Norman Dagley obituary (1999)
He had one initial stroke of luck in being brought up in Earl Shilton, a Leicestershire village whose institute boasted one of the best tables in England and a pair of brothers, Jack and Reg Wright, who were two of the country's finest amateurs. "I learned from Reg," Dagley said. "He would thrash me night after night. He never spared me.''
Through his mentor's example, he acquired immaculate shot selection, with an instinctive feel for precision and nuance. To his scoring power he added the finest temperament, which enabled him to prevail in many a tight finish.
On national service during the Korean war, he was on an American transport plane which had to ditch in the sea. His group spent the hours until daylight in a dinghy wondering whether a friendly or enemy plane would be first over the horizon: "After that," he said, "you don't get worked up over a game of billiards.'"
Dagley did not enter the English amateur championship "until Reg said I was ready", but he won it in 1965, and 15 times in all, a record. Relishing his first taste of international competition, he won the world amateur title at the Malta Hilton in 1971. "The only way I could eat here would be to do it through a building society," he quipped in his characteristically sardonic way.
World amateur champion again in Auckland in 1975 and twice runner-up, he eventually turned professional in 1985. The new money flooding into the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association through television contracts and sponsorship prompted the governing body to subsidise billiards to an unprecedented degree, and for Dagley this was too good a chance to miss.
Runner-up in the world professional championship at his first attempt, he won it in 1987 and 1988. In fact 1987 was his annus mirabilis, as he also won the UK and European titles, accumulating A19,000 from these three first prizes. Inevitably, he was overtaken by a new generation, but as recently as three years ago still stood seventh in the world rankings.
