1978 World Snooker Championship

The 1978 World Snooker Championship (officially known as the 1978 Embassy World Snooker Championship) was a professional ranking snooker tournament that took place between 17 and 29 April 1978 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England, the second consecutive year the tournament had been held at the venue. A qualifying competition was held at Romiley Forum, Stockport, from 27 March to 7April. The tournament was promoted by Mike Watterson on behalf of the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association. It had a total prize fund of £24,000, of which £7,500 went to the champion. John Spencer was the defending champion, having won the 1977 event by defeating Cliff Thorburn 25–21 in the final. Spencer lost 8–13 in the first round to Perrie Mans. The final was contested by Mans and Ray Reardon. Reardon led 5–2 after the first session, before Mans levelled the match at 8–8 after the first day's play. After the third interval Reardon led 12–11 and won the 24th frame with a 64 break to lead 13–11. After the second day, Reardon led 18–14, and eventually won the match 25–18 to secure his sixth and last world title. Aged 45 years and 203 days, Reardon became the oldest world champion in the sport's history, a record that stood for 44 years until Ronnie O'Sullivan won his seventh world title at the 2022 event, aged 46 years and 148 days. The tournament was sponsored by cigarette company Embassy. It was the first snooker world championship tournament to be broadcast in depth by the BBC. Since 1977, the event has been held at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England' The sport's popularity in the United Kingddom grew after this. The 1978 championship featured sixteen professional players competing in one on one snooker matches in a single elimination format, each match played over several These competitors in the main tournament were selected using a combination of the top players in the snooker world rankings and the winners of a pre tournament qualification stage. It was sponsored by cigarette brand Embassy for the third consecutive year. It was the first championship to have daily BBC coverage throughout the main event.

The 1978 World Snooker Championship main tournament took place between 17 and 20April 1978 at the Crucible Theatre. The top eight players from that season's world rankings, calculated from performances at the championship in the previous three years, were seeded into the first round, where they each faced an opponent from the qualifying competition, which was held across two rounds at Romiley Forum, Stockport, from 27 March to 7April. It was the second time that the event was staged at the Crucible, which as of 2023 has remained the venue for the annual tournament. Defending champion John Spencer, who had defeated Cliff Thorburn 25–21 in the 1977 final, was the top seed, and top ranked Ray Reardon was the second seed.

The qualifying competition was held across two rounds at Romiley Forum, Stockport, from 27 March to 7April. In the other qualifying matches, Houlihan won 9–7 against Jim Meadowcroft, Patsy Fagan eliminated John Dunning 9–5, Willie Thorne defeated Rex Williams 9–3, Parkin lost 2–9 to Bill Werbeniuk, and David Taylor won 9–7 against Paddy Morgan He lost 8–13 to Perrie Mans in the first round, despite making breaks of 138 and 118. David Taylor won the first three frames against Graham Miles. Reardon trailed Mountjoy 2–7, but went on to win 13–9. Werbeniuk defeated John Pulman 13–4. Reardon's four frame advantage in the initial session was maintained during the second session as he went from 6–2 to 10–6. In the third session he won three successive frames, to defeat Werbeniuk 13–6, and compiled a break of 119 in the 18th frame. This was the only time in the main tournament that year in which a player won all the frames in a complete session. a record that lasted until 2022 when Ronnie O'Sullivan won the title aged 46 years and 148 days. It was Reardon's sixth and last world championship title. In a post match interview, Reardon stated that he felt he had "played well throughout", and praised Mans's ability to pot balls, commenting that "He makes shots that I would not even dream of attempting." Mans said that "I felt good when I won the first three frames. But then Ray made a century. He found his rhythm and I just couldn't do anything about it." During the final, Peter Fiddick of The Guardian commented on how "this nation has been taking an extraordinary interest in snooker", and how the players were "very conscious of their new audience and its implications." Hennessy felt that the substitution of snooker in place of the scheduled coverage of horse racing in the BBC's Grandstand was "a remarkable testimony to the grip that the world professional championship took on the British public during the preceding fortnight." He predicted that "One way and another the game is not likely to be the same again."