Steve Davis comments about women in snooker draw condemnation

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/may/04/steve-davis-comments-women-snooker-condemnation

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Lady Grey-Thompson has spoken out against comments made by snooker veteran Steve Davis that women lack the "single-minded determination" to compete in the world snooker championship.

The winner of 11 gold Paralympic medals responded to comments made by Davis, 56, when he was discussing the absence of women from the upper ranks of snooker.

Davis told the BBC World Service's Sports Hour: "The male of the species has got a single-minded, obsessional type of brain that I don't think so many females have."

He added that women lacked "that single-minded determination in something that must be said is a complete waste of time – trying to put snooker balls into pockets with a pointed stick".

Davis, who now works as a snooker pundit for the BBC, won the world snooker championship six times in the 80s and was awarded an OBE in 2001.

Karren Brady, vice chairman West Ham United FC and star of the BBC's apprentice, also condemned the comments: "Anyone who makes sweeping comments like that is from the dinosaur age."

Speaking to the Guardian, Grey-Thompson, branded Davis's comments on women "a shame" and said the problems of the gender divide in the sport actually lay in "a lack of opportunity and encouragement at the grassroots."

"It is true that in snooker women haven't come through but I think that is much more about grassroots in the sports, how you get in and how you play and the fact it is still seen as a men's sport," said the Welsh former wheelchair racer. "If you go into a pub or a snooker club, you still find more men playing there and I think you don't see many women competing at a high level because they are taught from a young age that it isn't the sport for them.

"There may be a lack of ability to deal with the discrimination women face, which is true across a lot of sports, because if they are being told at the age of 13, 14 that this is not a sport for your gender that can be quite difficult to overcome. But that's a much bigger reason than that women are just 'lacking the focus'."

Unlike many other sports, women are allowed to compete against men in the World Championship, but no female has ever come close to reaching the final. Asked if he thought a woman would ever compete in the latter stages of the sport's most prestigious competition, Davis replied: "No."

Victoria Coren Mitchell, who recently won the European Poker Tour said Davis's comments were more playful than harmful.

She said: "That looks like a pretty harmless and good natured remark from Steve Davis; he's obviously been asked why there aren't more women playing high level snooker and (rather than saying anything detrimental about ability) he's gone for a self-deprecating joke about the sport being a waste of time. I've played poker with him a few times and he's always been very respectful about my game. I know he's not a sexist."

In his comments, Davis went on to say: "Men are ideally suited to doing something as absolutely irrelevant in life as that. They're the ones who have train sets in the loft. They have stamp collections to die for. Right? These are stupid things to do with your life. As is trying to practise eight hours a day to get to World Championship level. So therefore I think we are also the idiots of the species as well."

Grey-Thompson, who has one daughter, disputed that men had more of an "obsessive" nature than women which gave them an advantage in the sport.

She added: "As for the comments that women don't have the single-mindedness, well when I was pregnant, I only had a week off to have a caesarean and then I was back training so I think that's probably pretty focused. Women have to make decisions in sport that men don't have to. This is not the first time comments like this have been made and it won't be the last. "

The snooker champion's comments were previously branded "extremely unhelpful" by Ruth Holdaway, head of the Women's Sport and Fitness Foundation.

Steve Davis did not respond to a request for comment.