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How Steve Davis tried to keep a straight face with Cannon and Ball and lost!
A little while ago you may have seen Steve on the Cannon and Ball special, in which he turned a snooker playing sketch into a comedy classic according to Tommy and Bobby.
“We were most impressed with his coolness,” says Tommy, “because for the sketch we deliberately asked him not to respond to any of our antics.
“Steve handled this difficult situation superbly, and managed to keep a straight face practically all the way through.
“This is, of course, until Bobby threatened him with a karate chop. That was the only time he couldn’t stop his face creasing into a smile.”
Steve enjoyed his part in the show, too, saying: “I’d never finish a game for laughing with opponents like these!”
Can Steve win back his world title?
Luckily, then, that Tommy and Bobby won’t be taking part in the World Championships in Sheffield this week, the biggest snooker event of the year! The player most will be watching closely is Steve: we at Look-In are pretty sure of that because in our recent popularity poll he was voted favourite sports personality!
As Steve – who should figure prominently in the TV coverage – has proved, it’s never too early to start in the game. He was just two years old when he first picked up a cue. “It would be nice to think that’s what got me going,” he says, “but apart from seeing a photograph of myself standing next to the table, I don’t remember a thing about it.
“What I do remember is my second introduction to the game. I was four or five and as a treat my dad took me to his club to watch him play. And although my head barely came above the table, I remember disrupting the game by reaching for the black ball. Not the lower scoring pink or blue, mind you, but the high-scoring black!”
Steve has been reaching for the black ever since. He continues: “I started taking the game seriously when I was 14. And from the word go I had enough confidence to know that snooker was going to be the most important thing in my life.”
He’s won everything that the game has to offer, but after getting knocked out in the first round of last years World Championship he’s eager to get his title back (he was the 1981 champion). Which is bad news for his rivals, who can probably expect another decade of Davis mastery: “I reckon I’ve got another ten good years left, and after that I’ll settle for retirement in my thirties. I’ve always wanted to live a life of luxury!”