How lovely is that atmosphere? Playing by the light of a single candle. A polite, civilised round of applause from the crowd, who are lurking somewhere deep within the void. Stop the modernisation of snooker right now. It's just heartbreaking that he missed that difficult grey in the end.
For years I made the mistake that most people make, thinking that the players of old weren't as good as the players of today. But of course, if they had had modern cloths, cushions, balls and most importantly, 6 hours a day practice, they would have had the same level of break building. And in Joes case, a superior level. Joe Davis was only ever beaten off level terms 4 times in his life. And all of those defeats were in later life, and at the hands of his own brother who was himself 8 times world champion. That's how good Joe Davis was.
@@amac1657 lol. 4 time amateur champion Marcus Owen didn't get a shot at the world's til 1973 when he was 39. Only inviting people you can easily beat is not playing the best players. English amateur was the real world championship.
I have a copy of Joe's "How I Play Snooker" book which was signed by Joe in 1953. This was the book which Steve Davis learned to play from as his "bible" (not the same copy!) and a few days after Steve retired in 2016 I met him and got his signature underneath Joe's. To have both the legendary Davis' signatures on the same page of the book showing Joe Davis 1953 and Steve Davis 2016 is something I'm very happy to have 🙂
I was a county player and had 100 breaks But those old balls where a nightmare pre crystallite balls Heavy and real lack of control,Joe was the godfather father of the game.
This man was pure class in every sense. Be interesting to see the modern day players play with these balls, pre super crystalite! Joe had the cue ball on a piece of string and was so fast too!
At the end of the day Joe Davis dominated snooker for 20 odd years. He won the world championship 15 consecutive times, people say he wouldn't be that good now, probably not, but he was back then. How was Joe Davis to know that in 80 years time players would be making 800 centuries throughout their career and 10 or more maximum breaks? For what the game was back then Joe Davis was the best and for that he can be considered one of the greats.
I disagree on this one. Joe Davis retired with 690 career centuries. That's twice as many as Steve Davis. A century is a century. It doesn't matter the quality of your opposition. And Joe made almost as many as Ronnie O'Sullivan has. I think Joe would win 4-5 world titles if he played today. And if he played in the 70s and 80s I think he would have won about 10. He was a much better scorer than anyone in the 1980s. It's only really the 1990s that players have caught him up
wideernie To be fair, exhibitions were pretty much all there was to play in then. Joe only counted centuries scored on standard tables where the public had paid admission.
I think we also have to bear in mind that the quality of balls and tables must have increased and, unlike now, there wasn't the wealth of other players to help raise the standard of the game.
I think you have to take into consideration that his usual matches were best of 70 odd frames and lasted days he probably played more frames in one year than most players these days in their careers. Also when you are playing the same person (usually his little brother) every week you are going to get good scores.
Those people saying the pockets are 'huge' are basing it on a very poor quality picture. There is practically no real definition, the pockets aren't defined at all and appear 'spread' out. I used to play on an old table as a teenager - those pockets were damn tight! Joe Davis was a wonderful player. Look at the compact cue action, the rock solid stance, and the way he has to strike through with power on so many shots due to those heavy old balls. With today's equipment he would be a true force in the game just as he was in his prime, which by the way he was well past here, aged 61.
The pockets were a little bigger, but the balls were much heavier and harder to put, cue ball harder to control. And the equipment and table were no where near as perfect! Joe Davis the great!
it's the exact opposite. Here's a good example. Joe Davis main rivals' were his brother Fred Davis, and John Pulman. Fred Davis retired with 7 career centuries, and Pulman retired with 9. And Joe Davis retired with 688! Believe me, he was a real genuine prodigy. A mozart of the snooker world. A million miles ahead of everyone else. He would be winning world championships if he played now
Fred Davis and John Pulman made many more than 7 and 9 centuries in their careers! Davis was the first player to make a break of 140 in the world championship, beating his brothers best of 136. The trouble is that scoring records in tournament snooker before the late 60’s is very inaccurate and precarious. Hundreds of frames were never recorded and centuries have certainly been lost. Twice world champion Walter Donaldson has breaks of 142 and 143 in his career, neither of which were officially recorded. Joe Davis’s tally was counted over his lifetime by the way. Horace Lindrum made around 1000 centuries in his lifetime, so there were other heavy hitters around. Fred Davis made (at least) 40 recorded professional centuries, including a televised one in the 1980 world championship aged 66. I don’t think that achievement will ever be matched.
