Past blast: Tony Knowles, snooker gigolo

ONE of the suites in Peter Kay’s Phoenix Club is named after Tony Knowles, a snooker player who defined the cultural tastes of the Eighties more than Interesting Steve Davis.

Kay knew that Knowles was the right type of cult figure -quite successful in his own right but obscure enough to rank as an in-joke amongst snooker cognoscenti.

Anyhoo, Tony, who was known as something of a ladies’ man in his day (just look at the photo, ladeez), is trying to make a comeback on the green baize.

Tone has been out of the world’s top 16 for almost 20 years, but he still tried to qualify for this season’s World Championship in Sheffield, winning one game but losing out finally to some whippersnapper whose name doesn’t matter.

What matters is that snooker is a sport in decline. Its ratings are falling, sponsors are walking away. There is no one with enough charisma to play the role of snooker’s Lewis Hamilton, unless you count Ronnie O’Sullivan, and he’s a bit mad.

That’s why we need Knowles back in the game. And Jimmy White too, who also failed to qualify for the Crucible, for the third year running (he’ll never win it, will he?).

Bonus vid! Watch Tony in action against the Whirlwind:

Heady days. Great break-off there, Tony.

Anorak

Posted: 3rd, March 2009 | In: Sports Comments (4) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink