Ray Reardon

Welsh snooker player who won six World Championships in the 1970s and became the sport's first official world number one, nicknamed 'Dracula'.

Born in Tredegar, Monmouthshire, on 8 October 1932, Ray Reardon worked as a coal miner and later a police officer before dedicating himself to snooker in his mid-thirties. After winning six consecutive Welsh Amateur Championships and the 1964 English Amateur title, a successful exhibition tour of South Africa convinced him to turn professional in 1967. Reardon dominated the 1970s like no other player, winning the World Championship in 1970, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976 and 1978 — six titles that remain the second-highest total of the modern era, behind only Ronnie O'Sullivan and level with Stephen Hendry. He also won the first-ever Pot Black tournament in 1969 and the Masters in 1976. When official world rankings were introduced in 1976, Reardon was installed as snooker's first world number one, a position he held into the early 1980s. His nickname 'Dracula', earned for his dark widow's peak and prominent eye teeth, became one of snooker's most recognisable monikers. In 1978 he became the oldest World Champion at 45 years and 203 days, a record that stood for 44 years until Ronnie O'Sullivan surpassed it in 2022. He reached a seventh World Championship final in 1982, aged 49, but lost to Alex Higgins. After retiring in 1991, Reardon became a respected coach, working with Matthew Stevens, Mark Williams and Ronnie O'Sullivan during their career development — most notably assisting O'Sullivan during his 2004 World Championship run. Reardon died in July 2024 at the age of 91, remembered as Wales's greatest snooker player and one of the defining champions of the sport's pre-television-boom era.

Composed, tactically astute potter with strong matchplay temperament

Wales's greatest snooker player and the dominant champion of the 1970s