@@chrismooney9275 A niche sport which requires specialized equipment played by a very small country. And this holds true for snooker even today to some extent, imagine back then. Sure, Joe Davis had a great z-score, but the sample size is piss poor to be making comparisons to his contemporaries. He'd very likely be among the greats even in this generation, but it's just best to not make comparisons (in any sports) when the dynamics of the sport change so much.
To me, this man is the true genius of the game. Before Joe, players potted two or three reds and colours, then played safe. Joe totally transformed the game and elevated the game into an art form. Even today, relatively little has been added to Joe's contribution.
This is great, thanks. I’d never seen Joe Davis play before. Great to see how he played so quickly. And Ted Lowe sounding just the same all those years ago!
Why are people so hostile about videos?...Joe is an absolute legend. If it wasn't for him all the modern players wouldnt even exist..he was the original snooker genius
He taught me how to hold a cue at my father's billiard hall! He was very smartly dressed, I remember, with a waistcoat and brilliantined hair. We went up some stairs, away from the other tables to a quiet room with a light flooding the table and he stepped forward into the light's glow.
Jesus, I remember during the war.......snooker balls were like rugby balls made of solid lead and cues were sweeping brushes. I used to have to walk 50miles to the nearest snooker hall in the pissins of rain and get pneumonia twice a week. They have it too handy today. Even the toss for the break was much harder to win.
Amazing…you can tell from the sound that the balls are so much heavier than modern ones. Remarkable break given the balls and heavy cloth. Nice to hear a younger Ted Lowe too.
thankyou Priam231, i watched this thinking it was 'fred' davis, what a great surprise! i never thought i'd get to see the great man himself playing, AMAZING!!!
GREATEST snooker player OF ALL TIME . UNMATCHED.His right eye could not focus so he played with the cue under the left of his chin and shot using his LEFT eye . He WAS right handed.
Great movement of positional play from Joe at 3:50 and again on 4:40 (to get on the next red after the pink). What always impresses me is not just his great cue ball control but his speed, considering he was 61 when he made this break! I'd love to see todays players playing with the old heavy balls. They'd need to adapt their technique's I feel. Joe, Fred, Horace Lindrum et al, all had very powerful stances and their cue arm went fully through each stroke.
No wonder he was virtually unbeatable in his day - his positional play and cueball control is like a (very very good) modern player. He would fit in just fine in the modern game, unlike many who dominated in the 70s and 80s
People questioning whether Joe Davis would have been able to compete in today's game. But today's game would not be what it is without him. He literally wrote the book on how to play snooker and without him the standard of the game would be behind what it currently is
My father was having a game with his brother; J.D. was watching with interest. He spoke to them, 'I never realised that snooker was such a difficult game'!
Wow! This is the first time I have seen Joe Davis play and I didn't know what to expect. People have always said he was great and this is the proof. Were the tables and the balls the same dimensions then?
The tables certainly were and I'm pretty sure the balls were the same size. The balls were made of a different and less lively material than used today and the cloth was much slower. Overall, more difficult than today.
Ha ha! Some funny comment!s!Aged 10, I actually saw this break on my parents tv. Joe was the best of his generation. On demo matches, he'd ask someone to put the cue ball, a red and a handkerchief anywhere on the table. He'd guarantee to pot the red and leave the cue ball on the handkerchief. Remember that in those days, as others commenters have said, the cushions were much less responsive and the balls much heavier than now, so the brilliant screw shots etc. that stars like Ronnie O and others can do now weren't possible then. Nice comments though!
