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Ray Reardon, the six-time world snooker champion who was affectionately nicknamed Dracula for his widow’s peak hairline and prominent teeth, has died at the age of 91 from cancer, his wife Carol confirmed.
Reardon – who was born in Tredegar, south Wales – dominated snooker in the 1970s as he won all six of his world titles in a nine-year spell, including four straight crowns from 1973-76.
His final World Snooker Championship win came in 1978, just a year after the event first moved to the iconic Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, at the age of 45 years and 203 days – making him the oldest world champion in history at the time. That record was only broken by Ronnie O’Sullivan, a player that Reardon had coached at one point, in 2022.
Leading the tributes, three-time world champion Mark Williams said: “Ray is one of the best sports people ever from Wales and the best snooker player.
“He’s one of the reasons why a lot of us started playing. He put snooker on the map, alongside Alex Higgins, Jimmy White and Steve Davis. Anyone playing now owes them a lot because they brought popularity to the game. He is a real inspiration.”
By the time of snooker’s boom in the mid-1980s, when the sport exploded in popularity, the Welshman was a respected elder statesman of the game. He lost to long-time rival Alex ‘Hurricane’ Higgins in the memorable 1982 world final at the Crucible but, that same year, became the oldest player to win a ranking event by triumphing over Jimmy White in the final of the Professional Players Tournament at the age of 50 – a record that stands until this day.
He won two non-ranking tournaments, the Welsh Professional Championship and International Masters, in 1983 and eventually retired from professional competition in 1991. He never made a maximum 147 break in tournament play but did make the even-rarer 146.
Reardon won the inaugural Pot Black tournament in 1969 as snooker burst on to colour televisions across the UK and he was the first ever world No 1 when the rankings were introduced during the 1976-77 season, a position he held for the next five years.
He was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 1985 for services to snooker and the Welsh Open trophy was renamed the Ray Reardon Trophy in his honour from the 2017 edition of the tournament onwards.
He lived in Devon in his later life and was president of the golf club in Churston, while managing to hit a century break in his local club at the age of 91.
His impact on the sport can also be measured by those who took inspiration from him. Steve Davis, the undisputed dominant force of the 1980s, had watched Reardon play at Pontins in 1975 and incorporated aspects of the then-43-year-old’s game into his own. That included a short pause before hitting the cue ball, his overall approach to the shot and mimicking the way Reardon acted around the table, thinking he was special.
Ahead of the 2004 World Championship, Reardon mentored O’Sullivan by giving him psychological and tactical help, mostly focusing on his safety play. ‘The Rocket’ would go on to win his second world title by beating Graeme Dott 18-8 in the final that year and credited Reardon in his winner’s speech. The two maintained a warm relationship for the remainder of his life. “Ray Reardon brought a side to the game I never knew existed,” O’Sullivan would later say, while citing Reardon as one of the three most influential people in his career. “I learnt it and now I appreciate it and use it a lot.”
Reardon, born in 1932 in the coal-mining community of Tredegar in Monmouthshire, had been introduced to cue sports as an eight-year-old by his uncle and although initially focused on English billiards, his aptitude for snooker became apparent. He won the News of the World amateur title in 1949 and had a successful amateur career for many years.
He initially worked as a miner at Ty Trist Colliery, wearing white gloves while mining to protect his hands for snooker but, after being buried in a rockfall for three hours in 1960, changed career to become a policeman and moved to Stoke in England. He would turn professional in 1967, at the age of 34, and his 1969 victory in the inaugural Pot Black tournament – a series of one-frame matches broadcast by the BBC – thrust him into prominence.
He won his first of six world titles in 1970 by defeating John Pulman 37-33 in the final and began a decade of snooker dominance, which included a satisfying 27-16 win over Higgins in the 1976 final. The gentlemanly, polite and steady Reardon stood in notable contrast to the wild, untamed, unreliable style of Higgins both on and off the table, adding a fascinating personal twist to their long-time rivalry. Higgins would earn his revenge in the 1982 world final leading to one of the most iconic moments in the history of snooker when the Northern Irishman beckoned his partner and baby daughter to come and celebrate lifting the trophy alongside him.
Reardon made a good living on the lucrative snooker exhibition circuit throughout his life and was a mainstay on British television screens throughout the 1970s and 80s with appearances on shows such as This is Your Life, Parkinson, A Question of Sport and The Paul Daniels Magic Show. It was on the latter where he first earned the nickname ‘Dracula’, with the mischievous Daniels suggesting the title due to the Weslhman’s dark widow’s peak hairline and sharp-toothed grin. The genial Reardon leaned into the nickname which stuck with him for the rest of his career.
He married Sue, a pottery painter, in 1959 and the pair had two children together before divorcing in 1986. Reardon had left his wife in 1985 to live with Carol Covington and he told Daily Mirror reporters that Sue had been “fully informed” of his eight-year affair with Covington, who he would go on to marry in 1987.
