Steve dominated world snooker during the 1980s, when he reached eight World Championship finals in nine years, won six world titles, and held the world number one ranking for seven consecutive seasons. His encounter with Dennis Taylor in the 1985 World Championship final is widely considered the most famous match in snooker history. Its black-ball conclusion still holds the record for the UK’s largest after-midnight television audience, with 18.5 million viewers.

Steve won a total of 28 ranking events, placing him fourth on the all-time list. In addition to his six world titles, he won the Masters three times and the UK Championship six times, for a total of 15 Triple Crown titles, placing him behind only Ronnie O’Sullivan and Stephen Hendry on the all-time list. During the 1987–88 season, he became the first player to win all three Triple Crown events in a single season, and remains one of only three players, along with Hendry and Mark Williams, to achieve this. He earned over £5.5 million in career prize money, and compiled 355 competitive century breaks, including the first officially recognised maximum break in professional competition, at the Classic in 1982. Steve was named the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year in 1988 and he remains the only snooker player ever to win the award.

Steve retired from playing snooker in 2016 but still does the occasional commentary for the BBC’s snooker coverage, as well as being a popular quiz show guest and a much in demand After-dinner speaker. He is also an extremely popular DJ known as Thundermuscle or Rocky Flame.

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