1977 World Snooker Championship

Professional snooker tournament

The 1977 World Snooker Championship is a professional snooker tournament that took place from 18 to 30 April 1977 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield. John Spencer won his third World Snooker Championship title by defeating Cliff Thorburn by 25 to 21 in the final. It was the first time the championship was held at the Crucible, which has remained as the venue for the Championship. The tournament was sponsored by cigarette manufacturer Embassy. Qualifying matches took place from 28 March to 7 April 1977 at Hounslow Civic Centre and Fisher's Snooker Centre, Acton, to select eight qualifiers to play against the eight top seeded players from the 1976/1977 snooker world rankings in the main tournament. Ray Reardon, who had won the annual championship each year from 1973 to 1976, was defeated 6–13 by Spencer in the quarter finals. There were six century breaks at the championship; Spencer scored 135, the tournament's highest break, in the sixth frame of his semi final match against John Pulman. Spencer was the first player to win the championship using a two piece As champion, he received £6,000 from the prize fund of £17,000. The World Championship was the only ranking event of the 1976–77 snooker season.

British Army soldiers stationed in India invented snooker, a cue sport, in the late 19th century. Joe Davis won the first World Snooker Championship, which the Billiards Association and Control Council (BA&CC) organised in 1927. In the "modern" era of the sport, which started in 1969 when the World Championship reverted to a knockout format, snooker has become increasingly popular worldwide, especially in East and Southeast Asian nations such as China, Hong Kong and Thailand. Since 1977, the championship has been held at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. In the 1977 championship, 16 professional players competed in one on one snooker matches in a single elimination format, each match being played over several and promoted by Mike Watterson, with sponsorship by cigarette company Embassy. Watterson chose the Crucible after his wife Carol Watterson, saw a play there and recommended the venue. Watterson booked the venue at a cost of £6,600, and made personal financial guarantees for the championship before Embassy's sponsorship had been secured. Audience members purchased tickets at prices ranging from 75p to £3.50, and the event made a surplus of £12,000. Highlights of the semi finals and final were broadcast on the national television channel BBC2.

The WPBSA first published official world rankings for players on the main tour for the 1976–77 season. Players' performances in the previous three World Snooker Championships—1974, 1975, and 1976—contributed to their points totals. These rankings were used for seedings for the tournament. As defending champion, Reardon was seeded first and was also number one on the ranking list. Originally, the top 14 players were due to be seeded into the last 16 round, but the WPBSA members voted 11–10 to change this so that only the top eight players were exempted to the last 16. The 1977 World Championship was the only ranking event of the 1976–77 season. Qualifying matches were scheduled from 28 March to 7 April 1977, and took place at Hounslow Civic Centre and Fisher's Snooker Centre, Acton. Fagan, Virgo, Mountjoy and Thorne qualified to make their World Championship debuts.

The first round took place from 18 to 21 April; each match was played over three sessions as the best of 25 frames. before Reardon opened a 10–7 lead during the second session and won the match 13–7 the following day. John Spencer was three frames behind Virgo at 1–4 and 4–7 but won three successive frames to equalise both times, and won the match 13–9. Eddie Charlton won seven of the first eight frames against David Taylor, made a 105 break in the 12th frame and progressed to the next round with a 13–5 win. Thorburn won seven successive frames during his 13–6 defeat of Rex Williams. Dennis Taylor concluded a 13–11 win against Perrie Mans with a break of 76, the highest of their match, in the 24th frame.

The quarter finals were played as best of 25 frames matches over three sessions on 23 and 24 April. Each player won four frames in the second session, then Taylor won the opening frame in the third session to lead 10–7. Mountjoy won the next two frames, each on the final black ball, but lost the 20th frame after he went the last black.

The tournament's final took place from 28 to 30 April as the best of 49 frames, Spencer won his third world title by defeating Thorburn 25–21. and he extended his lead to 5–2 before Thorburn won four of the next five frames to leave the score at 6–6 at the day's conclusion. When the third session ended, Thorburn and Spencer were tied at 9–9. Spencer made a break of 105 in the 18th frame. and extended it to 15–11 but Spencer won the next four frames to make it 15–15. The players were also level at 18–18 at the start of the final's last day. Spencer won the first three frames of the day. Thorburn won the following two frames before Spencer won the 42nd frame with a break of 67 to lead 22–20. Thorburn narrowed his deficit to one frame at 21–22 but Spencer won the next three frames to claim victory. Snooker historian Clive Everton wrote Spencer "exploded two myths" by winning with a two piece cue, a type of implement that was generally seen as suitable for pool but not snooker, and having only used it for two months, when most professional players thought it took many months to become proficient with a new cue. Thorburn also used a two piece cue for the match as was common in his native Canada. The same magazine described Thorburn's strengths at the tournament as "concentration and consistency".

The results for the tournament are shown below. The numbers in brackets denote player seedings and match winners are denoted in bold.

Details for the final are shown below.