winning the Welsh Amateur Championship in 1950 and then the English version in 1964, beating the great John Spencer in the final.

This triumph led him to a tour of South Africa, prompting the big move to turn professional in 1967. Two years later, he made his first appearance in the World Snooker Championship, losing to the iconic Fred Davis in a marathon quarter-final match.

National fame arrived when Ray won the first series of the new BBC show ‘Pot Black’. His first world crown came in 1970, defeating John Pulman 37-33 in the final. Ray waited until 1973 for his next world title, and then won four in a row.

At this time, the World Championship was a nomadic business, with Ray winning in Manchester and Melbourne. It was in 1977 that the tournament found its spiritual home at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield.

In 1978, Ray won the sixth and last of his world titles, setting the stage for the next period of dominance from Steve Davis, followed by the likes of Stephen Hendry and Ronnie O’Sullivan.

Ray continued to be a force at the top of the game through the 1980s but his personal life endured a major upheaval, as he left his wife Sue, with whom he had two children, to live with Carol Covington. Ray and Carol were married in Paignton in 1987 and lived happily in the Bay ever since.

He finished his snooker career in 1991, at the age of 58, settling down to retirement in Torbay, but his legacy on the table is written in history. The famed snooker commentator Jack Karnehm said of Reardon: "He had a determination and will to win unequalled since the heyday of Joe Davis.”

His prominent eye teeth and widow’s peak earned him the nickname of ‘Dracula’, with the magician Paul Daniels the first to use the sobriquet after he appeared on his TV show.

Just months before his passing, Ray proudly told his great friend David Fitzgerald: “There cannot be many, if any, people in their 90s that have had a 100 break, I must be the only one in the world. Sadly, there is nobody left from my snooker circuit who is still playing, come to think of it, I have outlived everybody from my past. All my school friends… everyone, seen them all off.”

When Carol announced the passing of her beloved Ray last week, the snooker world reacted with an outpouring of admiration for a great of the sport.

Fellow Welshman and three-time world champion Mark Williams said: “Ray was not just the best snooker player Wales has ever produced, he’s one of our best sportsmen.”

Churston GC paid their own tribute: “Thank you Ray, for being a fantastic supporter and ambassador of Churston Golf Club.”

Sleep well, Ray Reardon MBE.