The Most Successful Welsh Snooker Players

Wales has produced multiple snooker world champions. The third-most successful nation in World Championships history behind Scotland and England, Wales has been represented by some of snooker’s greatest ever players.

A look at the history of the sport is impossible without appreciating what Welshmen have brought to the baize…

Ray Reardon

Only four players have won more World Championships than Ray Reardon. Affectionately nicknamed ‘Dracula’, and enjoying two separate stints as world number one, Reardon was dominant in the 1970s. Alongside his Crucible successes, he also claimed a Masters title in 1975 and won the Golden Masters four years later.

The impact Reardon had on the sport really cannot be overstated. He was an inspiration to Steve Davis, a seven-time world champion, and his manner around the table was copied by many others in the following decades…

Terry Griffiths

In the small group of players to have completed a career Triple Crown, Terry Griffiths was embroiled in a fierce rivalry with Steve Davis for much of his career.

Griffiths arrived on the scene in jaw-dropping fashion, defeating Dennis Taylor in the World Championship final in just his second professional tournament. While he didn’t win again at the Crucible, Griffiths was a regular feature in the latter rounds throughout the 1980s.

Mark Williams

Mark Williams was a consistent sports betting favourite in his pomp. World champion in 2000 and 2003, Williams was a box-office talent with phenomenal long-potting ability and a talent for building frame-winning breaks.

His career has been turbulent. From the world’s best player, Williams’ form dropped, and he fell to 22nd in the world in the second half of the 2000s.

He climbed back to number one for the start of the 2010s, but again dropped off. In 2018, he made a remarkable return to form, winning a third World Championship and defying the snooker betting markets.

Doug Mountjoy

Doug Mountjoy displayed phenomenal longevity. After spending 11 years in the top 16 of the world rankings, including a World Championship final and titles at the UK Championship and Masters, Mountjoy bounced back to the top of the sport.

He won a second UK Championship a decade after his first. Diagnosed with lung cancer, Mountjoy refuses to give up on the sport he loved, even playing a match weeks before he had a lung removed.

It’s no exaggeration to say the Gelligaer native is an iconic figure in the history of snooker, even if a world title eluded him.

Matthew Stevens

A seven-time ranking finalist and one-time UK Championship winner, Matthew Stevens looked set to become snooker’s next big thing when he broke onto the scene in the 1990s. Stevens had a career-high ranking of fourth in 2005-06 but sits down in 50th as of 13th December 2024.

The raw talent was there for Stevens to follow in the footsteps of some of Wales’ greatest snooker players, but it ultimately wasn’t to be and he failed to live up to the hype and dominate snooker prize money earnings for most of his career. He has never been able to regain the form which saw him take the sport by storm in the first few years of the 21st century.

Jak Jones

Aside from a quarter-final appearance at the 2020 English Open, Jak Jones had been a non-factor at ranking tournaments when he reached the final of the 2024 World Championship.

In just his second Crucible showing, Jones became the seventh Welshman to reach a final. It led to a career-high of 14th in the world rankings. While he hasn’t been able to reach the same heights, Jones did manage to follow up with runs to the last eight at the Champion of Champions and British Open.

It’s early to include Jones on this list, and yes, we are perhaps being sucked in by recency bias. A World Championship final appearance cannot be fluked, though, so there’s every chance Jones proves himself as a contender for major tournaments in the near future.