1989 World Snooker Championship

Professional snooker tournament, held from April to May 1989

The 1989 World Snooker Championship (also referred to as the Embassy World Snooker Championship for sponsorship reasons) was a professional snooker tournament that took place from 15 April to 1 May 1989 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. Organised by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association, it was the eighth and final ranking event of the 1988–89 snooker season and the thirteenth consecutive World Snooker Championship to be held at the Crucible, the first tournament at this location having taken place in 1977. There were 142 entrants to the competition. The defending champion was Steve Davis, who had previously won the World Championship five times. He met John Parrott in the final, which was a best of 35 match. Davis won the match 18–3, which remains the biggest winning margin in the sport's modern era, and meant that the final, scheduled for four , finished with a This was Davis's sixth and last world title, and his last appearance in a World Championship final. Stephen Hendry scored the championship's highest , a 141, in his quarter final match. There were 19 century breaks compiled during the championship. A five round qualifying event for the championship was held at the Preston Guild Hall from 22 March to 4 April 1989 for 126 players, 16 of whom reached the main stage, where they met the 16 invited seeded players. The tournament was broadcast in the United Kingdom by the BBC, and was sponsored by the Embassy cigarette company. Davis received £105,000 from the total prize fund of £525,000.

The World Snooker Championship is an annual professional snooker tournament organised by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA). Founded in the late 19th century by British Army soldiers stationed in India, the cue sport gained popularity in the British Isles in the 1920s and 1930s. it has become increasingly popular worldwide, especially in East and Southeast Asian nations such as China, Hong Kong and Thailand. Joe Davis won the first World Championship in 1927, hosted by the Billiards Association and Control Council, the final match being held at Camkin's Hall in Birmingham, England. Since 1977, the event has been held at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. The 1989 championship featured 32 professional players competing in one on one snooker matches in a single elimination format, each round being played over a pre determined number of , and each match divided into two or more s containing a set number of frames. The defending champion in 1989 was Steve Davis, who had defeated Terry Griffiths 18–11 in the final of the 1988 World Snooker Championship to win his fifth world title. The 1989 championship was sponsored by cigarette brand Embassy, and was also referred to as the Embassy World Snooker Championship. The tournament was broadcast in the United Kingdom by the BBC.

The breakdown of prize money for the championship is shown below: There were 126 participants in the qualifying competition, 16 of whom reached the main stage, where they met the 16 invited seeded players. Bill Werbeniuk had been due to return to competitive play after a six month ban imposed by the WPBSA for his use of beta blockers, but did not appear for his match. From 4–9 in arrears, Paddy Browne won six consecutive frames against Steve Meakin to progress to the next round, 10–9 after a
In the final round qualifying, Tony Meo established a new record highest break for world championship qualifying by compiling a 142 during his defeat of Tony Jones. Steve Duggan eliminated two former World Championship title holders, Fred Davis and John Spencer. Higgins, the world number 17, who had beaten four of the top seven players in the rankings on the way to victory at the 1989 Irish Masters on 2 April, was defeated 8–10 by Morgan the following day. Seven players qualified for the main event for the first time: Morgan, Wilkinson, Browne, O'Boye, Duggan, Steve Newbury, and David Roe.

The first round took place between 15 and 20 April, each match played over two sessions as the best of 19 frames. For the seventh time, Cliff Wilson failed to win a match at the Crucible, eliminated 1–10 by Steve Duggan. Mike Hallett was 0–3 behind Doug Mountjoy before winning the fourth frame after he a , ended the first session at 4–4,

Third seed Neal Foulds lost 9–10 to Wayne Jones, at the end of a season that saw Foulds fall from third to twentieth place in the rankings. Peter Francisco held a 7–4 lead over Dean Reynolds but lost 7–10. Meo led the 1987 champion Joe Johnson 8–0 before winning the match 10–5. Charlton, aged 59 years and 169 days, became the second oldest player to win a match at the World Championship, after Fred Davis in 1979. After constructing breaks of 110, 103 and 102, John Parrott led James 9–7. In each of the next two frames, he missed pots on the that would have won him the match, James taking both frames. The deciding frame was won by Parrott, who compiled a break of 33. Dennis Taylor led Hughes 6–3 after their first session, and in the second session won four consecutive frames including breaks of 106 and 94, to qualify for the next round 10–3. Second seed Jimmy White defeated Dene O'Kane, who recorded a 127 break, 10–7.

The second round, which took place between 20 and 24 April, was played as best of 25 frames matches spread over three sessions. The afternoon session on 22 April, featuring the matches between Parrott and Taylor, and Griffiths and Francisco, had its start time delayed from 3:00 pm until 3:06 pm, commencing with a minute's silence in acknowledgement of the Hillsborough disaster a week earlier. There was no television coverage of matches on 24 April due to strike action by the Broadcasting and Entertainment Trades Alliance and the National Union of Journalists relating to a pay dispute.

The quarter finals were played as best of 25 frames matches over three sessions on 25 and 26 April. The first four frames of the second session were won by Davis, putting him 11–1 ahead. Griffiths and Hendry were level at 4–4 at the conclusion of their first session. Reynolds, who had criticised Meo for the slow pace of his play during the 1989 British Open final between the pair in March, was warned by referee John Williams for slow play. In the final session, Hendry scored only eight points across three frames, while Davis made breaks of 63, 71, 54 and 40 to wrap up a 16–9 victory. narrowing Parrott's lead to 4–6 by winning the first two frames of the second session. The session finished with Parrott 10–5 ahead.

The final between Steve Davis and John Parrott took place on 30 April and 1 May. It was a best of 35 frames match scheduled for four sessions, with John Street as referee. Davis increased his advantage to 9–2 by winning the first four frames of the evening session on 30 April, recording breaks of 42, 37, 55 and 112, whilst Parrott potted only six balls, totalling 15 points. Parrott led by 44 points in the twelfth frame after constructing a 52 break, but lost the frame after Davis compiled a 62 break. and his sixth title, to equal Reardon's total since the competition was re launched in 1969. and the pair played an exhibition match at the venue in place of the last session. Parrott said afterwards that "Me not playing anything like, and Steve playing exceptionally well, that's a recipe for 18–3." The two players occupied the top places in the 1989/1990 world rankings, calculated based on results from the previous two seasons; Davis retaining first position with 64 points, followed by Parrott on 48. Parrott later won the 1991 World Snooker Championship title, whilst 1989 was the last world final reached by Davis. In his 1989 book Snooker: Records, Facts and Champions, Ian Morrison wrote "Don't let the scoreline lead you to believe that Parrott did not do justice to the occasion. But simply, no man could have lived with Davis the way he played at the Crucible in 1989." Snooker historian Clive Everton, who played in the qualifying rounds of the tournament, reflected in 2012 that after the 1989 tournament, despite Davis having lost the 1985 and 1986 championship finals, "such was his dominance that it would have been impossible to predict with confidence that [Davis] would never win the title again." Authors Luke Williams and Paul Gadsby claimed that "It is ironic, then, that in the wake of his most dominant World Championship triumph, Davis's career almost immediately headed into decline," and that Davis's losses to Hendry in the finals of the 1989 UK Championship and the 1990 UK Championship "symbolised a monumental power shift in the game."

Results from the qualification event are shown below. Players shown in bold denote match winners. First qualifying roundBest of 19 framesPlayerScorePlayer 10–0 10–4 10–1 10–4 10–3 10–5 10–6 10–3 10–0 w. o.– 10–6 w. o.– 10–1 10–5