Former world snooker champion Reardon dies aged 91

LONDON: Former world champion Ray Reardon, the coal miner who dominated snooker in the 1970s, has died at the age of 91.

Welshman Reardon had previously been diagnosed with cancer and passed away on Friday night, his wife Carol confirmed on Saturday.

“Ray Reardon, widely regarded as one of the greatest snooker players ever and a six-time world champion, has died at the age of 91,” a World Snooker Tour statement said.

Jimmy White, one of snooker´s most popular players, said on X: “Gutted to hear my very good friend Ray Reardon has passed away.

“A total class act and very kind to me when I was making my way in the game. A giant of the game. Rest in Peace mate.”

Reardon won six world titles between 1970 and 1978, earning an MBE in the 1985 Queen´s Birthday honours.

Nicknamed ´Dracula´ after playing a session of the 1974 World Championship final in a cape, top hat and scarlet silk jacket, Reardon rose to prominence as snooker became a popular sport in Britain thanks to the Pot Black television programme.

“Someone decided the outfit made me look like Dracula and that name stuck to me more than most,” Reardon said.

He battled the flamboyant Alex Higgins in a long-running rivalry with the “Hurricane” that included an epic 18-15 defeat in the 1982 World Championship final.

The former world number one worked as coal miner and was also a police officer for eight years before taking snooker by storm.

He was fortunate to survive a mining accident when a 12-foot girder and a deluge of rubble crashed down on him while he was building a pit lane, leaving him trapped for three hours.

“My ordeal had left me looking and feeling a bit like a dirty dishcloth and when the blood started to circulate in my numb legs it had me screaming in pain for a moment or so, but they gave me sips of water and soon I was all right,” he wrote in his autobiography.