How spoiled are we in todays world to be able to watch snooker in such high quality sound and picture quality? None of it may not have happened tho if it wasn't for Joe paving the way to putting snooker into the spotlight! Many thanks Joe
If you want to know how good Joe Davis was............ His main rivals throughout his career were his brother, Fred Davis and John Pulman. Fred Davis retired with 7 career centuries. Pulman retired with 9 career centuries. Joe Davis retired with 687 career centuries. That's 10x as many as Ray Reardon. And twice as many as Steve Davis. And nearly 100x as many as anyone else in his era. A century is a century. It doesn't matter who the opponent, sat there watching you is. I'm certain Joe Davis would have absolutely dominated the 1970s and 1980s if he was playing then. It was only really in the 1990s when players started to match his sheer scoring. But I think Joe Davis would have even won multiple world titles in the 1990s. And he'd certainly be in the mix in the 2000s as well. Players just didn't retire with hundreds of career centuries, until the 1990s. The top players in the 70s and 80s were retiring with 60-70 career centuries. They just didn't score heavily enough. And Joes Davis was retiring with almost 700 career centuries in the 1950s! Put the 1940s Joe Davis on a table with present day Ronnie O'Sullivan right now, and it would be a close game. Believe me
you twat...Joe's 687 centuries included all his exhibitions and shows...he only made a handful in tournament play (because there were hardly any tournaments), If Steve Davis added all his exhibition tons it would dwarf Joe's tally. That's not a criticism of Joe, it's just a criticism of you comparing stats that aren't comparable.
And let's not forget that Joe only played in the final of most of those world championships.Alex Higgins won the 1972 championship and I don't think he got one century in the tournament.He certainly did not get one in the final...and it was best of 75 frames!Spencer got a 123 and Higgins' best was 93.Ronnie O'Sullivan's strike rate is a century every 11 frames throughout his career.Alex Higgins used to advertise that he had made over 16000 centuries in exhibitions.I saw Alex in his prime back in the late seventies and he only made 1 century in about 30 frames I watched.But the shots he played!
His main rival was his little brother who he never took seriously - every clip I’ve seen when he’s spoke about Fred he’s been sarcastic. A century is a century but if the players today counted their practice and exhibition centuries like Joe did they would have double his tally.
Leicester Square Hall (previously Thurston's)was in Leicester Square, London. It was the home of profesional billiards and snooker. Owned by the Automobile Association, it was closed shortly after Joe's 147 (against Willie Smith in 1955). Fred Davis made the last century break (against Joe) there, which was in fact televised. Shame the camera's weren't there a couple of weeks before!
Snooker was a very different game back then Joe Davis must of been a real class act to be making big breaks back then under totally different conditions to what the players have now one of snookers first real greats
I remember on TV in the 1960’s Joe putting the cue ball on top of the cushion in the right hand corner, sending the ball round the table, going round the pockets and it dropping in the pocket where it started. How he did it I don’t know but I would love for someone to explain.
Joe Davis was the best player ever to pick up a cue ,, not only was he playing on dead tables with very small badly cut pockets , but the cloth was thick and very slow , also the balls were not of what you would call quality ,and of course apart from that a lot of shots played today were invented by him for players today to copy , people tend to forget that,, Joe also won more titles that any player under very poor conditions , a record which will never be beaten ,try in your local club to bang ball along the black rail like players do on TV you will find all those type of shots wont go in , the pockets on those old tables were very small with sharp corners , shots had to be perfect , I think Joe would have had a field day playing on these tables today he would have thought the game was easy .
AshStrat1 I think you should rewatch the video of you think these pockets are tight. They are massive. And the argument you've made about the cloth being thick just means you can control the cue ball with bigger margins for error. I think you're delusional - he wouldn't survive in today's game
Don't forget that the qualifying rules were diffrent then, with the reigning champ 'seeded' making it easier to get to the 'final'. Having said that, you can only beat what is around you and in 20, other's had the opportunity to become as good but they didn't, so Joe has to be considered a great. There are great players today, who have previous generations to watch and learn from, as the game is now global. Joe had no such luxuries, no TV, internet, sky sports he set the standards as the Daddy.
Something that I've not noticed before is that Joe, although right- handed appears to have a master left eye. Surely having a dominant left eye while being right-handed (or vice versa if left-handed) would put you at a disadvantage as your head would be in an unnatural position while looking and aiming along the cue. Therefore you would need to adapt your body position to allow for this.
Joe Davis is the greatest Snooker Player of all times. Ronnie is still in half way.
12 років тому+2
CARAMBA... EU ASSISTIR ESSE VIDEO A VÁRIOS MINTOS E NÃO VÍ A CARA DO ADVERSÁRIO DESSE VELHINHO... JOE DAVIS... O MELHOR DA SINUCA EM TODOS OS TEMPOS...!!!!!!!!!!
