Snooker legend Ray Reardon passes away: A career tribute to the six-time world champion

Born in Tredegar in 1932, a young Reardon followed in his father's mining footsteps, going down into the pits as a 14-year-old. Even at that age, though, Reardon already had a strong passion for snooker and wore cotton gloves - sometimes to the amusement of his colleagues - to protect his hands for his future trade.

Reardon's breakthrough victory arrived at the 1949 News of the World amateur event. The following year, he won his first Welsh Amateur Championship and successfully defended that national crown in each of the next five years for an overall six-time title haul.

In 1964, Reardon defeated John Spencer - one of many big match-ups in their fabled baize rivalry - 11-8 in the final to win the English Amateur Championship, which at the time was one of snooker's biggest accolades.

That triumph further boosted Reardon's status within the sport, and in 1967 he turned professional. However, with premier events still few and far between, Reardon made ends meet by working hard on the exhibition circuit and holiday camp scene.

The direction and destiny of top tier snooker changed in 1969 with the first edition of Pot Black. The unique, one-frame tournament was broadcast by the BBC and used somewhat as a test subject for new-fangled colour television technology.

Beamed into homes across the country and being introduced to a new generation of snooker fans, Reardon defeated Spencer in the final to become the inaugural champion. He won it again a decade later.

With snooker’s popularity now firmly on the up, Reardon secured his first world championship title in London in 1970 when he defeated former eight-time champion John Pulman 37-33 in the showpiece match.

Reardon then won the sport’s biggest prize four years running between 1973 to 1976 - three of those successes coming in Manchester, and one in Melbourne, Australia when he pipped home hero Eddie Charlton 31-30 in a dramatic deciding frame.

Snooker’s authorities helped professionalise the sport further in the 1976/77 season when it introduced ranking events and a ranking list. Initially this only involved the world championship, but by retrospectively awarding the 1974, 75 and 76 World Championships with ranking status, it meant that Reardon was the winner of snooker’s first four world ranking event titles. As a result, Reardon became professional snooker’s first world number one ranked player.

Affectionally known as ‘Dracula’ due to his widow’s peak hairstyle, Reardon stayed on top of the world rankings for 312 consecutive weeks between 1975 to 1981, and later regained number one status in 1982 for a stint that lasted nearly a year.

Reardon’s world championship winning streak ended in 1977. The first year the blue-riband event was held at the future permanent home of the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, Reardon lost to eventual winner John Spencer in the quarter-finals, but 12 months later he recorded his sixth world title when he defeated Perrie Mans 25-18 in the final.

Aged 45 at the time, Reardon was snooker’s oldest-ever world champion, a record only broken by Ronnie O’Sullivan in 2022.

Despite perhaps being past his absolute best, Reardon reached another world final in 1982 but lost out in a memorable encounter to Alex Higgins 18-15, having been 15 each. A few months later, though, Reardon won the 1982 Professional Players Tournament when he defeated Jimmy White 10-5 in the title tie; aged 50 at the time, he is still the oldest-ever winner of a ranking event.

Champion at the Masters in 1976 and a three-time Welsh Professional Championship winner, Reardon retired from the professional circuit following his 1991 World Championship qualifying campaign, although he was still involved in the sport long after that in several capacities.

Having initially been contacted by Ronnie O’Sullivan senior who was in prison at the time, Reardon helped mentor O’Sullivan junior with the tactical nuances of the sport. The unlikely partnership - which blossomed into a friendship - quickly bore fruit, as O’Sullivan claimed his second career world championship title in 2004, with Reardon present at the Crucible.

It is understood that O’Sullivan visited Reardon in hospital two weeks before his death.

Reardon was one of snooker’s most important pioneers and a crucial, reliable and successful figure during the early days of the sport’s UK boom period in the 1970s and 80s. Without his class, contributions and character, snooker may not have resonated with the general public as well as it did.

He was awarded an MBE in 1985 and introduced into the new snooker ‘Hall of Fame’ in 2011. In 2017, the long-running Welsh Open introduced ‘The Ray Reardon Trophy’ which has been played for every year since. Reardon was at the final that year to present it.

In the south-west of England, Reardon was Patron of the West of England Billiards and Snooker Foundation (WEBSF) and helped officially launch the not-for-profit community group in 2004.

Reardon lived in Torbay, Devon, England and still played snooker, regularly visiting the St. Annes Snooker Club in Torquay. Only several months ago, it was reported that he had made a century break.