Tony Meo

Tony Meo

Born	4 October 1959 (1959-10-04) (age 52) Tooting, London[1]
Sport country	England[1]
Nickname	The Cat Meo, Meo[1]
Professional	1979–1997[1]
Highest ranking	10 (2 years)[1]
Highest break	147
Tournament wins
Ranking	1
Non-ranking	5

Tony Meo (born 4 October 1959) is a retired English snooker player.

Career

Meo was a schoolfriend of Jimmy White in Tooting, and the pair regularly skipped school to play snooker together.^[2] At 17 Meo became the then youngest person known to have made a maximum break of 147, the record standing until Ronnie O'Sullivan broke it.^[1] He turned professional in 1979.

In 1984, Meo reached the final of the Lada Classic, facing world number one Steve Davis. The match went to the deciding frame, and Meo only needed to clear the colours to win the title, but missed after being distracted by a shout of encouragement from a spectator. Davis went on to win the frame and match, and used his winning speech to call for an audience ban on alcohol.

As part of a doubles partnership with Davis, Meo won four World Doubles titles, and was also part of the victorious England team at the 1983 World Team Classic. His only ranking title came at the 1989 British Open, beating Dean Reynolds 13–6 after beginning the tournament as a 200–1 outsider. In the same year, he reached the semi-final of the World Championship, losing 16–7 to John Parrott.

In 1986, Meo was one of five players under Barry Hearn's management (along with Davis, Terry Griffiths, Willie Thorne and Dennis Taylor) who appeared on "Snooker Loopy", a hit single about the game recorded by Chas and Dave.^[1]

Slipping badly down the rankings, Meo retired from professional snooker in 1997.

Tournament wins

Ranking

• British Open (1989)

Non-ranking

• Australian Masters (1981, 1985)^[1]
• English Professional Championship (1986, 1987)
• Matchroom International League (1990)

Team events

• Hofmeister World Doubles (1982, 1983, 1985, 1986 – all with Steve Davis)
• World Team Classic (1983 – with team England)

Amateur events

• National U-19 Championship (1978)^[1]

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i} Eurosport. 2010. Then and Now: Tony Meo. [Online] Yahoo! and Eurosport (Updated 6 May) Available at: http://eurosport.yahoo.com/06052010/58/tony-meo.html [Accessed 16 March 2010]. Archived at http://www.webcitation.org/5pXh2Uqhp.
2. ^ [1]; on Wayback Machine accessed May 7, 2010

Persondata
Name	Meo, Tony
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	4 October 1959
Place of birth	Tooting, London
Date of death
Place of death