1983 World Snooker Championship

Professional snooker tournament, held April to May 1983

The 1983 World Snooker Championship (also known as the 1983 Embassy World Snooker Championship for the purposes of sponsorship) was a professional snooker tournament that took place between 16 April and 2 May 1983 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. This was the third and final world ranking event of the 1982–83 snooker season following the 1982 Professional Players Tournament. Sixteen seeded players qualified directly for the event, with an additional sixteen players progressing through a two round qualification round held at the Romiley Forum in Stockport, and Redwood Lodge in Bristol. The winner of the event received £30,000, and the tournament was sponsored by cigarette company Embassy. Alex Higgins was the defending champion, having won the 1982 championship, but he lost 5–16 to Steve Davis in the semi finals. Davis, the 1981 champion, won the event for the second time, defeating Cliff Thorburn 18–6 in the final. A total of 18 century breaks were made during the tournament. The highest was made by Thorburn in the fourth of his second round match against Terry Griffiths, where he compiled a maximum break of 147 points, becoming the first player to make such a break in a World Championship match.

The World Snooker Championship is a professional snooker tournament and the game's official world championship. Developed in the late 19th century by British Army soldiers stationed in India, snooker was popular in the United Kingdom before being introduced to Europe and the Commonwealth. The sport is now played worldwide, especially in East and Southeast Asian nations such as China, Hong Kong and Thailand. The 1983 Championship was organised and governed by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA). It featured 32 professional players competing in one on one single elimination matches, played over several The players were selected to take part using a combination of the world snooker rankings and a pre tournament qualification tournament. The first World Championship, in 1927, was won by Joe Davis in a final at Camkin's Hall in Birmingham, England. Since 1977, the tournament has been held at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. The defending champion for 1983 was Alex Higgins, who defeated Ray Reardon 18–15 in the 1982 championship final. The tournament was sponsored by cigarette company Embassy, and broadcast on BBC television.

A two round qualification tournament was held in March and April across three venues: at the Snooker Centre in Sheffield, Romiley Forum in Stockport, and Redwood Lodge, Bristol. In round one, Mario Morra was 4–9 behind Ian Black, but won five frames to equalise at 9–9. In the deciding frame, Morra made a 51 break, but Black replied with a 37 to win the frame and the match with just two balls remaining. Steve Davis was Coral bookmakers' favourite to win the event, priced at 11/8 the day before the tournament began. whilst Reardon had claimed three titles, and Higgins's only notable success had been in the 1983 Irish Professional Championship. Higgins led Dean Reynolds, 5–1 and finished their first session 6–3 ahead. He then increased his lead to 8–3, before he won the match 10–4. Willie Thorne took a 6–3 lead over Virgo and won the first four frames of their second session to complete a 10–3 victory. Jim Meadowcroft made a highest break of just 36 as he was defeated 2–10 by David Taylor. Three time former winner John Spencer defeated Mike Hallett 10–7 in a closely contested match. Dennis Taylor wore glasses that he later credited for winning the event two years later. He won the last three frames of his match to defeat Silvino Francisco 10–9. Davis took a 6–0 lead over Williams, but Williams reduced the deficit by winning the next three frames. The 1979 champion Griffiths trailed Wildman 7–8 but won the final three frames to secure a 10–8 victory. In an attacking match, Meo defeated his childhood friend Jimmy White 10–8 having led 6–3 after the first session. Reardon, having been 5–4 in front overnight, prevailed 10–7 against Hughes in a match that featured few breaks higher than 30. Thorne equalised at 7–7 by the end of the second session. From there, Thorne won only one further frame as Higgins took the match 13–8. David Taylor led Werbeniuk 10–6 after two sessions, Thorburn achieved the first maximum break at a World Snooker Championship in the fourth frame. He was only the second player after Davis at the 1982 Classic to make an official maximum. The break started with Thorburn a While he was completing the break, play stopped on the tournament's second table because his friend and fellow Canadian Werbeniuk wanted to watch.

The quarter finals were played between 25 and 27 April as the best of 25 frames held over three sessions. Higgins said that he wanted a change of referee, and threatened to walk out, but following a discussion with tournament promoter Mike Watterson, agreed to return. Knowles won the first five frames against Meo and led 6–2 after their first session, As of 2019, this was still the second longest session (at 6 hours and 11 minutes), and the third latest finish, since the World Snooker Championship has been held at the Crucible. On the second day of their match, Davis compiled a break of 90 to make his lead 11–4. Higgins replied with a break of 74 to reduce his deficit to 5–11, but Davis then won the next five frames to take the match 16–5. Due to the length of the frames, the semi final finished at 12:45 am.

The final was played on 1 and 2 May between Thorburn and Davis as the best of 35 frames, scheduled to be held over four sessions. At 2–2 after the first four frames, Davis won four in a row to lead 6–2. Thorburn then won two frames, but Davis still finished the first day 12–5 ahead. Thorburn was exhausted during the final after winning his last three matches in deciding frames, according to Everton. He played 14 hours more than Davis throughout the tournament. Snooker historian Clive Everton commented that the long matches Thorburn had played earlier in the tournament "left him so drained that he was able to offer only token resistance." Davis became the first player to win the event for a second time at the Crucible. Davis thanked his family in his post match speech, and said that his father, and his coach Frank Callan, were the only two people that could help him with snooker.

Shown below are the results for the tournament. The numbers in brackets are players seedings, whilst those in bold denote match winners.