Talk:Steve Davis/GA2

GA Review

Article (edit | visual edit | history) · Article talk (edit | history) · Watch

Reviewer: Epicgenius (talk · contribs) 20:07, 5 July 2020 (UTC)

Hi Lee Vilenski, I will take up this review. I'll read through this and leave some in-depth comments later. epicgenius (talk) 20:07, 5 July 2020 (UTC)

GA review (see here for what the criteria are, and here for what they are not)
It is reasonably well written. a (prose, spelling, and grammar): b (MoS for lead, layout, word choice, fiction, and lists): It is factually accurate and verifiable. a (references): b (citations to reliable sources): c (OR): d (copyvio and plagiarism): It is broad in its coverage. a (major aspects): b (focused): It follows the neutral point of view policy. Fair representation without bias: It is stable. No edit wars, etc.: It is illustrated by images, where possible and appropriate. a (images are tagged and non-free images have fair use rationales): b (appropriate use with suitable captions):
Overall: Pass/Fail:
· · ·

General comments

• Images are good.
• Stability is good.
• I see some plain references that say "Snooker Scene, [date], [page]". Is there no other info for these references?
  • BennyOnTheLoose - any idea who publishes snooker scene, etc? Best Wishes, Lee Vilenski ^{(talk • contribs)} 16:09, 8 July 2020 (UTC)
    • Editor is Clive Everton. Location is Birmingham, UK. Publisher is Everton's News Agency. Many (perhaps most) articles don't have by-lines. Everton has been the editor since it started in 1972. From some point (in 2018, I think) the publisher was "Snooker Scene Ltd", and the location changed to Halesowen. BennyOnTheLoose (talk) 16:27, 8 July 2020 (UTC)
      • I have updated these refs. Best Wishes, Lee Vilenski ^{(talk • contribs)} 08:59, 9 July 2020 (UTC)

Lead:

• The BBC's Sports Personality of the Year in 1988, he is the only snooker player to win the award. - the award of "BBC's Sports Personality of the Year"? This should probably be rephrased to reflect that.
  • It's common for the person to win the award to actually be called the Sports Personality of the Year.
    • I see. epicgenius (talk) 16:51, 8 July 2020 (UTC)
• What's the purpose of mentioning his age at each event?
  • It's very uncommon for people to be winning things into their fourties, I can just put in the years, if more suitable Best Wishes, Lee Vilenski ^{(talk • contribs)} 16:09, 8 July 2020 (UTC)
    • OK, that makes sense. Since you're including both the years and his age, it's fine. epicgenius (talk) 16:51, 8 July 2020 (UTC)
      • When Davis won his first title in 1981, The Times headline on the front page was "Champion at 23"; The Guardian's pic caption started "World Champion at 23". (He wasn't even the youngest winner, being a few months older than Higgins was in 1972.) Lee Vilenski I think the BetFred source is wrong on his seeding in 1981 - he was 13th seed - e.g. see The Times for 7 April 1981. Regards, BennyOnTheLoose (talk) 16:58, 8 July 2020 (UTC)
        • Good catch, updated. Best Wishes, Lee Vilenski ^{(talk • contribs)} 09:00, 9 July 2020 (UTC)

Career

• Davis was introduced to snooker by his father Bill, a keen player who took him to play at his local working men's club at age 12 and gave him an instructional book: How I Play Snooker by Joe Davis. - First, is Joe Davis related to them? Second, could this be placed into active voice, like "Davis's father Bill, a keen player, introduced him to snooker at age 12". Currently, the phrase "age 12" is attached to Bill, not Steve, and Bill didn't introduce Steve to snooker when Bill was 12 years old.
  • They are not related. Snooker is full of Davis' for some reason. Best Wishes, Lee Vilenski ^{(talk • contribs)} 09:10, 9 July 2020 (UTC)
• before losing to Alex Higgins} - typo
  • fixed Best Wishes, Lee Vilenski ^{(talk • contribs)} 09:10, 9 July 2020 (UTC)
• at the Crucible Theatre - might it be worthwhile to mention that the Crucible Theatre hosts the World Snooker Championship?
  • done Best Wishes, Lee Vilenski ^{(talk • contribs)} 09:10, 9 July 2020 (UTC)
• After failing to qualify for the World Snooker Championship for the first time in his professional career in 2001, he felt that retiring would be the easy thing to do; - According to source 60, "the easy thing to do" is part of his direct quote.
  • Quite right Best Wishes, Lee Vilenski ^{(talk • contribs)} 09:10, 9 July 2020 (UTC)
• Despite having his best run at the World Championship for five years and reaching the quarter-finals for only the second time since 1994, this was his last appearance at the Crucible; he failed to qualify for the World Championship again before his retirement.[citation needed]
  • How did I miss that?!? Best Wishes, Lee Vilenski ^{(talk • contribs)} 09:10, 9 July 2020 (UTC)
• After a defeat by Craig Steadman 8–10 in the second round of the 2014 World Snooker Championship qualification, Davis finished the season outside the top 64 on the money list and dropped off the main professional tour after 36 years. - this is also not marked as such, but it needs a citation, too
  • Source added Best Wishes, Lee Vilenski ^{(talk • contribs)} 09:10, 9 July 2020 (UTC)
• He announced his retirement from professional snooker during a live 17 April 2016 BBC broadcast, citing the recent death of his father as the main reason. - I think it would be better if the date were put first, since this is like "burying the lead" of the paragraph. I.e. "During a live 17 April 2016 BBC broadcast, he announced his retirement from professional snooker"
  • changed Best Wishes, Lee Vilenski ^{(talk • contribs)} 09:10, 9 July 2020 (UTC)