Interesting comment but think of it like this. When Joe Davis was playing they were Ivory balls, much heavier than aramith which are used today. The Ivory balls were not perfectly round. The nap on the table was much heavier making shots more difficult, cushions reacted differently. Pockets were tighter back then as well. No temperature controlled environment as they have today. In all,Davis notched up over 600 century breaks using Ivory balls.
markyboy1704 sorry but they weren't ivory balls . they were a synthetic material that was heavier than modern balls and as for not being perfectly spherical that is ridiculous ! the technology to make spherical balls certainly existed otherwise we would not have ball bearings , which we certainly did
Ivory balls were phased out by about 1930.One tusk provided 3 or 4 balls as only the thickest first part of the tusk could be used.So four dead elephants to make a set of balls was deemed excessive.The composition ball was introduced,made of phenol resin,which later became the trademark "Crystalate" and eventually "Super Crystalate."The Belgian made "Aramith" ball never seemed to catch on .I started with the old "Crystalate" back in 1972 and our club bought 2 sets of "Supers" but I preferred the older balls.Cant remember any "kicks"...but it was a long time ago!
@@eskertoo being an old gimmer i have played with bonzaline,cyrastalite, super cyristalite,and aramith, supers were the best balls of the lot, but joe only had bonzaline and he made them talk
@charlesaymard for every commentry listener mate no matter of which sport it is. Ted Lowe and Brain Johnston could make every sports interesting to watch and both r still alive between us with their voice. they will never die
How lovely is that atmosphere? Playing by the light of a single candle. A polite, civilised round of applause from the crowd, who are lurking somewhere deep within the void. Stop the modernisation of snooker right now. It's just heartbreaking that he missed that difficult grey in the end.
Yup, I'm pretty sure that I've just read the greatest comment ever.
97channel This is one funny comment.
Bang on mate...snooker is way too serious now
97channel, I bow to your poetic genius.
97channel . Sshhh, quiet please
For years I made the mistake that most people make, thinking that the players of old weren't as good as the players of today.
But of course, if they had had modern cloths, cushions, balls and most importantly, 6 hours a day practice, they would have had the same level of break building. And in Joes case, a superior level.
Joe Davis was only ever beaten off level terms 4 times in his life. And all of those defeats were in later life, and at the hands of his own brother who was himself 8 times world champion.
That's how good Joe Davis was.
Easy to not lose if you don't play the best players...
@@2gMaskehe did play the best players
Exactly, i doubt the pros of today would make 50 in those conditions
@@amac1657 lol. 4 time amateur champion Marcus Owen didn't get a shot at the world's til 1973 when he was 39.
Only inviting people you can easily beat is not playing the best players.
English amateur was the real world championship.
I have a copy of Joe's "How I Play Snooker" book which was signed by Joe in 1953. This was the book which Steve Davis learned to play from as his "bible" (not the same copy!) and a few days after Steve retired in 2016 I met him and got his signature underneath Joe's. To have both the legendary Davis' signatures on the same page of the book showing Joe Davis 1953 and Steve Davis 2016 is something I'm very happy to have 🙂
I'm sure ronnie would sign it too, he's read the snooker bible also and praises it
I want the book but can’t find it anywhere
I'll give you a fiver for it?
Nice , keep it safe
20000 us dollars...I'll pay for its....if you have genuine papers to prove that's it authentic legends signature....
This man hadn't had the chance to learn the thecniques which every player knows nowadays.He had to create them. That's why he is one of the greatest.
I was a county player and had 100 breaks
But those old balls where a nightmare pre crystallite balls
Heavy and real lack of control,Joe was the godfather father of the game.
This man was pure class in every sense. Be interesting to see the modern day players play with these balls, pre super crystalite! Joe had the cue ball on a piece of string and was so fast too!
+thurstons It was his positional play that made him great. he never left himself a difficult pot
Reminds me of Ronnie - amazing ball control
R.I.P. Ted Lowe the great voice of the commentator of the first tv century. Joe was amazing.
At the end of the day Joe Davis dominated snooker for 20 odd years. He won the world championship 15 consecutive times, people say he wouldn't be that good now, probably not, but he was back then. How was Joe Davis to know that in 80 years time players would be making 800 centuries throughout their career and 10 or more maximum breaks? For what the game was back then Joe Davis was the best and for that he can be considered one of the greats.
I disagree on this one. Joe Davis retired with 690 career centuries. That's twice as many as Steve Davis.
A century is a century. It doesn't matter the quality of your opposition. And Joe made almost as many as Ronnie O'Sullivan has.
I think Joe would win 4-5 world titles if he played today. And if he played in the 70s and 80s I think he would have won about 10. He was a much better scorer than anyone in the 1980s.
It's only really the 1990s that players have caught him up
Joe made 690 centuries but that is counting exhibitions.
wideernie To be fair, exhibitions were pretty much all there was to play in then. Joe only counted centuries scored on standard tables where the public had paid admission.
I think we also have to bear in mind that the quality of balls and tables must have increased and, unlike now, there wasn't the wealth of other players to help raise the standard of the game.
I think you have to take into consideration that his usual matches were best of 70 odd frames and lasted days he probably played more frames in one year than most players these days in their careers. Also when you are playing the same person (usually his little brother) every week you are going to get good scores.
Those people saying the pockets are 'huge' are basing it on a very poor quality picture. There is practically no real definition, the pockets aren't defined at all and appear 'spread' out. I used to play on an old table as a teenager - those pockets were damn tight! Joe Davis was a wonderful player. Look at the compact cue action, the rock solid stance, and the way he has to strike through with power on so many shots due to those heavy old balls. With today's equipment he would be a true force in the game just as he was in his prime, which by the way he was well past here, aged 61.
The pockets were a little bigger, but the balls were much heavier and harder to put, cue ball harder to control. And the equipment and table were no where near as perfect! Joe Davis the great!
+Nazim Khan lmao... The pockets are MASSIVE... Century breaks galore I reckon!
it's the exact opposite. Here's a good example.
Joe Davis main rivals' were his brother Fred Davis, and John Pulman.
Fred Davis retired with 7 career centuries, and Pulman retired with 9. And Joe Davis retired with 688!
Believe me, he was a real genuine prodigy. A mozart of the snooker world. A million miles ahead of everyone else.
He would be winning world championships if he played now
Fred Davis and John Pulman made many more than 7 and 9 centuries in their careers! Davis was the first player to make a break of 140 in the world championship, beating his brothers best of 136. The trouble is that scoring records in tournament snooker before the late 60’s is very inaccurate and precarious. Hundreds of frames were never recorded and centuries have certainly been lost. Twice world champion Walter Donaldson has breaks of 142 and 143 in his career, neither of which were officially recorded. Joe Davis’s tally was counted over his lifetime by the way. Horace Lindrum made around 1000 centuries in his lifetime, so there were other heavy hitters around. Fred Davis made (at least) 40 recorded professional centuries, including a televised one in the 1980 world championship aged 66. I don’t think that achievement will ever be matched.
@@chrismooney9275 A niche sport which requires specialized equipment played by a very small country. And this holds true for snooker even today to some extent, imagine back then. Sure, Joe Davis had a great z-score, but the sample size is piss poor to be making comparisons to his contemporaries. He'd very likely be among the greats even in this generation, but it's just best to not make comparisons (in any sports) when the dynamics of the sport change so much.
The pockets are actually smaller as there was no undercut on the old tables which meant it threw the ball out instead of in!
To me, this man is the true genius of the game. Before Joe, players potted two or three reds and colours, then played safe. Joe totally transformed the game and elevated the game into an art form. Even today, relatively little has been added to Joe's contribution.
Awesome. That Joe could do such a century at 61 was first class! Just look at his position at 73... what a player!
He’s so quick too, especially for that age, he was so ahead of his time.
joe Davis was an innovator of the game.People should have some respect !
This is great, thanks. I’d never seen Joe Davis play before. Great to see how he played so quickly. And Ted Lowe sounding just the same all those years ago!
Why are people so hostile about videos?...Joe is an absolute legend. If it wasn't for him all the modern players wouldnt even exist..he was the original snooker genius
Keep in mind Joe was 61 years old here, well past his peak, and still managed to pull this off.
Joe was born in 1915.
SORRY that was Fred...Joe was 1901
My dad loved snooker and talked a lot about Joe Davis, so it's wonderful to get to see the legend in action.
He taught me how to hold a cue at my father's billiard hall! He was very smartly dressed, I remember, with a waistcoat and brilliantined hair. We went up some stairs, away from the other tables to a quiet room with a light flooding the table and he stepped forward into the light's glow.
I had brilliant hair in my teens.
