When people talk about the greats of snooker, Ronnie O’Sullivan, Stephen Hendry and Steve Davis are typically the three names mentioned. They were, in their own different ways, pioneers who changed the way the game was played. As of 2026, O’Sullivan and Hendry are tied on seven World Championship titles each (Davis has six, as does Ray Reardon), with no player having won more in the modern era.
But that is a key phrase – the modern era. If we look back through the annals of snooker history, we can see that one player is a long way clear when it comes to victories in the Snooker World Championship. That man is Joe Davis. He won a remarkable total of 15 titles, and he was the first, biggest and best pioneer in the sport.
No Relation to Steve But Brother to Fred
Joe Davis is not the only player to have won more world titles than the Rocket and Hendry. He is not even the only person from his own family, with younger brother Fred having won eight championships, one more than the modern-era greats. While Joe and Fred are related, that duo, who won 23 world titles between them, are not related to the Nugget, Romford’s Steve Davis.
Before we look more closely at Joe’s incredible career and his many firsts, we should also note that there is another player to have won eight titles at the world champs, and that is John Pullman. Another English snooker great, Pullman, won his titles between 1957 and 1968.
Who Was Joe Davis?
Joe Davis was born on the 15th of April 1901 in Whitwell, a Derbyshire village not far from the Nottinghamshire border. He died at the age of 77 in 1978, and his professional career spanned an incredible 45 years! It is fitting, if sad, that such a snooker man, who lived for the game, fell ill while watching his brother Fred in action at the Crucible, in the 1978 World Championship.
Fred lost to eventual runner-up, South Africa’s Perrie Mans, in the semi-finals, but during the clash, Joe collapsed. He survived, but during his recovery, he was affected by a chest infection, and that ultimately led to his death on the 10th of July. Joe was one of six children, and his father was a miner. However, his dad, also called Fred, left the mines behind and became the manager of a pub. He moved into the Queen’s Hotel, and it was there that Joe started playing billiards at the age of 11, on the hotel’s full-size table.
By the age of 12, he was having lessons in a sport at which he was clearly talented and which he loved. He scored a century break (at billiards) when still aged 12. By 18, after playing a host of local tournaments and exhibition games, he turned professional in 1919. He won his first world title in 1928, but he was still playing billiards rather than snooker. In all, he made the final eight times, winning four. He also won the UK Professional Billiards Championship seven times, including six in a row from 1934 onwards.
Snooker Takes Over
Davis played in the heyday of billiards but before snooker had really taken off. In some regards, billiards was a victim of its own success, or rather, the proficiency of those who played it. The best players were so good and able to rack up huge breaks so easily that the game became unexciting to watch.
Snooker was seen as more compelling, and Davis and many other top players of the time began to play it more and more. In 1925, Davis set a world-record break in the game (in a professional match) and hard as it may be to believe, that was just 96. Much more was to come, as Davis began to dedicate more and more of his life to snooker and redefine how the sport was played – as he and others had done in billiards earlier.
Record Setting
Over his career, Davis set so many records that it is hard to know where to start or what to focus on. His incredible tally of 15 World Championships will almost certainly never be beaten, but it has to be pointed out that the “tournament” was very different back in those days. The modern event only began in 1969. There is little TV footage of players like Joe and Fred Davis, and that is partly why there is less prestige given to those who won so many titles in earlier years.
The other reason the Davis brothers, legends though they are, are not talked about in the same way as modern icons is because it was easier to win the title back then. The format of the tournament was different, although that affected Fred Davis, John Pullman and others more than Joe. However, there were simply far fewer pros around at the time and hardly any from outside the Anglosphere.
Incredibly, Davis never lost a game at the World Championship, winning it 14 years in a row between 1927 and 1940. All of those were proper tournaments, aside from 1928, when, as the defending champion, he received a bye to the final in what was a challenge match, really. That said, in most years, Davis was only required to win one or two matches, or at the most three.
There was no competition between 1941 and 1945 inclusive, but Davis won his 15th world title in 1946. He then opted not to play in the tournament again, allowing his younger brother and others a chance to stake their claims. By most accounts, though, he remained the best player in the world for the next 20 years!
Firsts Aplenty
Davis achieved several firsts, with some of the most impressive including:
- First player to win world titles in billiards and snooker.
- 1928 brought the first official century in the sport, Davis scoring exactly 100.
- First century in the World Championship in 1935 – he made 110 against Tom Newman. There is a lot of confusion regarding the date of this, with many sites reporting that he made a ton at the 1930 tournament. However, we believe 1935 was the first century at the Worlds.
- First officially recognised 147. This came in a 1955 exhibition match at Leicester Square Hall, and Willie Smith was his opponent. Murt O’Donoghue, a Kiwi, is believed to have made a 147 in 1934, but this was not ratified.
- In 1962, he made the first televised century – at the age of 60!
Davis also won the first – indeed, the first 15 – Snooker World Championships. He was instrumental in the establishment of the tournament and utterly dominated it, essentially until he chose not to enter any more. He is unquestionably the sport’s premier pioneer, and many historical experts of the game even credit him with “inventing” the concept of break-building.
In many ways, he was playing a different game from everyone that came before him and those that he competed against. Hendry revolutionised the game in terms of attacking play and scoring. Ronnie took that further still, but none of that would have been possible without Joe Davis.