Thanks for the memories, Steve.

[tikay]

Good to see Steve Davis has placed his cue in the rack for the final time, it was starting to hurt to watch the old fella.

What a great Ambassador he has been, for snooker, & sport.

One of the all-time British greats, & he helped change the game in so many ways.

That Final against Taylor was as dramatic as it gets.

Wishing Steve a long & happy retirement Steve, he was the best.

[Marky147]

Great player, very nice guy, and a good drinker, too.

[RobM]

Legend of the sport. Got me watching and playing the game as a child.

But retirement you say? Not for Steve Trance D J extraordinaire Davis:

http://m.bbc.co.uk/sport/snooker/36049583

[Longines]

First time I ever played at the Vic - £50 freeze, self dealt, tiny round tables - Steve was playing. Absolute gent.

He also played quite a bit on the .25/.50 PLO8 cash tables on Lads back in the day. I'm now going to spend the next four hours trying to remember his alias....fivek2 or similar? Old age is a bitch.

[Marky147]

First time I ever played at the Vic - £50 freeze, self dealt, tiny round tables - Steve was playing. Absolute gent.

He also played quite a bit on the .25/.50 PLO8 cash tables on Lads back in the day. I'm now going to spend the next four hours trying to remember his alias....fivek2 or similar? Old age is a bitch.

Used to go to Vegas with Laddies, too, and became pretty good friends with Skalie through those trips.

Think it was just fivek.

[arbboy]

Lovely lovely guy.  Met him at Grand Prix at Preston 2005 at the bar the session before his game started.  Got chatting to him and said i had only turned up to watch the second round game because i had a lumpy bet on him v Nigel Bond (sjames made them 5/6 each of two which was a redic price - yes you could actually get on with these firms for decent amounts in these days amazing i know and when they took a view on a game they did tend to take a bet!) and there were no live scores or pictures in those days on the net to follow so a day trip up the M6 was called for to watch it live.

He said 'how much have you had on if you don't mind me asking?'.  I said 'more than the actual game is worth for progressing to the next round so would appreciate it if you could win 5-0 if you don't mind!'  He said 'I am practicing really well at the minute and very surprised the bookies make this a 50/50 match.  He then said 'do you fancy coming on the cuezone in the next bbc break and talking about betting on snooker as you seem to know what you are talking about and we could do a couple of minutes piece about it we are always looking for new things to chat about'.  Got my 2 minutes of fame with him on BBC talking to him.  Very enjoyable meeting him briefly.  He hosed up 5-2 on the bridle as well which made it a very enjoyable day out all in all.

Hard to imagine anyone doing more for their sport over 35 years than he has both on and off the table.   Proper ambassador for the sport throughout his whole career as well as being the greatest ever to play the game at his peak.

[DropTheHammer]

Heh, nice story Arbboy. SD seems like a top bloke and I'd love to see him spin those steel wheels this summer out in Ibiza...

[TightEnd]

Steve Davis: snooker’s giant who played longest black-ball game of all http://gu.com/p/4te63/stw