Welsh former professional snooker player, 6-time world champion

Raymond Reardon, MBE (born 8 October 1932) is a Welsh retired professional snooker player. He turned professional in 1967 at the age of 35 before going on to dominate the sport in the 1970s, winning the World Snooker Championship on six occasions, and more than a dozen other tournaments. He was world champion in 1970, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976 and 1978, and runner-up in the 1982 event. He won the inaugural Pot Black tournament in 1969, the 1976 Masters and the 1982 Professional Players Tournament.

Reardon was the first number one ranked player when world rankings were introduced in the 1976–77 season, holding the top ranking position for the next five years. He regained the number one ranking in 1982, but his form declined thereafter and he dropped out of the elite top-16 ranked players after the 1986–87 season. He retired from the professional game in 1991.

Reardon remained one of snooker's top players into his 50s, setting a number of records. In 1978, he became the oldest world champion at the age of 45 years and 203 days, a record that lasted until 2022 when Ronnie O'Sullivan won the *le aged 46 years and 148 days. Reardon is still the oldest player to win a ranking event, which he accomplished in 1982, aged 50 years and 14 days. His highest break in compe*ion was 146. He worked with O'Sullivan in a coaching role, helping him to win the 2004 World Snooker Championship. Reardon's dark widow's peak and sharp-toothed grin earned him the nickname "Dracula".

Contents

• 1 Early life
• 2 Amateur snooker career
• 3 Professional snooker career: Six times World snooker champion
• 4 Later professional career
• 5 Retirement and legacy
• 6 Performance and rankings timeline
• 7 Career finals
  • 7.1 Ranking finals: 6 (5 *les)
  • 7.2 Non-ranking finals: 44 (19 *les)
  • 7.3 Team finals: 6 (3 *les)
  • 7.4 Pro-am finals: 3 (1 *le)
  • 7.5 Amateur finals: 8 (7 *les)
• 8 Notes
• 9 References
• 10 Bibliography

Early life

Reardon was born on 8 October 1932, in the coal mining community of Tredegar in Monmouthshire, Wales. He was introduced to a version of snooker by his uncle when he was 8 years old, and by the age of ten he was practicing cue sports twice-weekly at Tredegar Workmen's Ins*ute as well as on a scaled-down billiard table at home. He primarily played English billiards rather than snooker, which authors Luke Williams and Paul Gadsby claim helped improve his control of the cue ball and his potting. He turned down a place at a grammar school to become a miner at Ty Trist Colliery, aged 14, following in the footsteps of his father. He wore white gloves whilst mining, to protect his hands for snooker.

After a rockfall in which he was buried for three hours, he quit mining and became a police officer in 1960 when his family moved to Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, England.

Amateur snooker career

In 1949, Reardon won the News of the World Amateur *le, and was awarded an ash cue stick, presented by Joe Davis. Reardon used this cue until it fell apart shortly after the 1978 World Snooker Championship final. He reached the final of the 1949–50 under-19 Junior championship, where he lost 2–3 to Jack Carney. Reardon won the Welsh Amateur Championship in 1950, defeating the defending champion John Ford 5–3 in the final, and retained the *le each year to 1955. Reardon played Tommy Gordon in the final of the 1956 English Amateur Championship, and led 7–3 after the first day, but lost the tip from his cue early on the second day, and was defeated 9–11.

In Tredegar, Reardon played Cliff Wilson (born 1934), who was also from the town, in a succession of money matches as well as facing him several times in amateur tournaments. In The Story of Billiards and Snooker (1979), Clive Everton describes their contests, which attracted hundreds of supporting spectators, as "modern snooker's nearest equivalent to a bare knuckle prize fight."

After losing in the first round of the 1957 English Amateur Championship, Reardon decided to take time out from the compe*ion to work on improving his game, and did not enter the championship again until 1964, when he won the *le, defeating John Spencer 11–8 in the final. This victory led to an invitation to tour South Africa with Jonathan Barron, which proved to be so successful that Reardon was offered the chance to tour the country again as a professional. On the basis of this offer, Reardon resigned from the police and turned professional in 1967.

