Six times world snooker champion That victory in 1964 led to an invitation to tour South Africa with
Jonathan Barron, which proved so successful that Reardon was offered the opportunity to return and tour again as a professional. He returned there after having resigned from the police force and turned professional in 1967. When he played
Jimmy van Rensberg in the South African Challenge, Reardon won the best-of-three matches event 2–1. Reardon's first appearance at the
World Snooker Championship was in
1969 in a quarter-final against
Fred Davis in Stoke-on-Trent. The match featured lengthy tactical exchanges between the players, resulting in some of the longest sessions ever recorded in World Championship play. In July 1969, the
BBC began broadcasting
Pot Black, a competition of one-frame matches which became popular with viewers and enhanced the profile and earning power of the participants. Reardon won the first series by defeating Spencer 88–29 in the one-frame final. In London in April
1970, Reardon won the World Championship for the first time, defeating Davis in the quarter-finals, Spencer in the semi-finals, and
John Pulman 37–33 in the final, having led 27–14 before Pulman reduced the lead to one frame at 34–33. At the
next World Championship, played in Australia in November 1970, Reardon won all four of his
round-robin group matches, and qualified for a place in the semi-finals, where Spencer established a winning margin against him at 25–7 and finished the match 34–15 ahead after . Reardon won the October 1971 edition of the
Park Drive 2000, defeating Spencer 4–3 in the final after placing second in the round-robin stage (behind Spencer who had placed first). In the Spring 1972 edition, he made a break of 146 in the round-robin, which was the highest-ever break in competitive play at that time. This remained the highest official break of Reardon's career, At the
1972 World Championship, Reardon lost his first match 22–25 to
Rex Williams in the quarter-finals. He reached the final of the
1973 World Championship in
Manchester, beating
Jim Meadowcroft 16–10, and Spencer 23–22. He lost the first seven frames of the final to
Eddie Charlton, but took 17 of the next 23 to hold a four-frame advantage at 17–13 and then moved further ahead into a 27–25 lead. At this point in the match, he complained to the organisers about the television lighting reflecting on the ; when his complaint was not resolved by the organisers, he approached the tournament sponsors and threatened to withdraw from the competition, after which the lighting was changed. Reardon was ahead 31–29 going into the last day, and won 38–32 to claim his second world title. He also won the
1974 Pontins Professional, leading 9–4 in the final and winning it 10–9 after Spencer took five consecutive frames to force a decider. In
1975, Reardon reached the final of the inaugural
Masters by winning 5–4 on the against Williams in the semi-final, but lost the final 8–9 to Spencer on a . At the
1975 World Championship in Australia, he won a tough quarter-final against Spencer, 19–17, and then eliminated
Alex Higgins 19–14 in the semi-finals to meet Charlton in the final. Reardon was leading 16–8, but Charlton won the following nine frames and then went ahead 28–23 before Reardon pulled back seven of the next eight frames to lead 30–29. Charlton took the 60th frame to tie the match but Reardon won the vital 61st frame to secure the world title for the third successive year. A week later, at
Pontins in
Prestatyn, Wales, he retained the
Professional title and won the
Spring Open title. Reardon won the
Masters in January 1976, beating Miles 7–3 in the final. He had earned his place in the final by defeating Pulman 4–1 in the quarter-finals, in a match where the highest break (compiled by Pulman) was only 22, and then Charlton 5–4 in the semi-finals. In
1976, Reardon won his fifth world title, defeating
John Dunning 15–7,
Dennis Taylor 15–2 and
Perrie Mans 20–10. During the final in Manchester against Higgins, Reardon complained about the television lighting (which was changed), the quality of the table (to which adjustments were subsequently made), and the referee (who was replaced). Higgins led in the early stages of the match, but Reardon recovered to 15–13 before winning 12 of the next 15 frames for a 27–16 victory. Both players made a century break in the match, Reardon pulling ahead to 8–5 after losing all of the first three frames, but then needing the last two when Davis took the score to 9–8. Reardon reached the final of the
1977 Masters, beating Williams 4–1 in the quarter-finals and Miles 5–2 in the semi-finals, but lost the final 6–7 to
Doug Mountjoy. He was also runner-up at the
1977 Benson & Hedges Ireland Tournament, losing 2–5 to Higgins. Reardon's successful run at the World Championship ended in
1977 at the
Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, when he lost to Spencer in the quarter-finals 6–13; it was his first defeat at the World Championship since his quarter-final loss to Williams in 1972. Aged 45 years and 203 days, Reardon was the oldest winner of the World Snooker Championship, a record that lasted until 2022 when
Ronnie O'Sullivan won the title aged 46 years and 148 days. Soon after establishing this record, Reardon regained the
Pontins Professional title, taking it for the fourth time in five years, defeating Spencer 7–2 in the final. The same year, his old rival from Tredegar, Wilson, won the
World Amateur Championship.
