Six-time world snooker champion Ray Reardon has died at the age of 91 after a battle with cancer.
Reardon was one of the most successful and popular players of his era, dominating the sport in the 1970s with six world titles across the decade.
The first player to be officially ranked world number one in snooker, Reardon – who was affectionally nicknamed ‘Dracula’ by fans – also won more than a dozen other tournaments, including The Masters in 1976.
After retiring in 1991, Reardon began mentoring Ronnie O’Sullivan, helping ‘The Rocket’ win his second World Championship title in 2004.
Some 18 years later, O’Sullivan broke Reardon’s record as the oldest world snooker champion that had stood since his former mentor won his sixth and final world title in 1978.
O’Sullivan even sported some fake Dracula teeth after his 18-8 win in the final against Graeme Dott in tribute to Reardon.
Ray’s wife Carol confirmed he passed away on Friday night.
Leading the tributes, three-time Crucible king Mark Williams said: ‘Ray is one of the best sports people ever from Wales and the best snooker player.
‘He’s one of the reasons why a lot of us started playing. He put snooker on the map, alongside Alex Higgins, Jimmy White and Steve Davis.
‘Anyone playing now owes them a lot because they brought popularity to the game. He is a real inspiration.’
Reardon’s passion for snooker remained well beyond his retirement and he was still playing in recent months, remarkably making a century break last November a few weeks after turning 91.
The Welshman, who was born in Tredegar and worked as a policeman before turning pro, almost died 13 years before becoming a world champion after a mine collapsed while he was working underground.
Reardon was buried under rubble for three hours before being pulled to safety.
Recalling the terrifying ordeal, he later told Michael Parkinson in an interview with the BBC: ‘I couldn’t move a finger. It was amazing that with all the rubble and rock I was under, air still gets through.
‘You have to keep perfectly still and not struggle, so I played thousands of games of marbles with my brother in my mind, until they came to my rescue.’
Steve Davis and Stephen Hendry, who dominated snooker in the 1980s and 1990s, have previously highlighted Reardon as a source of inspiration and one of the most important figures in the sport.
Seven-time world champion O’Sullivan, meanwhile, credited Reardon for taking his game to a new level back in 2023.
‘Ray brought a side to the game I never knew existed,’ he told Eurosport. ‘I learnt it and now I appreciate it and use it a lot, and when I have to.’
Former player and BBC commentator John Virgo, meanwhile, described Reardon as a ‘true great of our game’ after the news broke.
‘Sad news. Ray Reardon passed away last night, it was a honour to have known him, a true great of our game RIP,’ he posted on X.
Last year, in one of his last interviews, Reardon said he ‘still enjoys playing snooker’, describing the sport as ‘magic’.
‘Some days you are in a little world of your own, you can pot anything and nothing distracts you,’ he said. ‘It’s fantastic, magic.’
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