Professional snooker career: Six times World snooker champion

Reardon's first appearance at the World Snooker Championship was in 1969, in a quarter-final, against Fred Davis. The match featured lengthy tactical exchanges between the players, resulting in some of the longest sessions ever to take place in world championship history to that point. No player was ahead by more than two frames until Reardon won the 27th frame to lead 15–12, after which Davis won six successive frames. The pair were level again at 24–24 in the best of 49 frames contest, meaning that the match went to a deciding frame. In the 49th frame, Davis compiled a break of 52, and after Davis added some points in further visits, Reardon conceded the frame at 64 points behind with one red ball remaining. In July 1969, the BBC started broadcasting Pot Black, initially a compe*ion of one-frame matches, which became popular with viewers and enhanced the profile and earning power of the participants. Reardon won the first series by defeating Spencer by 88 points to 29 in the final.

Reardon won his first world *le in April 1970, defeating Davis in the quarter-finals, Spencer in the semi-finals, and John Pulman 37–33 in the final, having led 27–14 before Pulman reduced the lead to one frame at 34–33. The next world championship was played in Australia in November 1970, and Reardon topped the round-robin group, winning all four of his matches. This meant he qualified for the semi-finals, where Spencer achieved a winning margin against him at 25–7 and finished the match 34–15 ahead after dead frames. Reardon won the October 1971 edition of the Park Drive 2000, defeating Spencer 4–3 in the final after placing second to him in the round-robin. In the Spring 1972 edition, Reardon made a break of 146 in the round-robin stage, which was the highest-ever break in compe*ive play at that time. This remained the highest official break of his career, as he never made a maximum break of 147 in tournament play.

He lost his first match at the 1972 World Snooker Championship, 22–25 to Rex Williams in the quarter-finals. At the 1973 World Snooker Championship, he reached the final with wins over Jim Meadowcroft (16–10), and Spencer (23–22, having trailed 12–10) in Manchester. In the final, he lost the first 7 frames to Eddie Charlton, but took 17 of the next 23 frames to hold a four frame advantage at 17–13. Reardon moved into a 27–25 lead, at which point he complained to the organisers about the television lighting which was reflecting on object balls. When the organisers declined to act, Reardon approached the tournament sponsors, threatening to withdraw, after which the lighting was changed. Reardon was 31–29 ahead going into the last day, and won 38–32 to claim his second world *le.

Reardon retained the *le in 1974, eliminating Meadowcroft (15–3), Marcus Owen (15–11) and Davis (15–3) from the compe*ion before and defeating Graham Miles 22–12 in the final. In a post-match interview, Reardon said that he felt he had not played "any better than mediocre" in the final, but that Miles had not put him any pressure. He added that "I don't feel the elation that I felt at winning last year." Reardon also won the 1974 Pontins Professional. He led 9–4 in the final, and won 10–9 after Spencer had taken five consecutive frames to force a deciding frame.

At the inaugural Masters in 1975, Reardon reached the final by winning 5–4 on the pink ball against Williams in the semi-final, and lost the final 8–9 to Spencer on a re-spotted black. At the 1975 World Snooker Championship, held in Australia, he had a tough quarter-final with Spencer which he won 19–17. He then eliminated Alex Higgins 19–14 to meet Charlton in the final. Reardon led 16–8, but Charlton won the following nine frames. Charlton went on to lead 28–23, but Reardon then won seven of the next eight frames to lead 30–29. Charlton took the sixtieth frame to tie the match but Reardon took the vital sixty-first frame and won the *le for the third successive year. A week later, Reardon was at Pontins in the UK, where he retained the professional *le and won the Open *le.

In January 1976, he won the Masters with a 7–3 win against Miles in the final. He had defeated Pulman in the quarter-final 4–1, in a match where the highest break was only 22 (by Pulman), and Charlton 5–4 in the semi-final.

Reardon won his fifth world *le at the 1976 World Snooker Championship, defeating John Dunning 15–7, Dennis Taylor 15–2 and Perrie Mans 20–10. During the final against Higgins, Reardon complained about the television lighting, which was changed, the quality of the table, to which adjustments were subsequently made, and the referee, who was replaced. Higgins led in the early stages of the match, but Reardon won twelve of the next fifteen frames from 15 to 13 for a 27–16 victory. He also won the 1976 World Professional Match-play Championship in Australia, defeating the event's promoter Charlton 31–24 in the final.

He reached the final of the 1977 Masters, which he lost 6–7 to Doug Mountjoy after progressing past Williams (4–1) and Miles (5–2), and was also runner-up at the 1977 Benson & Hedges Ireland Tournament, 2–5 to Higgins. Reardon's unbeaten run at the World Championship ended in 1977, when he lost to Spencer in the quarter-finals 6–13, his first defeat since his loss to Williams in 1972.