Later professional career Toward the end of 1978, Reardon beat
Patsy Fagan 6–1 and Higgins 11–9 to win the one-off "
Champion of Champions" event, sponsored by the
Daily Mirror and held at the
Wembley Conference Centre. He also won the
1979 Forward Chemicals Tournament. Reardon regained his
Pot Black title in
1979 by defeating Mountjoy 2–1 in the final. This was Reardon's first win since he won the inaugural event in 1969, although he was runner-up in
1970,
1972 and
1980. At the
1979 World Championship, he lost to Dennis Taylor in the quarter-finals, and was eliminated by
David Taylor at the same stage in
1980. He progressed one stage further in
1981, beating Spencer 13–11 and Werbeniuk 13–10 before being defeated by Mountjoy in the semi-finals. Mountjoy scored a championship record break of 145 during the match, which he won 16–10. In 1979, Reardon joined with Mountjoy and the reigning World Champion,
Terry Griffiths, to win the first
World Challenge Cup for Wales, defeating England (Fred Davis, Spencer and Miles) in the final, 14–3. The same Wales team retained the title in
1980. At the
1982 Highland Masters, Reardon eliminated
Steve Davis in the semi-finals before winning the event by defeating Spencer 11–4 in the final.He reached the final of the
1982 World Championship, losing to Higgins 15–18. En route to the final, he defeated
Jim Donnelly 10–5,
John Virgo 13–8,
Silvino Francisco 13–8, and Charlton, in the semi-finals, by 16–11 after winning five successive frames from 11-all. In the final, Reardon built a 5–3 lead, but was behind 7–10 at the end of the first day. He later levelled the match at 15–15, but Higgins won the last three frames to claim the title. For the
1982–83 season, Reardon returned to number one in the world rankings, which at the time was only based on performances at the World Championships over previous years. He won the
Professional Players Tournament in October 1982, beating
Jimmy White 10–5 in the final, reached the final of the Benson & Hedges Masters, losing 7–9 to
Cliff Thorburn, and won the
1983 International Masters, where he defeated Davis 2–1 in the semi-final group stages, before prevailing 9–6 against White in the final, having trailed 3–5. At the Professional Players Tournament, Reardon set a record as the oldest winner of a ranking tournament at the age of 50 years and 14 days; He also regained the
Welsh Professional Title, eliminating Griffiths 9–4 and Mountjoy 9–1 in the semi-final and final respectively. At the
1983 World Championship, he lost 12–13 in the second round to
Tony Knowles; he reached the quarter-finals in
1984 but was eliminated 2–13 by
Kirk Stevens. Reardon first wore spectacles in a match at the
1985 British Open, which he lost 4–5 to
Dave Martin after leading 4–1. He reached the semi-finals of the
1985 World Championship (playing with unassisted vision), where he lost 5–16 to Davis. He lost to
John Campbell in the first round of the
1986 World Championship, and to Davis in the second round in
1987. After dropping out of the top-16 rankings in 1987, Reardon whitewashed Davis 5–0 in the third round of the 1988
British Open, using his old cue (encouraged to rebuild it by Davis) with which he had won his world titles. In the next round, playing under TV lighting, he suffered a drying of contact lenses (which he started using in 1987) and lost 2–5 to
David Roe, having led 2–1. In 1985, Reardon left his wife Sue, with whom he had two children, to live with Carol Covington. He told reporters from the
Daily Mirror that Sue had been "fully informed" of his eight-year affair with Covington. ==Retirement, death and legacy==