One of the leading players of the 1980s, Silvino Francisco’s later career has been somewhat clouded by various controversial incidents.

Silvino was the son of a Portuguese fisherman who moved to Cape Town and opened a restaurant, which had two snooker tables. Silvino’s elder brother, Mannie, was a top class billiards and snooker player in South Africa who was runner up in both the World Amateur Billiards and Snooker championships. Both brothers competed in the 1976 World Amateur Snooker championship in Johannesburg and met in the quarter-finals where Silvino beat Mannie 5-1, the first time he had done so in competition, but lost in the semis to the eventual winner, Doug Mountjoy.

Like Mannie, Silvino excelled at both billiards and snooker as an amateur winning the South African amateur snooker championship four times and the billiards version three times. He spent 14 years working for Thurston’s and was one of the few professionals who could assemble a snooker table as well as play on it.

He turned professional in 1978 but did not come to England until 1982, in the interim continuing his career as an executive with a South African oil company. When he did arrive for the 1982 Embassy he caused a minor sensation. He won two qualifying matches and then beat Dennis Taylor and Dean Reynolds to reach the quarter finals losing out to Ray Reardon but he had made his name. He qualified for the Crucible stage the next year also but lost in the first round, Dennis Taylor getting his revenge. He had however done enough to quit his job and join the circuit full time for the 1983/4 season where he achieved one quarter-final and three last 16 places to put him just outside the top 16 at number 17.

The next season started with a semi-final in the Jameson International and in the last event before the world championships, the Dulux British Open at Derby, Silvino went all the way to the final beating Jimmy White and Alex Higgins on the way. The final was memorable as the first major final without a British player, Kirk Stevens being the opposition. Silvino triumphed 12-9 to give him his first and only ranking title. Although he lost in the opening round at Sheffield he had done enough to get into the top 16 at thirteenth.

Following that Dulux final, Sivino accused Kirk Stevens of playing under the influence of drugs and was fined £6,000 as well as being docked ranking points. Stevens later admitted taking drugs and after an appeal the fine was quashed and the points reinstated. After this incident his form slumped a little in the 1985/6 season but in the following one, two quarter-finals and a semi put him up to his highest ever ranking position of tenth. He did not get beyond the last 16 again for the next two seasons and dropped out of the top 16. Reaching the semi-final of the 1990 Mercantile Credit Classic halted his slide downwards but it proved only temporary and he won very few matches after that.

Several times his name was linked to match fixing scares most famously in the 1989 Masters at Wembley where he lost 5-1 to Terry Griffiths after there had been heavy betting of that precise scoreline and although arrested he was released without charge, it being decided that particularly generous odds on that score had prompted the heavy betting. Further troubles came in the shape of failing eyesight and a failed marriage. He was known to be a heavy gambler and when he could not meet a £100,000 tax demand he was declared bankrupt in December 1996. He was not helped by his nephew Peter being banned for ‘a performance not consistent with his standing as a professional player’.

Without Peter, he led the South African team in the 1996 World Cup and showed he could still play by beating Stephen Hendry, John Higgins and Alan McManus in a single evening albeit only in single frame matches. Elsewhere his money was drying up, his world ranking was down to 166 and he was working late night in a fish and chip shop to make ends meet. Needing money to stay in the game he was arrested at Dover in 1997 with a quantity of cannabis in his car. Although he claimed he was set up, he pleaded guilty being reluctant to name others and was jailed for three years.

So ended his career on the circuit but he is now out of jail and he entered for the World Seniors championship but unfortunately it never took place.