Dennis Taylor

Coalisland in County Tyrone birthed Dennis Taylor on 19 January 1949, the seventh child of a lorry driver who would one day outlast Steve Davis on a final black ball. The small town gave up a boy with six siblings and no obvious destiny, then watched him leave for England to cut carpet patterns and weigh paper before discovering he could strike a cue ball as well as any man in Blackburn. What the children of Coalisland played in kitchens and yards, Taylor carried into world championships, proving that ordinary birthplaces do not limit extraordinary hands.