After being accused by Silvino Francisco of being high on drugs during the final of the 1985 British Open he admitted he had a problem with cocaine and returned to Canada. World Snooker subsequently announced that he would continue to be called Jimmy White.Ĭanadian Stevens was snooker’s playboy during his time at the top of the game, but his flamboyant style of play and outrageous dress sense soon led him to the wrong side of the tracks. This came about after he struck a sponsorship deal with the makers of HP Sauce and announced he had changed his name by deed poll to James Brown, and would wear brown clothing when competing at the upcoming Masters tournament. The Whirlwind upset the authorities in 2005 when he announced that he would be competing under the name Jimmy Brown. When the game finished 10-2 officials analysed the match and banned Francisco.

Due to an unusually high number of bets on the score line 10-2 in favour of White, betting on the match was suspended. The South African was banned from snooker for five years following an investigation into his 1985 World Championship match against Jimmy White. Silvino’s nephew Peter was also tarred with the match fixing brush. A year later he was sent to prison for smuggling cannabis. He was declared bankrupt in 1996 and earned a living working in a mate’s fish & chip shop. The 1985 British Open champion was arrested in 1989 over match fixing allegations, but was cleared of all charges. After the lurid stories were published he was fined £5,000 for bringing the game into disrepute. Lancastrian Knowles was a mainstay of the snooker circuit throughout the early eighties, but will be remembered for the saucy stories of his sexual exploits that he told to a tabloid newspaper in the 1983. Here’s our Top Ten bad boys of the baize. But over the years the game has had its fair share of wrong ‘uns. Alex 'Hurricane' Higgins was the original rebel and bad boy of snooker.

Boy Banned by Sam Stevens