1979 World Snooker Championship

Professional snooker tournament, held April 1979

The 1979 World Snooker Championship (officially known as the 1979 Embassy World Snooker Championship) was a ranking professional snooker tournament that took place from 16 to 28 April 1979 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. Promoted by Mike Watterson for the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association, it was the third consecutive World Snooker Championship to be held at the Crucible, the first tournament having taken place in 1977. A qualifying event for the championship was held from 25 March to 7 April, producing eight qualifiers who joined the eight invited seeded players in the main event staged from 16 to 28 April. The main tournament was broadcast in the United Kingdom by the BBC, and was sponsored by the Embassy cigarette company. The winner received £10,000 from the total prize fund of £35,000. Steve Davis, Terry Griffiths and Kirk Stevens all qualified for the Crucible stage for the first time. The defending champion was Ray Reardon, who had won the title for a sixth time by defeating Perrie Mans by 25 to 18 in the 1978 final. Reardon was eliminated in the quarter finals after losing 8–13 to Dennis Taylor. Griffiths met Taylor in the final, which was a best of 47 frame match. Griffiths won 24–16, to become the first player to proceed from the qualifying competition and win the title at the Crucible. There were 13 century breaks compiled during the championship, the highest of which was a championship record equalling 142 by Bill Werbeniuk.

The qualifying competition took place from 25 March to 7 April at Romiley Forum, Stockport, and the Northern Snooker Centre, Leeds. In a match that lasted over nine hours, David Taylor won the deciding frame against Dunning.

Before the main competition started, Coral made Reardon their bookmaker's favourite, at odds of 2–1, followed by Eddie Charlton at 5–1, and John Spencer and Alex Higgins who were each priced at 6–1. The first round took place between 16 and 20 April, with matches scheduled three over sessions as the best of 25 frames. Aged 65 years and 247 days, he became the oldest ever player to win a match at the Crucible when he defeated Stevens 13–8. Werbeniuk defeated Spencer 13–11, and said that he was treating a nerve related trembling in his cue arm by drinking lager. Defending champion Reardon trailed Miles 3–5 after their first session, Griffiths defeated Mans 13–8, Griffiths drew level at 8–8 in the second session, aided by a 121 break. Griffiths won the last frame of the second day to take an 11–10 lead into the concluding day; at the close of the fifth session he was two frames up, at 15–13. This duration was just eight minutes less than the longest world championship session on record, which occurred during Reardon and Fred Davis's match in 1969. In a post match interview with David Vine, Griffiths said "I'm in the final now, you know", with what snooker historian Clive Everton described as "an engaging mixture of pride and disbelief". According to Snooker Scene, Taylor displayed the "more mature match temperament" throughout, while Virgo "fumed visibly" after he made errors or was unlucky. and was refereed by John Williams. Griffiths three times in four shots during the first frame, but won it on the final Griffiths led 3–1 when in the fifth frame he recorded a break of 120 which broke down on the final ; had he potted the four remaining colours he would have equalled the championship record break of 142. The next day, Taylor took an 11–9 lead, and later led 14 12, before Griffiths won twelve of the following 14 frames. Griffiths added two of the next three frames for a 17–16 lead, then won seven consecutive frames, to secure victory at 24–16. Griffiths became the first qualifier to win the title at the Crucible. After the match, he commented that he "didn't really feel I was playing for the championship until the last day Once I saw the winning post, Dennis did seem to fade a bit."