Reardon regained the *le in 1978 winning it for the sixth and final time by beating Mountjoy 13–9 (after trailing 2–7), Bill Werbeniuk 13–6, Charlton 18–14 and lastly Mans 25–18 in the final. Reardon became the oldest winner of the World Championship, at the age of 45 years and 203 days. Shortly after this, Reardon regained the Pontins Professional *le, taking it for the fourth time in five years, by defeating Spencer 7–2 in the final. In the same year, his old rival from Tredegar, Wilson, won the World Amateur Championship.

Later professional career

Towards the end of 1978 Reardon beat Patsy *an 6–1 and Higgins 11–9 to win the one-off "Champion of Champions" event sponsored by the Daily Mirror and held at the Wembley Conference Centre, and he won the 1979 Forward Chemicals Tournament.

1979 saw Reardon regain his Pot Black *le by defeating Mountjoy 2–1 in the final. It was Reardon's first win since he won the inaugural event in 1969, although he was runner up in 1970, 1972 and 1980. At the 1979 World Championship, he lost to Dennis Taylor in the quarter-final, and was eliminated by David Taylor at the same stage in 1980. He went a stage further in 1981, beating Spencer 13–11 and Werbeniuk 13–10 before being defeated Mountjoy in the semi-finals. Mountjoy scored a championship record break of 145 during the match, which he won 16–10.

Reardon joined with Mountjoy and the reigning World Champion Terry Griffiths, to win the first World Challenge Cup for Wales, defeating England (Fred Davis, Spencer and Miles) 14–3 in the final. The same Wales team retained the *le in 1980.

Reardon whitewashed Steve Davis 6–0 in the 1982 Highland Masters semi-final, and an event Reardon went on to win with an 11–4 defeat of Spencer in the final. He reached the world championship final in 1982, losing to Higgins 15–18. In reaching the final he defeated Jim Donnelly (10–5), John Virgo (13–8), and Silvino Francisco (13–8), and, in the semi-finals, Charlton by 16–11 after winning five successive frames from 11 to 11 win. In the final, Reardon built a 5–3 lead, but was 7–10 behind at the end of the first day. Later, Reardon levelled at 15–15, but Higgins won the last three frames to claim the *le.

For the 1982/3 season Reardon returned to number one in the world rankings, which at the time was based only on performances at the World Championships over previous years. He won the Professional Players Tournament in late 1982, beating Jimmy White 10–5 in the final, reached the final of the Benson & Hedges Masters, losing 7–9 to Thorburn, and went on to win the 1983 International Masters, where he defeated Davis 2–1 in the semi-final group stages, before prevailing 9–6 against White 9–6 in the final, having trailed 3–5. His victory in the Professional Players Tournament saw him become the oldest winner of a ranking tournament, at 50 years and 14 days. Reardon also regained the Welsh Professional *le, eliminating Griffiths 9–4 and Mountjoy 9–1 in the semi-final and final respectively. At the 1983 World Snooker Championship, he lost 12–13 in the second round to Tony Knowles, and at the 1984 Championship he reached the quarter-finals, where he was eliminated 2–13 by Kirk Stevens.

Reardon wore spectacles for the first time in a match at the 1985 British Open. He lost 4–5 to Dave Martin after leading 4–1. At the 1985 World Snooker Championship, playing with un*isted vision, Reardon reached the semi-finals, where he lost 5–16 to Davis. He lost to John Campbell in the first round of the 1986 World Snooker Championship, and to Davis in the second round in 1987.

He dropped out of the top 16 rankings in 1987. Reardon whitewashed Davis 5–0 in the third round of the 1988 British Open, using his old cue with which he had won his world *les, having been encouraged to rebuild it by Davis. However, in the next round, played under TV lighting, Reardon suffered a drying of contact lenses (which he had started using in 1987) and lost 2–5 to David Roe, having led 2–1.

