Anyone who is a fan of snooker should try and find some time to read the autobiography of the legendary Joe Davis, the player who organised the first world snooker championship in 1927 and won it himself 15 times. Davis was without a doubt a snooker pioneer who probably did more for the sport than any other player. The book is called The Breaks Came My Way and can be read for free over at the EABA website.

Reading the book you realise how different everything about the sport was back then. One of the things that seems strange to today’s fans is the fact that snooker players back in Davis’s glory days didn’t even think about the possibility of making a maximum break. When Davis participated in the 1947 championship at the Leicester Square Hall, his brother Fred Davis played against a player named Scot Walter Donaldson who was famous for having made a 142 break on one occasion. This was something quite remarkable that people and players talked a lot about.

More than a decade earlier, Davis had made a break of 138 and was genuinely happy to break that record by two points in 1948 at the Kelvin Hall in Glasgow against Donaldson.  A few months later he beat the new record by another point. He was getting closer to the maximum but at this point he didn’t even think it was possible for anyone to do it.

Then a player named George Chenier came along and made a 144 break. Davis was amazed and thought that this record was unbeatable. He had made over 350 centuries without ever getting more than that. It may be a human factor but as soon as someone else has shown that a certain feat is possible, it suddenly gets easier to get there yourself. This is exactly what happened to Davis only one month after Chenier’s 144 break. He made a break of 146, in a match against Chenier of all people and pushed the record further by two points. If he hadn’t been forced to play a pink instead of a black somewhere in the middle of the frame, he would have compiled the first maximum. But players back then didn’t seem to go out there with the intention to do it, much because they didn’t think it was possible.

After having scored 600 centuries and won 15 world championships, the only ambition left for Davis was to score the 147. He had done virtually everything a player could dream of doing in snooker except for that so this clearly must have been a big goal for him.

On January 22nd 1955 he finally did it during one of the last matches played at the Leicester Square Hall before it was closed. He describes it as one of the greatest moments of his life. This time he had the maximum in mind early on in the frame and took quite a few crazy chances. The audience saw it coming and encouraged him to try which helped him pot a few seemingly impossible balls. A few moments later, the world’s first officially recognised maximum break was completed. His mentor and opponent, Willie Smith, gave him a hug and the spectators were cheering and came down to the table to shake his hand. The first thing Davis did afterwards was to call his wife. He almost couldn’t speak but she understood he had done it. They both started crying from happiness.

That’s how elusive the first 147 seemed to these players of the past. Since then countless maximum breaks have been made by innumerable players and nobody thinks of it as impossible anymore. It is, however, still a quite unusual thing that far from all players can brag about having done.

There will always be an aura of magic around the maximum even though it won’t ever be quite as extraordinary as it was back in the days of Joe Davis.