In conversation with snooker legend, Steve Davis, at Sheffield train station
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00:00 Hello, good morning and welcome to Sheffield train station.
00:03 My name is Alex Van Avermaet from Sheffield staff.
00:05 Delighted to be joined by six-time World Snooker Champion Steve Davis.
00:10 Steve, you're back in Sheffield, this place must mean a lot to you.
00:13 It's funny coming here every year.
00:15 I actually, we're trying to work out,
00:17 probably spent at least a year, if not a year and a half of my life in Sheffield.
00:24 So it's like a second home a bit.
00:26 I've seen it sort of grow up over the years, I've seen it set to change.
00:30 I have a sort of, I think an affinity with it,
00:34 which is obviously different because I live here,
00:36 but you know, it's sort of, part of me is a little bit Sheffield.
00:41 I used to walk up Division Street past the record shop,
00:46 you've got records, which was synonymous with electronic music back then.
00:51 At that time I wasn't listening to that type of music.
00:54 But I walked past, historically where Walt records started off,
00:58 and of course, you know, the Crucible Theatre.
01:01 Very quickly after it was established,
01:04 became this iconic snooker venue,
01:07 that I'm not too sure that the people who actually,
01:10 who were involved in the Crucible at the time
01:13 thought about the snooker venue overtaking their theatre.
01:18 But as the years have gone on, how amazing it is now,
01:21 how worldwide people, snooker fans, make a pilgrimage to Sheffield.
01:26 It's amazing.
01:28 On that note, obviously it's been a hot topic all weekend,
01:31 potentially moving away,
01:33 but I mean the feeling on the ground is, it's inevitable.
01:37 You used the Crucible?
01:38 Yeah, yeah, the feeling on the ground is it's inevitable.
01:41 And it's sort of, okay, so nothing ever stays the same.
01:45 But historically this place has been linked so much to snooker,
01:51 it feels like it's a wrench,
01:53 and you're throwing away your history.
01:56 So there's that to be said for it.
01:59 But the problem is for cows that play in snooker,
02:04 they have to first and foremost try and grow the game,
02:08 because the players deserve and want more prize money,
02:12 and if they don't get it, maybe they go off to other parts of the country.
02:16 You could actually be looking at a breakaway tour
02:19 if the players don't feed the cows that play and do enough for them.
02:23 So with that in mind, and now the fact that the game is worldwide,
02:27 there's more pressure on moving it to places where there is more money
02:32 and more new interest.
02:35 And also, the other thing, is a bigger venue.
02:39 So I know that World Snooker have been pushing Sheffield Council,
02:44 trying to ask the question,
02:46 is there a possibility of rebuilding the Crucible,
02:49 or a place across the road from the Crucible?
02:52 We know these things, and it would be amazing
02:54 if you had a bigger venue for the World Championship,
02:58 because it would be weird to have on a worldwide tour
03:03 the biggest event in the smallest venue.
03:06 So therein lies the problem.
03:08 Nobody wants to move to Sheffield.
03:10 The players don't want to move to Sheffield.
03:12 They'd like a bigger venue.
03:14 But I don't have that speed.
03:16 We don't know what Sheffield Council or what rewards they can generate
03:19 in a private equity to do it.
03:21 But it'll be a sad day if it leaves.
03:24 2027, sort of this contract up and everything.
03:28 I don't know.
03:30 The players...
03:33 The game of snooker has given so much entertainment on television.
03:37 BBC have done an incredible job on it.
03:40 And there's been more people probably entertained than are entertained by golf.
03:44 No disrespect to golf.
03:46 But gold prize money's massive compared to snooker.
03:49 But now that the game is worldwide,
03:52 maybe snooker prize money should be growing faster than it is.
03:56 So if your hands are tied by not just the Cruisers, the Pigs, it's not that popular.
04:02 If your hands are tied by you need to grow the game, that's the problem.
04:07 Let's talk about the tournament.
04:09 Have you got a pick in the minute?
04:12 Well, I don't think I've ever been corrected as to win it.
04:16 Me neither. I'm back in soaps, I'll tell you that.
04:18 I've never turned up at the Cruisers when I was playing and knew I was going to win it.
04:23 I was only hoping I was going to win it.
04:24 Everybody else thought I was going to win it, but I didn't know that.
04:27 So obviously the two hot names, Ronnie O'Sullivan and Judd Trump,
04:32 are due to meet in the semi-final if that's the way it goes.
04:36 But nobody could have foreseen last year's Luka Brasov, who astonishingly win it.
04:41 So all eyes are obviously focused on those two players.
04:45 But who's to say Stephen McGuire doesn't win?
04:48 You just don't know.
04:50 It could be anybody's year, it always could be,
04:53 because it feels like a player starts to come out of the leading pack,
04:59 out of the packet players, in the second week
05:03 and starts to show the type of form that is capable of winning,
05:06 like Luka Brasov, like Stuart Bingham, like Joe Johnson.
05:10 And so I don't know, I haven't got a clue.
05:13 I'd love to know, I really would, because we're supposed to be experts.
05:18 Excellent stuff. Well, Stephen and I are going to have a very short game.
05:22 Take it easy, I don't play anymore, I'm a DJ.