Just before the 1984 World Snooker Championship, Knowles appeared in a series of tabloid newspaper articles, in which he described himself as "the hottest pot in snooker". He received £25,000 from the newspaper for the articles, and was subsequently fined £5,000 by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association for bringing the game into disrepute. He was the losing finalist at the 1984 International Open.