One of snookers most prolific champions, Steve Davis conquered the 1980s with a style of match play that proved too difficult for most at the time. As the champion of the 1980s, Steve Davis etched his name into World Championship history with a collection of six titles obtained throughout the decade, earning his place at the mountaintop of the golden age of snooker. Let’s look at each of his triumphs.
1981
At just 23 years old, Davis had stiff competition in his journey to win his maiden world title. Davis was only seeded 13th but was a strong favourite to lift the title, with the prospect becoming far more likely given his victories over Jimmy White and three former champions in Alex Higgins, Terry Griffiths and Cliff Thorburn. Davis went through hard fought matches to reach the final where he faced Doug Mountjoy in an effort that resulted in a 18-12 victory.
1983
In one of his strongest WSC performances, Davis only lost 31 frames out of a possible 135, with 11 resulting from his second-round match against Dennis Taylor. Davis otherwise had fairly comfortable matches against Rex Williams (R1), Eddie Charlton (QF), Alex Higgins (SF) and then 1980 champion Cliff Thorburn in the final (18-6). The final was watched by just under 10 million viewers on BBC 2 as snooker was still reaching its great heights in popularity and Davis truly begun his period of dominance.
1984
Davis became the first person to successfully defend his title at The Crucible as his voyage included wins over Warren King, John Spencer, Terry Griffiths and Dennis Taylor. He would then face a young Jimmy White in the final which saw a match of swings and roundabouts as Davis led 12-4 after the opening day. White was able to reduce the deficit to 13-11 and kept matters close to the very end where Davis was able to pull away with a result of 18-16.
1987
It had been two years since Davis lifted his last title yet he would contest the final in both the years that he didn’t win. One of these many would remember as the famous 1985 final against Dennis Taylor; and in 1986, Davis would lose out to Joe Johnson – a loss he would have a chance to rectify in 1987. Davis would have to go through the usual suspects such as Warren King, Ray Reardon, Terry Griffiths and Jimmy White to get a chance at this redemption. It was a closer encounter than that of 1986 with Davis showing his steel-minded temperament as he pushed away the thoughts of the previous two finals as he clinched number four.
1988
There didn’t seem to be much standing in the way of Davis and his fifth world title. Rather, it was a series of comfortable matches with Davis’s hardest test coming in the opening round in the form of John Virgo and a 10-8 victory. The remainder of Davis’s contests against Mike Hallett, Tony Drago, Cliff Thorburn and even Terry Griffiths in the final proved to be unchallenging to the champion who has reclaimed control of his era. This was further exemplified with his completion of the Triple Crown in the 1987-88 season.
1989
Closing out Davis’s Sensational Six is probably his most dominant performance of them all. Perhaps his competition to the title wasn’t as fierce as prior years but Davis wasn’t playing around that year, so I think it was irrelevant who was put in front of him. After beating Steve Newbury, Steve Duggan and Mike Hallett, Davis found himself in front of the one who would eclipse his accomplishments in the decade that followed. His match against Stephen Hendry resulted in a 16-9 finish where he then felt the need to rush his final performance against John Parrott with an astonishing 18-3 score line, still the highest winning margin to this day.
And thus wraps up Steve Davis’s Sensational Six. Even if World Championships were out of the equation, Davis still racked up quite the trophy cabinet with his strong performances in other majors and ranking events. His performances during the Worlds just showed how well his style of play suited the marathon of the WSC. Similar to how effective Mark Selby is in the Worlds is exactly how Davis displayed his prowess during the 1980s.
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