He collapsed whilst watching his brother Fred play Perrie Mans in the semi-final of the 1978 World Snooker Championship.

By the time he moved back to live with his parents, his father was the landlord of the Queen's Hotel, which had a full-size billiard table.

In December 1913,[9] he hosted a week-long match between the Australian billiards player George Gray, and Claude Falkiner from Featherstone in West Yorkshire.

Davis acted as the spot boy for this match, giving him the chance to closely observe the technique of the two professional players.

[7] The final score over three evenings was 1,500–1,229 to Davis, who received a trophy, a gold medal and a set of billiard balls for making a break of 115, the highest of the tournament.

[16] At the opening of the Victoria Billiard Hall in Hasland the same year, Davis played the ex-Yorkshire champion F. W. Hughes of Leeds in an exhibition match.

[22][23] On 29 November 1920, he began a week-long match of the first to 8,000 points, against Arthur F. Peall at the Victoria Billiard Hall in Chesterfield.

[24] In March 1921, he lost 302–400 to Lawrence in the semi-final of an invitational professional tournament at Thurston's Hall held in aid of the St. Dunstan's aftercare fund.

[27][28] At Manchester in April, Davis lost 13,208–15,000 against the northern billiards champion, Tom Tothill,[29] despite making a break of 495.

[32] He won the 1922 Midlands Counties Billiards Championship, defeating Tom Dennis 6,417–4,433 in the week-long final in February.

[3][35] According to The Birmingham Daily Gazette report, he was "outclassed" by Tom Newman in their championship match, which concluded on 15 April 1922, losing 5,181–8,000.

[36] Davis failed to qualify for the 1923 professional championship, losing to Lawrence in the Second Division semi-final at Chesterfield in February.

[52] The technique involves scoring long runs of close direct cannons by tapping the cue ball lightly across them.

[52] On 9 August 1927, the Billiards Association Control Council decided to alter the rules to eliminate the big breaks made from ball-to-ball cannons alone.

[58][59] He defeated Newman in 1928 to become the world champion at English billiards for the first time, making sixty centuries in the last final to be played with ivory balls.

[67][68] The event was not held in 1931 as most of the leading professionals did not enter, mainly due to a disagreement with the BA&CC over the cloth to be used.

[69] Davis played Walter Lindrum in a fortnight's match under time limit conditions at Thurston's, which began on 18 January 1932.

The Billiards Association and Control Council agreed to this, and Davis travelled to Australia for the 1934 Championship, where he was disappointed by the lack of planning for the tournament, and found it hard to raise the money for his return to the UK.

[3][85] The final of the first snooker world championship was held at Camkin's Hall in 1927; Davis won the tournament by defeating Dennis 16–7,[b] and took the winner's prize of £6 10s.

[96] The losing finalist in 1932 was McConachy, the first player from outside the British Isles to enter the World Snooker Championship,[96] and Smith was the runner-up to Davis in 1933.

[97] In 1934, Davis travelled to Australia to play Horace Lindrum in an invitational match, the World Snooker Challenge.

[88] During the war, Davis toured the United Kingdom playing exhibition matches to raise money for charities.

[103] At some exhibitions, including those at the London Palladium, a large angled mirror was positioned next to the table to allow the audience a clear view of the playing surface.

[111] In 1959, Davis attempted to popularise a new version of the game called snooker plus, which had two extra colours, an orange and a purple.

"[113] Davis scored the first officially recognised maximum break of 147 on 22 January 1955 at Leicester Square Hall in an exhibition match against Smith.

[108] Davis died on 10 July 1978,[4] two months after falling ill while watching his brother Fred play Perrie Mans in the 1978 World Snooker Championship semi-final.

[3] Everton has said of Davis's influence on the game in the early 1920s: "in those days, the prevailing idea was to pot a red or two, a couple of colours and play safe but in the time he could spare from billiards Davis devoted considerable thought and practice to evolving the positional and breakbuilding shots, sequences and techniques which are taken for granted today.

"[119] Fred Davis, the second person to become a world champion at both snooker and billiards,[120] said that his brother Joe was "a very good player before anyone else knew how to play the game.

[126] Everton wrote that, following his retirement from the world championship, Davis "through his force of personality ... controlled the game", being the pre-eminent player, chairman of the professional players' association, a co-owner of the Leicester Square Hall (the main venue for professional matches), and the negotiator for television contracts.

On 6 April 1945, he married Juanita Ida Triggs (born 1914 or 1915), a singer who performed under the stage name June Malo.