By Elliott West
“When I retired from football, I returned to my first love — snooker. I hit my first 100 break at the age of 13. We played with old ivory balls. Sometimes they would crack and parts would fall out. In football, I played all over Europe and I did the same with snooker, going to places like Sri Lanka and Singapore.”
Sammy Pavis
Introduction
Sammy Pavis is a name that is engrained in Northern Irish history, being one of the most prolific goalscorers in Irish League history. A player who won all the top honours in a blue shirt of Ulster’s top club. However, when he retired from football, he returned to his first love, snooker. A game that he had played since his childhood days, making his first century break at 13. A time where ivory balls were still often used, balls that were prone to crack and disintegrate as the match progressed. A sport that he would later rub shoulders with the likes of Kirk Stevens, Steve Davis, Cliff Wilson, Cliff Thorburn and Alex Higgins.
Life on the Green Baize
Pavis, a 60 goals a season in the late 1960s, certainly had that killer instinct needed for snooker but the closest he had ever come to silverware for the national title, came in 1974 in a final against Paddy Donnelly. It was not to be for Sammy as he narrowly missed out on victory, losing the match on an agonising last black.
However, his success was about to change and it came at the Ulster Maple Leaf Club for the Northern Ireland Amateur Championship in 1982. A tournament where Pavis had set a record in the early rounds in the championship and Northern Ireland amateur record books by making a break of 92. A break that came in his match against Norman Whaley. He also overcame his nemesis, Billy Mills, along the way, a player who had ended his championship chances several times in the past.
In the final, Sammy went on to face Kieran Erwin. Kieran was an unknown entity outside his local snooker league but had unknown to many, taken time off work in the three months prior to the start of the tournament to put in six hours a day of practice. Erwin seemed the stronger of the two in the final, building up a 5-3 overnight lead. This would be followed the next day by Kieran winning the first two frames and the scoreline looked ominous for Sammy when the match went 8-7 to his opponent with Pavis requiring the last two frames.
However the tides changed when Sammy took the match to a deciding frame and with only nine points the difference, Erwin was adjudicated by the referee, Russell Williamson for playing a deliberate miss. A mistake that he never recovered from and Pavis would go on to seal victory at 9-8. A win that earned him the title, £200 and a place at the World Amateur Championship in Calgary that September. Pavis would again inflict pain on his opponent in 1985 when he won the title for a second time 10-9.
Summary
A true legend of Northern Irish football and later snooker, Sammy Pavis was one of those characters who loved and took great pride in what he did. Loved and admired by many, Sammy was a role model for those that aspired to reach great heights in the sport. A man who was driven by success and able to bat away those defeats that this journey threw at him. Pavis sadly passed away in 2016 after a short illness. I will leave you with some words by Pavis on Alex Higgins who he believed had a poor personality but was an unbelievable player :
“My wife and I were in London for one of the big tournaments. Most of the players stayed in our hotel. Higgy joined us for a meal. He was the perfect gentleman. But he was a different man when he had a crowd around him . . . he played to the gallery. That’s when he behaved poorly.”
Sammy Pavis