Other sports

• At Event 22 of the 2011 Grand Poker Series, Davis finished eighth and won $2,049. - is "Event" supposed to be capitalized or lowercase?
  • fixed Best Wishes, Lee Vilenski ^{(talk • contribs)} 09:29, 9 July 2020 (UTC)

In other media

• Davis has become known for his coolness and conduct in high-pressure situations.[1] His initial lack of emotional expression and monotonous interview style earned him a reputation as boring, and the satirical television series Spitting Image nicknamed him "Interesting".[154] Davis now plays on this image, and says it helped him gain public acceptance - this goes back and forth from present to past and back to present tense. And I thought he retired.
  • I have reworded - I didn't mean "play" as in "play snooker" - Spitting Image was a thing in the 80s, so that's where he got his persona, and has since mellowed out,Best Wishes, Lee Vilenski ^{(talk • contribs)} 09:29, 9 July 2020 (UTC)
• Davis has published a number of other books. - How many exactly?
  • I don't have a source on the exact figure Best Wishes, Lee Vilenski ^{(talk • contribs)} 09:29, 9 July 2020 (UTC)
    • Lee Vilenski I've added in his 2015 autobiography. (The earlier two were Steve Davis Snooker Champion: His Own Story (1981) and Frame and Fortune (1982) Feel free to reword or remove. Regards, BennyOnTheLoose (talk) 14:49, 9 July 2020 (UTC)
• Top 10 hit in the United Kingdom - on the UK Singles Chart?
  • good idea. Best Wishes, Lee Vilenski ^{(talk • contribs)} 09:29, 9 July 2020 (UTC)
• In general: it seems the second paragraph is about advertising, the third is about books, the fourth is about music, and the fifth is about TV appearances. Is that right? I think it would be good to have an introductory phrase at the beginning of each paragraph indicating as such, similar to what you did for the third paragraph.
  • I did for the second para. I don't know how I can do this for info on him being on a TV show, and also about his likeness being on TV. Best Wishes, Lee Vilenski ^{(talk • contribs)} 09:29, 9 July 2020 (UTC)
• Third paragraph: Music has its own section below. Should the two sections be merged?
  • I just moved the paragraph to music and merged as subsection Best Wishes, Lee Vilenski ^{(talk • contribs)} 09:29, 9 July 2020 (UTC)

Legacy

• Davis won a record 81 professional titles and was the runner-up in 37 events. Twenty-eight of these titles were in ranking events. His modern-era record of six world titles has been broken only by Hendry, and his six UK Championship titles has been bettered only by Ronnie O'Sullivan. Davis compiled over 300 competitive centuries during his career. - I think it could stand to be smoothed out by combining the first two sentences, if it's related to being inducted into the Snooker Hall of Fame.
  • reworded Best Wishes, Lee Vilenski ^{(talk • contribs)} 09:50, 9 July 2020 (UTC)
• In the book Masters of the Baize, a detailed comparison and ranking of snooker professionals, Luke Williams and Paul Gadsby rated Davis as the third greatest snooker player of all time (behind Joe Davis and Stephen Hendry). - should this go after the career stats?
  • Moved Best Wishes, Lee Vilenski ^{(talk • contribs)} 09:50, 9 July 2020 (UTC)

Career finals

• Winner 38. 1989 Hong Kong Gold Cup Northern Ireland Alex Higgins does not have a source.

References

POV and coverage

• Article seems neutral
• Article seems like it covers most of the key points. Is there any more on legacy or personal life? They seem a bit short

As he is still alive, and only retired a short amount of time ago it's not huge. I suspect his legacy would have been more if it wasn't for Stephen Hendry coming around a few years later and changing the way the game was played. I suspect when he dies there will be a lot of obituaries on this. Best Wishes, Lee Vilenski ^{(talk • contribs)} 19:06, 10 July 2020 (UTC)

• No copyvios detected.
• Images are appropriately licensed.

Sources

• Ref 4 "Steve Davis Retires From Snooker – World Snooker". 17 April 2016. needs to be formatted with publisher
• Some refs are not consistently formatted.

  Compare for instance, ref 11 "Board of Directors". Matchroom Sport. Archived from the original on 9 May 2011. Retrieved 10 May 2011. and ref 13 "Steve Davis profile". matchroomsport.com. Archived from the original on 18 February 2008. Retrieved 25 February 2008.

  Some refs have wikilinks to BBC Sport and some don't. Either link it only in the first ref, in all refs, or in none of them.

  Similar problem with World Snooker. Some have the publisher as World Snooker (which is wikilinked) and some are formatted with the website and publisher, worldsnooker.com. World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association.

  Some of these refs have publisher location and some don't.

• There are nine refs with the same typo >Everton, Clive.

That's all. I'll put this page on hold. epicgenius (talk) 18:01, 10 July 2020 (UTC)

• • Should have fixed all of the ref errors now, epicgenius Best Wishes, Lee Vilenski ^{(talk • contribs)} 20:17, 10 July 2020 (UTC)
    • Great, passing this article. epicgenius (talk) 23:24, 10 July 2020 (UTC)