Jesus, I remember during the war.......snooker balls were like rugby balls made of solid lead and cues were sweeping brushes. I used to have to walk 50miles to the nearest snooker hall in the pissins of rain and get pneumonia twice a week. They have it too handy today. Even the toss for the break was much harder to win.
Let's not forget the Grandads of the game. Joe pretty much invented break building and this frame is THE classic!!
That was an absolutely marvelous century break
That was a pretty quick ton... Fantastic video, thanks for the upload! ⚪️🔴🔵⚫️❤️
absolute legend! quality break
Amazing…you can tell from the sound that the balls are so much heavier than modern ones. Remarkable break given the balls and heavy cloth. Nice to hear a younger Ted Lowe too.
All this with only one eye. The all time greatest ever
was he blind in one eye or something
+Tom CFC yes he was
+aberjed oh wow
+Tom CFC If you look at his stance you can see that he is using his left eye to strike/ align the shot/
Wow, never know that.....
thankyou Priam231, i watched this thinking it was 'fred' davis, what a great surprise! i never thought i'd get to see the great man himself playing, AMAZING!!!
GREATEST snooker player OF ALL TIME . UNMATCHED.His right eye could not focus so he played with the cue under the left of his chin and shot using his LEFT eye . He WAS right handed.
BLOODY HELL!! Please tone down the intro sound pressure - it just about sent me on a premature date with Joe at the Heavenly Snooker Halls!
Great movement of positional play from Joe at 3:50 and again on 4:40 (to get on the next red after the pink). What always impresses me is not just his great cue ball control but his speed, considering he was 61 when he made this break! I'd love to see todays players playing with the old heavy balls. They'd need to adapt their technique's I feel. Joe, Fred, Horace Lindrum et al, all had very powerful stances and their cue arm went fully through each stroke.
Amazing to see the speed Joe played, really exciting to watch. Perhaps it slowed down in the 70s when the stakes got higher.
Terry Clark or maybe they just weren’t as good as Joe?
What a great and legendary player! Thanks so much!
No wonder he was virtually unbeatable in his day - his positional play and cueball control is like a (very very good) modern player. He would fit in just fine in the modern game, unlike many who dominated in the 70s and 80s
What a talented player and on a slow table like that
I can't believe whispering Ted was commenting as early as this!
People questioning whether Joe Davis would have been able to compete in today's game. But today's game would not be what it is without him. He literally wrote the book on how to play snooker and without him the standard of the game would be behind what it currently is
My father was having a game with his brother; J.D. was watching with interest.
He spoke to them, 'I never realised that snooker was such a difficult game'!
I never saw Joe play, only brother Fred. Thank you.
Wish there was more footage of him.
Wow! This is the first time I have seen Joe Davis play and I didn't know what to expect. People have always said he was great and this is the proof. Were the tables and the balls the same dimensions then?
The tables certainly were and I'm pretty sure the balls were the same size. The balls were made of a different and less lively material than used today and the cloth was much slower. Overall, more difficult than today.
poziom jaki jest pokazany na tym filmie jest na wysokości dzisiejszych mistrzów a może i Wyżej . 10/10 ___________PERFECT______________
Brilliant video. Thanks for uploading this!
Ha ha! Some funny comment!s!Aged 10, I actually saw this break on my parents tv.
Joe was the best of his generation. On demo matches, he'd ask someone to put the cue ball, a red and a handkerchief anywhere on the table. He'd guarantee to pot the red and leave the cue ball on the handkerchief.
Remember that in those days, as others commenters have said, the cushions were much less responsive and the balls much heavier than now, so the brilliant screw shots etc. that stars like Ronnie O and others can do now weren't possible then. Nice comments though!
Loved snooker in b&w
I remember seeing this footage many years ago on a programme called, 100 Great Sporting Moments.
To make a 100 break in black and white is good by anyone’s standards
How spoiled are we in todays world to be able to watch snooker in such high quality sound and picture quality? None of it may not have happened tho if it wasn't for Joe paving the way to putting snooker into the spotlight! Many thanks Joe
Sad loss. One of the great BBC sports commentators.And a lovely gentleman.
RIP.
Right handed with his first shot, I hope Alain robidoux isn't watching this😁
BAMBOOLOUNGE or 1st shot left handed 😋
To think that was a 60/61 year old man, making a century. Just shows you, age is not a barrier to anything.
Play this beautiful match at 2x speed.
