Blast from the past: Rain drowns Proteas’ World Cup hopes in Durban

Today in SA sports history: March 3

02 March 2023 - 22:01

1985 — Snooker star Silvino Francisco, a 50-1 outsider with a world ranking of 17, wins the British Open Championship in Derby, beating Kirk Stevens of Canada 12-9 in the final, pocketing what was then a world record purse of £50,000, which translated into R107,000 at the time. Francisco, 38 at the time, was only the second man to be ranked outside the top 16 to win a major snooker crown. Francisco, who had relocated from Cape Town to England a few years earlier, learnt to play the game at the shop owned by his father Manuel, a fisherman who had left Portugal for South Africa. There were two tables in the back where he would play each day after school. In 1997 Francisco was nabbed in Dover trying to smuggle 50kg of dagga in his sports car from Spain and was imprisoned for three years. ..