TWENTY years ago this weekend, Joe Johnson was crowned world snooker champion after the biggest upset in the event's history.
He sprang from anonymity, at odds of 150-1, to beat Steve Davis 18-12 and claim the Embassy World Championship at Sheffield's Crucible.
It was no easy path. He beat Mike Hallett, came back from 9-12 down to oust Terry Griffith 13-12, and then eliminated Tony Knowles for the right to meet Davis.
Fame never sat comfortably on him. Though snooker was at the height of its popularity when he defeated Davis, he was stunned to return to his Bradford home under seige, with photographers camped in the garden. He classed himself an "ordinary Joe" and seems happy in his return to the quiet life.
He declined an interview request on this anniversary: "I'm enjoying my anonymity, so I'd rather not do it."
Yet he had more talent than his best world ranking of No.5 suggests. Though he failed to reach the last 16 of any ranking event before defending his title in 1987, he returned to Sheffield and saw off Eugene Hughes, Stephen Hendry, and Neal Foulds before Davis was avenged, winning 18-14 in the final.
So Johnson was first since Davis to reach successive finals, and a first-time winner has yet to make a successful defence.
In 1989, Johnson was staring at the unenviable record of being the first Crucible player to be whitewashed, trailing Tony Knowles 8-0. After a fight-back he finally lost 10-5. By the end of 1990 he was out of the world top 16, and never returned. In 1993 he won only one game in 12, dropping to 37th.
He has been troubled by ill-health, and retired from tournament play two years ago. After a broken ankle kept him out of seven ranking tournaments, he lost his place on the main tour. His final match was a 5-3 defeat by Stuart Mann while attempting to qualify for the 2004 Players' Championship.
He suffered from eyesight problems, and learning to play wearing spectacles is never an easy task, but he fought back gallantly from a heart attack during one tournament 11 years ago. Indeed, he carried on playing and managed to win that game.
Two days later he was undergoing open heart surgery for three blocked arteries. Johnson was fatalistic: "I'm concerned about my health, " said the father of seven, "but I'm more bothered about being able to justify my place in the game."
By then he had slumped to a world ranking of 52. He had suffered his first heart attack aged 38, and his family had pleaded with him to quit.
He was England under-19 champion in 1971 and runnerup to Terry Griffiths for the English amateur. As Griffiths was Welsh, Johnson played for England at the 1978 World Amateur in Malta. He lost in the final to Cliff Wilson, but turned pro the next year while holding the world amateur record break of 140.
In his spare time he sang in a band called Made in Japan, and his boast of having the best voice among the players of his era might even have been justified.
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