Retirement and legacy

Reardon played his last compe*ive ranking match in the second qualifying round for the 1991 World Snooker Championship. He was defeated 5–10 by Jason Prince, losing three frames on the black. After this, Reardon announced that "there was no bitterness on part" but he would not be returning. Having slipped to 127th in the provisional ranking and now aged 58, Reardon called a halt to his playing career, mentioning that he had not entered any tournaments for the following season because the qualifying event dates clashed with his exhibition commitments on the holiday camp circuit, but adding that "even if it were feasible, I wouldn't play" except in invitation or seniors events. He later played in the 2000 World Seniors Masters where he lost his opening one-frame match 46–69 to Miles. He advised Ronnie O'Sullivan on his way to his 2004 World Championship victory, giving him psychological and tactical help.

When the snooker world rankings were introduced in 1976, Reardon was the first number one, retaining that position until 1981/1982. His win in the 1982 Professional Players Tournament at the age of 50 contributed to his recapturing the world number one position in the first set of rankings to be calculated on tournaments other than the World Championship. Reardon and Spencer were the first players to exploit the commercial opportunities made available by the increasing interest in snooker in the early 1970s. After winning Pot Black in 1969 and the world *le in 1970, Reardon took up offers for exhibition matches and holiday camp exhibition engagements. However, Everton and Gordon Burn (1986) have both noted that Reardon's peak as a player pre-dated the real boom in snooker that happened in the 1980s.

In January 1976, Reardon appeared on This is Your Life, with guests including Spencer, Charlton, Higgins, Pulman, Miles, Jackie Rea, Cliff Thorburn and Joyce Gardner. Reardon's prominent eye teeth and widow's peak led to him being nicknamed "Dracula". The sobriquet was first used by Paul Daniels after Reardon appeared on one of Daniels's television shows. Everton has described Reardon in his early career as a "deadly long potter", and praised his "the nerve with which he identified and seizes frame winning openings." Jack Karnehm wrote that Reardon achieved "complete and utter dominance of the game" by 1976, and "had a determination and will to win unequalled since the heyday of Joe Davis." Williams and Gadsby describe Reardon as "without doubt the most successful snooker player of the 1970s" and claim "he set new standards for mental for*ude" in the game.

Davis saw Reardon play at Pontins in Prestatyn in 1975, and incorporated elements that he had observed in Reardon into his own game: a pause before hitting the cue ball, and his approach. Burn wrote "Ray Reardon behaved as if he thought he was special. And Steve -with a little encouragement from Barry - decided that was how he was going to behave from now on." However, Davis said that he lost some respect for Reardon when, as a new professional he experienced Reardon asking for the pack of red balls to be re-racked six times as he claimed that the referee had not placed them correctly. Davis, unsettled by what he felt might be gamesmanship on Reardon's part, lost the match 0–4. Spencer stated in his autobiography that he was never friendly with Reardon, and said that Reardon "was the sort of person who could laugh 24 hours a day if it was to his advantage."

Reardon now resides in Devon. He is currently the president of the golf club in Churston. Reardon made a playing appearance at a Snooker Legends evening in Plymouth in July 2010. He was awarded the MBE in 1985. The Welsh Open trophy was renamed the Ray Reardon Trophy in his honour, starting with the 2017 edition of the tournament.

Performance and rankings timeline

Career finals

Sources for the ranking and non-ranking final results can be found in the Performance timeline section above.

Ranking finals: 6 (5 *les)

Non-ranking finals: 44 (19 *les)

Team finals: 6 (3 *les)

Pro-am finals: 3 (1 *le)

Amateur finals: 8 (7 *les)

Notes

References

Bibliography

• Burn, Gordon (2008) . Pocket money. London: Faber & Faber. ISBN:978-0571236831.
• Everton, Clive (1985). Snooker: The Records. Enfield: Guinness Superlatives. ISBN:0851124488.
• Everton, Clive (1986). The History of Snooker and Billiards. Haywards Heath: Partridge Press. ISBN:1852250135.
• Hayton, Eric; Dee, John (2004). The CueSport Book of Professional Snooker: The Complete Record & History. Lowestoft: Rose Villa Publications. ISBN:978-0954854904.
• Morrison, Ian (1987). The Hamlyn Encyclopedia of Snooker - revised edition. Twickenham: Hamlyn Publishing Group. ISBN:0600556042.
• Morrison, Ian (1988). Hamlyn Who's Who in Snooker. London: Hamlyn. ISBN:0600557138.
• Morrison, Ian (1989). Snooker: records, facts and champions. Enfield: Guinness Superlatives Ltd. ISBN:0851123643.
• Williams, Luke; Gadsby, Paul (2005). Masters of the Baize. Edinburgh: Mainstream. ISBN:1840188723.