Kirk Stevens (born August 17, 1958) is a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

former professional

snooker Snooker (pronounced , ) is a cue sport played on a rectangular Billiard table#Snooker and English billiards tables, billiards table covered with a green cloth called baize, with six Billiard table#Pockets 2, pockets: one at each corner and ...

player.

Career

Stevens started playing young, achieving his first aged just 12. He turned professional aged 20, and reached the semi-finals of the

World Championship A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game ...

aged 21. In 1984 he achieved a maximum 147 break in a televised match against

Jimmy White James Warren White (born 2 May 1962) is an English professional snooker player who has won ten ranking events. Nicknamed "The Whirlwind" because of his swift and attacking style of play, White has reached six World Snooker Championship finals ...

in the Benson & Hedges Masters, which remained the only such break ever made in the competition until

Ding Junhui Ding Junhui (; born 1 April 1987) is a Chinese professional snooker player. He is the most successful Asian player in the history of the sport. Throughout his career, he has won 15 major ranking titles, including three UK Championships (2005 ...

achieved the same feat in 2007. His stylish choice of attire (he often appeared at major tournaments wearing an all-white suit, as opposed to the traditional black suit with a white shirt) and his youthful 'popstar' good looks made him a pin-up. In 1985 he was wrongfully accused of taking stimulants before the final of the Dulux British Open Snooker Championship by South African Silvino Francisco. Stevens lost 9–12. Francisco was subsequently fined by the world governing body of snooker, the WPBSA, for the comments. The

WPBSA The World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA) is the governing body of professional snooker and English billiards. It is headquartered in Bristol, England. Founded as the Professional Billiard Players Association (PBPA) in ...

, accepted that the accusation was false and it is on record that Stevens has never failed a drugs test in the history of his career. Shortly after the comments were made public, Stevens admitted to an addiction to cocaine in his personal life. Although he underwent treatment, his career never really recovered. He dropped out of the top 16 in 1986/87, but continued to play on until 1992/93, before returning home to Canada and retiring from professional tournament play on the world circuit. After returning to Canada Stevens won the

Canadian Amateur Championship The Canadian Amateur Championship, begun in 1895, is the men's amateur golf championship of Canada. It is staged annually by Golf Canada. It was played at match play until 1968, went to stroke play beginning in 1969, and reverted to match play i ...

in 1997, 1998, 2000, 2002, and 2008. In 2011 he returned to the

Crucible Theatre The Crucible Theatre, or simply The Crucible, is a theatre in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, which opened in 1971. Its name refers to crucible steel, which was developed in Sheffield in 1740 and drove the industrialisation of the city. ...

for the first time since 1988 to play in a "Snooker Legends" exhibition event. On September 23, 2019, Jimmy White published an apology to Stevens on White's official

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page stating that in his autobiography ''Second Wind'' he misremembered a few stories as occurring with Stevens that in fact did not. These events were widely broadcast in the media and White wanted to make the apology public to prevent them from being repeated. White further stated that he did not intend his words to be interpreted as meaning that Stevens introduced him to

crack cocaine Crack cocaine, commonly known simply as crack, and also known as rock, is a free base form of the stimulant cocaine that can be Smoking, smoked. Crack offers a short, intense Euphoria (emotion), high to smokers. The ''Manual of Adolescent Sub ...

or that Stevens ever played WPBSA snooker under the influence of drugs.

Performance and rankings timeline

Career finals

Ranking finals: 1

Non-ranking finals: 6 (3 titles)

Team finals: 4 (1 title)

Amateur finals: 6 (6 titles)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Stevens, Kirk 1958 births Canadian snooker players Living people Sportspeople from Toronto