Kirk Stevens (born August 17, 1958) is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source o ...

former professional

snooker Snooker (pronounced , ) is a cue sport played on a rectangular table covered with a green cloth called baize, with six pockets, one at each corner and one in the middle of each long side. First played by British Army officers stationed in Ind ...

player.

Career

Stevens started playing young, achieving his first aged just 12. He turned professional aged 20, and reached the semi-finals of the

World Championship A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

aged 21. In 1984 he achieved a maximum 147 break in a televised match against

Jimmy White James Warren White (born 2 May 1962) is an English professional snooker player who has won three seniors World titles. Nicknamed "The Whirlwind" because of his fluid, attacking style of play, White is the 1980 World Amateur Champion, 2009 ...

in the Benson & Hedges Masters, which remained the only such break ever made in the competition until

Ding Junhui Ding Junhui (; born 1 April 1987) is a Chinese professional snooker player. He is the most successful Asian player in the history of the sport. Throughout his career, he has won 14 major ranking titles, including three UK Championships (2005 ...

achieved the same feat in 2007. His stylish choice of attire (he often appeared at major tournaments wearing an all-white suit, as opposed to the traditional black suit with a white shirt) and his youthful 'popstar' good looks made him a ladies' favourite. In 1985 he was wrongfully accused of taking stimulants before the final of the Dulux British Open Snooker Championship by South African

Silvino Francisco Silvino Francisco (born 3 May 1946) is a South African former professional snooker player, most notable for winning the 1985 British Open. Snooker career Francisco comes from a snooker-playing family. His brother Manuel and nephew Peter both ...

. Stevens lost 9–12. Francisco was subsequently fined by the world governing body of snooker, the WPBSA, for the comments. The WPBSA, accepted that the accusation was false and it is on record that Kirk Stevens has never failed a drugs test in the history of his career. Shortly after the comments were made public, Stevens admitted to an addiction to cocaine in his personal life. Although he underwent treatment, his career never really recovered. He dropped out of the top 16 in 1986/87, but continued to play on until 1992/93, before returning home to Canada and retiring from professional tournament play on the world circuit. After returning to Canada Stevens won the Canadian Open Championship in 1997, 1998, 2000, 2002, and 2008. In 2011 he returned to the

Crucible Theatre The Crucible Theatre (often referred to simply as "The Crucible") is a theatre in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England which opened in 1971. Although it hosts regular theatrical performances, it is best known for hosting professional snooker's m ...

for the first time since 1988 to play in a "Snooker Legends" exhibition event. On September 23, 2019, Jimmy White published an apology to Kirk Stevens on White's official Facebook page stating that in his autobiography ''Second Wind'' he misremembered a few stories as occurring with Kirk Stevens that in fact did not. These events were widely broadcast in the media and White wanted to make the apology public to prevent them from being repeated. White further stated that he did not intend his words to be interpreted as meaning that Kirk Stevens introduced him to crack cocaine or that Kirk Stevens ever played WPBSA snooker under the influence of drugs.

Performance and rankings timeline

Career finals

Ranking finals: 1

Non-ranking finals: 6 (3 titles)

Team finals: 4 (1 title)

Amateur finals: 6 (6 titles)

References

External links

World Snooker profileKirk Stevens Facebook Group
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stevens, Kirk 1958 births Canadian snooker players Living people Sportspeople from Toronto