Les Dodd-The Snooker Professional

It all started with my 1st game of snooker at age of 8 Dad took us to Caravan Park in Blackpool he sneaked me in snooker room 

Emigrated to Australia came back after 2 1/2 years at the age of 14 stupidly decided snooker was better than school absolutely loved it and still do a great friend who was a very good player Danny Lenehan helped me to improve at snooker and entered me in the Liverpool Junior which was played at the Albert Pub in Aigburth was lucky enough win it 2 years on the trot and lost in the Final the next year even though I was in Hospital after an operation on my arm but got special permission to play

From that just carried on playing all the time and like a lot of players found playing for money added a lot more excitement to the game .

I was able to win Tournaments won everything in Merseyside (competing against 1 of the best players ever in Merseyside George Scott ) and the Northwest making a lot of great friends and memories on the way 

Had several jobs worked in Civil Service at Smedley in Southport represented Merseyside after winning local area knockouts progressed to the Final knockout stage in Manchester before the main Finals which were held London again won the Finals in Manchester progressed to London where I won that against some very good Scottish  International’s and did the same the following year Civil Service Champion of England 2 years on the trot then left to do Taxi driving which enabled me to play snooker whenever I wanted.

After every final in London the winner got the chance to compete against an invited Pro 1st year played Jackie Rae great character his trick shots were brilliant I beat Jackie 4-2 next year played some young ginger kid I had 2 ninety odd breaks against him and lost 4-2 

I went back to work he went on to win 6 World titles of cause it was the nugget himself Steve Davis!!

Never really thought about being a professional until players that I was beating turned Pro so I applied and received a letter back from World Snooker stating that although my record was outstanding I hadn’t entered in tournaments in London and  hadn’t been picked to play for England as an Amateur

Off to London I went entered 10 pro-am won 6 and lost to Neal Foulds in another final.

Got a letter asking me to Represent England in the home International’s at Prestatyn did so with great pride and England won 

Sent another letter in to World Snooker and was accepted got 4 very nice phone calls from Mr Ray Reardon / Terry Griffiths / Dennis Taylor and the great WT Willie Thorne all congratulating me very nice indeed

Turned Pro in 1981 held a place in top 50 of the World for the next 18 years best ranking was 33 in the World with 1 comp left got beat and finished at No. 36 tough way to earn a living should have been a Postman they got paid every week but seriously I’ve been very lucky and even more so now because I keep getting return bookings to do exhibition’s at some clubs around the Country I think they like my trick shots but I can still knock in tons just the long shots are a bit tougher now

Leper

Had to be very careful as I had mates in both teams.
Used to play Gary Lineker 3 times a week giving him a 45 start! He was a fair player himself, just didn’t get to practice due to his great career in football. 

Scoring 2 goals in the Final at Haig Avenue 1965 for Crossen’s School we won 4-2 

Belgium

Soul and Blues

Midnight Run

John Candy

English ie. steak & fish 

Tee totaller so Pepsi Max

AMATEUR 144
PRO 125

Playing my friend John Hames at Smedley 112 total clearance for 50p

Crucible was lucky enough to play there 3 times unbelievable atmosphere you could touch the crowd 

My Dad (Les) first of all then my great friend Ray Reardon gave me a lot of good advice (get a day job🤣) then and I’m sorry to name drop all the time but these are all very good mates Stephen Hendry, John Higgins and of course the genius himself Ronnie O’Sullivan just to watch them was unbelievable.

Reaching the Final of The Tolly Ales English Professional Snooker Championship 1987
Lost 9-5 to Tony Meo received £12,500 runners – up prize after presentation me and my Dad open the envelope to look at the cheque and it wasn’t there so I ran to the tournament office only to be told they never put the cheque in but pay it into bank PANIC over

Steve Davis played him 3 times 1 season he loved me
But I did get revenge on him at Pontins with about 50 people watching I beat him 14 nil and gave him 11 start he was swearing at me
But it was at TABLE TENNIS  my second love after snooker 😎

Danny Fowler (Dustbin Danny) from Worksop he didn’t like losing money ( we went halfs on all gambling bets ) one day at Norbreck Castle where we played all the Qualifiers we were watching the monitors that just showed the scores of each frames going on so 1 table had a respotted black so I said to a guy from London let’s have £50 on who wins the toss obviously you couldn’t see the players but who ever lost the toss went first lost that bet my man went first so then we had £50 on who potted black lost that one as well £100 down not happy especially Danny but guy from London was laughing so I said come on lucky double or straight on toss of a coin he said heads and he was right £200 gone in about 8 mins can’t tell you what Danny said to me but I bought the food that night

You have to listen to this to appreciate why i would choose this……
I DON’T LOOK GOOD NAKED ANYMORE
Sung by The Snake Oil Willie Band 

Well it has to be winning the first  Over 40’s Tornament held at The Crucible Club in Newbury £500 for the Winner only ( but i said to my Finalist opponent did he want to do a saver so we did )
and low and behold a very emotional moment in my snooker career and at the nice young age of 64 i won it with a lot of good players in it from the good old days some that were only just 40 and don’t need glasses
Big thank you to Jason Francis for organising these Tournaments which are now held all over the World. Also his brainwave Snooker Legends 900 series on Sky television of which i was fortunate enough to be invited to 2 years on the trot (and hopefully a third).
First year I won 2 matches at the age of 68 and nearly blind, not a bad effort. Second year I actually won the Tuesday night event beating 3 players a lot younger than me with good eyes. The first one being Gary Britton a good mate and good player, unfortunately for him I kept getting him on the top rail and froze him out. After the game he told me his mum rang him and said “Don’t worry son, it’s not the winning thats important, its the taking place.” We both couldn’t stop laughing for the next 20 minutes. How wrong his mum was. My second opponent was the very talented Mary-Talbot Deegan (Ladies World number 7) who I was fortunate to beat because she had me struggling off the baulk cusion, at the end of the game with her being infront all the colours were safe apart from the blue. She potted a red and played the green instead of putting the blue safe. This opened the door for me to steal the frame.The final player was the German Champion Felix Frede who’s long potting had been outstanding throughout the evening, but for once with the clock ticking because all frames were played over 15 minutes (900 Seconds) with a 20 second shot clock I found myself 20 behind with a minute and a half to go. I potted a great long red, freed the black and stole the frame winning £500 and a chance to win the big one on the Wednesday evening. But unfortunately for me Andy Lavin outplayed me and eventually went on to win the whole competition and qualify for the main event a few weeks later.

Liam Neilson get him to phone a few of my friends.

John McEnroe only if he could be serious for a change.

Donald Trump because every time he talks, he makes you laugh!