Joe Davis a lot faster around the table than I thought
If you want to know how good Joe Davis was............
His main rivals throughout his career were his brother, Fred Davis and John Pulman. Fred Davis retired with 7 career centuries. Pulman retired with 9 career centuries.
Joe Davis retired with 687 career centuries. That's 10x as many as Ray Reardon. And twice as many as Steve Davis. And nearly 100x as many as anyone else in his era.
A century is a century. It doesn't matter who the opponent, sat there watching you is. I'm certain Joe Davis would have absolutely dominated the 1970s and 1980s if he was playing then. It was only really in the 1990s when players started to match his sheer scoring. But I think Joe Davis would have even won multiple world titles in the 1990s. And he'd certainly be in the mix in the 2000s as well.
Players just didn't retire with hundreds of career centuries, until the 1990s. The top players in the 70s and 80s were retiring with 60-70 career centuries. They just didn't score heavily enough.
And Joes Davis was retiring with almost 700 career centuries in the 1950s!
Put the 1940s Joe Davis on a table with present day Ronnie O'Sullivan right now, and it would be a close game. Believe me
you twat...Joe's 687 centuries included all his exhibitions and shows...he only made a handful in tournament play (because there were hardly any tournaments),
If Steve Davis added all his exhibition tons it would dwarf Joe's tally.
That's not a criticism of Joe, it's just a criticism of you comparing stats that aren't comparable.
CJ Mooney They are incomparable due to the eras that they play in. But one thing I guarantee is that Ronnie would smash him in 1930 or 2017.
dnbmania here we go, another one up ronnies ass, typical o'scrubivan fanboy 😒😒😴😴😴
And let's not forget that Joe only played in the final of most of those world championships.Alex Higgins won the 1972 championship and I don't think he got one century in the tournament.He certainly did not get one in the final...and it was best of 75 frames!Spencer got a 123 and Higgins' best was 93.Ronnie O'Sullivan's strike rate is a century every 11 frames throughout his career.Alex Higgins used to advertise that he had made over 16000 centuries in exhibitions.I saw Alex in his prime back in the late seventies and he only made 1 century in about 30 frames I watched.But the shots he played!
His main rival was his little brother who he never took seriously - every clip I’ve seen when he’s spoke about Fred he’s been sarcastic. A century is a century but if the players today counted their practice and exhibition centuries like Joe did they would have double his tally.
For those of you with black and white televisions, the blue ball is the one next to the brown .
I remember people giving Ronnie flack for playing left-handed, and here's Joe Davis doing exactly that. Can hardly call Joe a bad example.
And he got round the table quick enough, too.
Just great to watch.
very good. the crowd act like they've just witnessed a 155 break lol. the standard has changed so much and this man started it all
One of my regrets is that I never got to see him play live.
tis nice to watch abit of history :P
A very nice stroke.
A delightful little screw.
thanks for posting a bit of history.
Joe was Horace Lindrums lifetime nemesis.
Amazing to watch from the father of modern snooker!. I wonder what Joe would think of modern snooker players?
Leicester Square Hall (previously Thurston's)was in Leicester Square, London. It was the home of profesional billiards and snooker. Owned by the Automobile Association, it was closed shortly after Joe's 147 (against Willie Smith in 1955). Fred Davis made the last century break (against Joe) there, which was in fact televised. Shame the camera's weren't there a couple of weeks before!
Snooker was a very different game back then Joe Davis must of been a real class act to be making big breaks back then under totally different conditions to what the players have now one of snookers first real greats
the greatest ever. the stats back it up
A Star of his day!😃😃😃
Where is the guy in the crowd yelling "C'MON DAVIS!!!"
I remember on TV in the 1960’s Joe putting the cue ball on top of the cushion in the right hand corner, sending the ball round the table, going round the pockets and it dropping in the pocket where it started. How he did it I don’t know but I would love for someone to explain.
Joe Davis was the best player ever to pick up a cue ,, not only was he playing on dead tables with very small badly
cut pockets , but the cloth was thick and very slow , also the balls were not of what you would call quality ,and of course
apart from that a lot of shots played today were invented by him for players today to copy , people tend to forget that,,
Joe also won more titles that any player under very poor conditions , a record which will never be beaten ,try in your local
club to bang ball along the black rail like players do on TV you will find all those type of shots wont go in , the pockets
on those old tables were very small with sharp corners , shots had to be perfect , I think Joe would have had a field day
playing on these tables today he would have thought the game was easy .
