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  • Published: 5 October 2012
  • ISBN: 9781780577159
  • Imprint: Mainstream Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 272

Snooker's World Champions

Masters of the Baize




The compelling new saga by the author of Cinderella Sister.

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.

  • Published: 5 October 2012
  • ISBN: 9781780577159
  • Imprint: Mainstream Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 272

About the authors

Luke Williams

Luke Williams is an Australian journalist. He has previously worked as a reporter and broadcaster at ABC radio. His written work has been published in The Sydney Morning Herald, The Saturday Paper, the Brisbane Times, Crikey, The Global Mail, The Weekend Australian and Eureka Street. In 2013 he was nominated for a Human Rights Media Award for a long-form investigative piece in The Global Mail, and in 2014 his article on ice addiction, ‘Life as a Crystal Meth Addict’, was a finalist in the Walkley Awards for Excellence in Journalism.

Paul Gadsby

Luke Williams and Paul Gadsby are sports journalists and have been snooker fans for as long as they can remember. This is their first book.

Praise for Snooker's World Champions

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

Commendably thorough, offering some off-the-wall oddments

Daily Telegraph

Diligently researched . . . interesting and illuminating

Snooker Scene