Product Description

The top snooker players in the world compete for several trophies every year, but one carries more prestige than all the others put together - the World Championship. No other tournament in the sport carries with it so much history, so many golden moments of spectacular success and dramatic failure. Meticulously researched and including exclusive interview material with Steve Davis, Stephen Hendry and 2005 world champion Shaun Murphy, among others, "Masters of the Baize" is a comprehensive guide to the men who have lifted the greatest prize in snooker. From the legendary Joe Davis, the first champion in 1927, to modern-day masters like Mark Williams, all the sport's world champions are put under the microscope, while the colourful careers of forgotten figures such as Walter Donaldson and John Pulman and rogue heroes like Alex Higgins and Ronnie O'Sullivan are brought vividly to life. After uncovering the inauspicious origins of the game in nineteenth-century India, the authors examine every former world champion in his own comprehensive chapter. Additionally, a special section focuses on the extraordinary popularity of Jimmy White, by far the greatest player never to have won the title and one of the most emotive names in the sport.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #166544 in Books
• Published on: 2005-04-14
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 256 pages

Review
"* 'Who is the greatest snooker player of them all? And what criteria would you employ to choose that No. 1 man? This entertaining read attempts to answer both questions' - Book of the Week, Sunday Times * 'Timely, well-meaning and thought-provoking are all arguable descriptions of this guide to the 20 players who have won snooker's world championship' - Book of the Week, The Independent"

Daily Telegraph
'It's clearly been a labour of love for the authors ... Meticulously researched.'

From the Author
Masters of the Baize focuses on the 20 players (plus one notable exception) who have lifted the World Snooker Championship, without doubt the sport's blue riband event. From the great Joe Davis, through forgotten heroes like Walter Donaldson and John Pulman, to the likes of Alex Higgins, Steve Davis, Stephen Hendry and Ronnie O'Sullivan, we examine their colourful lives and times. What made them the players they were? Who were their guiding influences? Where did it all go right, or in some cases wrong? We place each of these champions under the microscope in their own exhaustively researched chapter. Drawing on exclusive interviews and long unseen archive material, we shed new light on familiar faces and offer fresh insights on how these great cuemen influenced the sport. There is relatively little in-depth snooker literature currently available and Masters of the Baize aims to rectify this by offering fans a journey through the game's rich and absorbing history.

Customer Reviews

Williams & Gadsby pot the black !
The authors in their introduction note that "snooker has been one of the few sports to miss out on the recent boom in sports-related publishing". That is certainly the case, but this fine book goes some way to righting that wrong.

The book begins with an introduction covering the development and history of the game and then focuses on the 20 players who have been World Champion, plus Jimmy White. Horace Lindrum is also included for winning the world title (the BA&CC version) in 1952, the year in which a rift in the sport caused 2 World Championships to be played.

"Masters of the Baize" has been compiled from a wide array of sources including books, magazines, TV interviews and documentaries, web sites, and newspaper articles. Each chapter on the players averages about 10 pages and is well written, entertaining and informative. The prose at times does become hackneyed - [Joe] "Johnson taught us that if you dare to dream, fairy tales do sometimes come true." However, the overall quality of the book and depth of information means the clichéd expressions only remain a minor annoyance. The chapter on Alex Higgins is especially poignant and heartfelt - this is snooker being written about and described by fans who obviously care deeply about the game.

One weakness of the book is its reluctance to criticise any of the players, particularly Joe Davis. For example, on p.68 the authors note "... Patsy Houlihan [was] the sort of player who could have reinvigorated snooker in the 1950s and '60s if he had been encouraged to turn professional." What they omit to say is that Joe Davis held the game in such an iron grip at that time, that those players he did not personally approve of (e.g. Houlihan) had no chance of being invited into the professional ranks. As Clive Everton notes in "The History of Snooker & Billiards" (p.64), Joe Davis' lack of foresight in failing to bring in new professionals was not in snooker's long-term interests and was part of the reason the sport almost died in the '50s and '60s.

The book is 256 pages long and includes references, an index, and an extensive bibliography, plus an Appendix detailing all the World Snooker Championship finals. Disappointingly, there are only 8 pages of photos, a mixture of black & white and colour. The book also includes a chapter entitled "Who is the Greatest"?, where Williams and Gadsby rank their top 10 players. The authors rightly state that any 'best of' list will always be subjective but they have made a decent choice, backed up by statistics and reasoned argument. The only real quibble some fans may have is Ray Reardon's relatively low ranking of 6.

Overall, "Masters of the Baize" is a hugely enjoyable, thoroughly researched and finely written book. Hopefully, this book might encourage others to put pen to paper and write about this fascinating game.