AshStrat1 I think you should rewatch the video of you think these pockets are tight. They are massive. And the argument you've made about the cloth being thick just means you can control the cue ball with bigger margins for error. I think you're delusional - he wouldn't survive in today's game
Joe Davis would get beat by every player in the top 32 today.
Some top pros would whitewash him.
@@dnbmania agreed
Don't forget that the qualifying rules were diffrent then, with the reigning champ 'seeded' making it easier to get to the 'final'. Having said that, you can only beat what is around you and in 20, other's had the opportunity to become as good but they didn't, so Joe has to be considered a great. There are great players today, who have previous generations to watch and learn from, as the game is now global. Joe had no such luxuries, no TV, internet, sky sports he set the standards as the Daddy.
R.I.P TED!
Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam
"May his soul be on God's right side"
when Joe was asked if he could make the difficult pos the mordern player does; he replied "No but the again I didn't leave myself difficult pots
Something that I've not noticed before is that Joe, although right- handed appears to have a master left eye. Surely having a dominant left eye while being right-handed (or vice versa if left-handed) would put you at a disadvantage as your head would be in an unnatural position while looking and aiming along the cue. Therefore you would need to adapt your body position to allow for this.
"A tender stun shot". They would never say that today.
Check out the loop bridge at 3 mins 30. That's something rarely seen nowadays.
Joe Davis is the greatest Snooker Player of all times.
Ronnie is still in half way.
CARAMBA... EU ASSISTIR ESSE VIDEO A VÁRIOS MINTOS E NÃO VÍ A CARA DO ADVERSÁRIO DESSE VELHINHO... JOE DAVIS... O MELHOR DA SINUCA EM TODOS OS TEMPOS...!!!!!!!!!!
B/W snooker is like listening to a fireworks show over the radio. lol
darts has sid waddell , f1 had murray walker , snooker had ted lowe , will be missed !
Interesting comment but think of it like this. When Joe Davis was playing they were Ivory balls, much heavier than aramith which are used today. The Ivory balls were not perfectly round. The nap on the table was much heavier making shots more difficult, cushions reacted differently. Pockets were tighter back then as well. No temperature controlled environment as they have today. In all,Davis notched up over 600 century breaks using Ivory balls.
markyboy1704 sorry but they weren't ivory balls . they were a synthetic material that was heavier than modern balls and as for not being perfectly spherical that is ridiculous ! the technology to make spherical balls certainly existed otherwise we would not have ball bearings , which we certainly did
Ivory balls were phased out by about 1930.One tusk provided 3 or 4 balls as only the thickest first part of the tusk could be used.So four dead elephants to make a set of balls was deemed excessive.The composition ball was introduced,made of phenol resin,which later became the trademark "Crystalate" and eventually "Super Crystalate."The Belgian made "Aramith" ball never seemed to catch on .I started with the old "Crystalate" back in 1972 and our club bought 2 sets of "Supers" but I preferred the older balls.Cant remember any "kicks"...but it was a long time ago!
@@eskertoo being an old gimmer i have played with bonzaline,cyrastalite, super cyristalite,and aramith, supers were the best balls of the lot, but joe only had bonzaline and he made them talk
Joe played a shot left handed. Thought O’Sullivan started that.Must have been a difficult game back then.When all the colours were the same colour.😂
Black and white snooker. Now I've seen everything.
I like this Ted Lowe so much more than the later version when he just said breathy deathless phrases.
Well to be fair it was a tough grey he missed
BACK TO THE OLD POOL HALL AGAIN ,BUT I TRUST JOE DAVIS
With the equipment of that era, as well as the heavy balls (fnar!), to score a century almost defies belief.....
cheers m8 quality
Rip ted
it was a nice break
Godfather of snooker
Considering it was black and white I think he played pretty well
R.I.P Ted
Amazing! Colour TV really made a lot for snooker though.
@charlesaymard for every commentry listener mate no matter of which sport it is. Ted Lowe and Brain Johnston could make every sports interesting to watch and both r still alive between us with their voice. they will never die
The man was what o,sullivan is now.the most talented that picked up a cue
I wonder if Ronnie will still be making centuries in his sixties...
He played in a modern way.
if there are true legends, you just saw the birth of them all!!!