1981 World Snooker Championship
The 1981 World Snooker Championship was a ranking professional snooker tournament which took place from 7 April to 20 April 1981 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. The tournament was the 1981 edition of the World Snooker Championship, and was the fifth consecutive world championship to take place at the Crucible Theatre since 1977. It was sanctioned by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association. The total prize fund for the tournament was £75,000, of which £20,000 went to the winner.
Qualifying rounds for the tournament took place from 23 March to 4 April 1981 at two locations — Redwood Lodge Country Club, near Bristol, and at Romiley Forum, near Stockport. The main stage of the tournament featured 24 players: the top 16 players from the snooker world rankings and another eight players from the qualifying rounds. Jimmy White, Tony Knowles and Dave Martin were debutants at the main stage. The defending champion and top seed in the tournament was Cliff Thorburn, who had defeated Alex Higgins 18–16 in the 1980 final.
Thorburn lost by 10 to 16 to Steve Davis in the semi-finals. In the other semi-final, Doug Mountjoy defeated second seed Ray Reardon 16–10. Davis went on to achieve the first of his six world titles, taking a 6–0 lead in the final and winning four consecutive frames at the end of the match to win 18–12. There were 13 century breaks made during the tournament, including a new championship record break of 145 by Mountjoy. The cigarette manufacturer Embassy sponsored the tournament, which received daily coverage on BBC television.
Overview
The World Snooker Championship is the official world championship of the game of snooker. The first world championship final took place in 1927 at Camkin's Hall, Birmingham, England. Joe Davis won the inaugural title. Each year since 1977, the event has been held at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England.The 1981 tournament brought together 24 professional snooker players, selected through a mix of the snooker world rankings and a pre-tournament qualification competition. Seedings were based on players' performances in the previous three editions of the world championship. The draw for the event took place on 5 January 1981, in West Bromwich. There were a total of eight qualifying groups, each with one winner meeting a player seeded into the first round, followed by the eight winners of the first-round matches meeting one of eight new players seeded into the second round. Despite not winning any major tournament since the 1978 World Snooker Championship, Ray Reardon was the bookmakers' favourite to win at the time of the draw with bets priced at 3–1. Steve Davis was the second-favourite and priced at 5–1, followed by Terry Griffiths and Alex Higgins both priced at 6–1, and defending champion Cliff Thorburn, who had defeated Higgins 18–16 in the 1980 final, at 10–1. Bookmakers assessed Doug Mountjoy's odds of winning as 20–1. By the time the main event started on 7 April, Davis — who during the season had won his first professional title at the 1980 UK Championship, as well as the 1980 Classic, 1981 Yamaha Organs Trophy and 1981 English Professional Championship — had become the bookmakers' favourite to win, at 7–2.
Mike Watterson promoted the championship tournament, with the authority of the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association. It was broadcast in the United Kingdom on the BBC, with over 80 hours of programming scheduled. Cigarette company Embassy sponsored the event.
Prize money allocation
The breakdown of prize money for the 1981 tournament is shown below:- Winner: £20,000
- Runner-up: £10,000
- Semi-final: £5,000
- Quarter-final: £2,500
- Last 16: £1,800
- Last 24: £875
- Highest break: £1,200
- Maximum break: £10,000
- Total: £75,000
Tournament rounds
Qualifying
Qualifying matches took place from 23 March to 4 April, and were held at two locations — Redwood Lodge Country Club, near Bristol, and at Romiley Forum, near Stockport. All qualifying matches were scheduled in best-of-17 format with the first player to win nine progressing to the next round. Former champion John Pulman lost 2–9 to Dave Martin, who was accepted by the WPBSA as a professional only a few days before entries closed. Chris Ross — who experienced a nervous breakdown in his first year playing professionally after winning the 1976 English Amateur Championship — found that his was unsteady, and he was unable to control his properly, resulting in his conceding the match to opponent Tony Knowles when 0–7 behind.First round
The first-round matches took place from 7 to 10 April and were played as best-of-19 frames. Jimmy White, who turned professional after winning the 1980 World Amateur Championship, made his World Snooker Championship debut at the tournament, as did Tony Knowles and Dave Martin.Steve Davis made the first century break of the tournament, 119, in the fifth frame of his match against White, while building a 4–2 lead by the end of their first. He compiled another century, 102, in their second session, and led 8–4 by the end of that session. In the last session, White closed the gap to one frame, but from 9–8 ahead, Davis won the next and prevailed 10–8. Knowles constructed a 101 in his match against Graham Miles, but lost the match after being tied at 6–6 and 8–8. In the seventeenth frame, at one frame behind, Knowles played a forceful shot on the, to get a position on the final. He failed to pot the black, which would have left Miles unable to win the frame without Knowles conceding penalty points. Miles won that frame, then took the next to win 10–8.
David Taylor, the 1968 World Amateur Champion, won the first three frames against Cliff Wilson, the 1978 World Amateur Champion, but then lost the next four. Taylor finished the first session 5–4 ahead and went on to defeat Wilson 10–6. Tony Meo was 4–2 ahead, then later 4–5 behind and 7–5 ahead of John Virgo, before securing his progression to the next round 10–6. Meo made a break of 134 during the match. From 5–4, Kirk Stevens won the next five frames to defeat John Dunning 10–4. Doug Mountjoy was a frame ahead of Willie Thorne at 5–4, and extended his lead to 9–4 before winning 10–6. Bill Werbeniuk eliminated Martin 10–4.
Ray Edmonds, twice World Amateur Champion, had never recorded a victory against John Spencer in a significant match and had lost to him twice in the final of the English Amateur Championship, in 1965 and 1966. Edmonds led 5–4 after the first session of their match but then found himself 5–7 behind as Spencer won three consecutive frames. Edmonds equalised the score at 7–7, before Spencer drew ahead again to lead 9–7. Edmonds, aided by fluking a, won the next two frames to force the match to go to a deciding frame. Jack Karnehm, a snooker commentator and author, later suggested that Spencer was able to win the last frame, in which he made a break of 38, because he had the ability to handle pressure better than Edmonds did.
Second round
The second-round matches took place from 10 to 14 April and were played as best-of-25 frames.Steve Davis led 6–2 against Alex Higgins after their first session, but in the second session Davis lost five of the eight frames and made only one break over 30. By the end of the session, Davis led by two frames, 9–7. In the third session, Higgins made a break of 47 in the first frame, but Davis responded with a 45 break and won the frame to move into a three-frame lead rather than having only a one-frame advantage, saying afterwards that his 45 was "the most important break made for months." Higgins won the second frame of the session before Davis won the third with a break of 71. Davis then took the next two frames for a 13–9 victory. Doug Mountjoy took the first four frames, then lost the next four, against Eddie Charlton. Mountjoy went on to lead 9–6, and won 13–7 to reach his first world championship quarter-final since 1977.
Graham Miles only gained a single frame in each of the two sessions against defending champion Cliff Thorburn. He lost the first session 1–7 and the match 2–13. Eight-time former world snooker champion Fred Davis, who was also the reigning world billiards champion, also lost his first session 1–7, and was eliminated 3–13 by David Taylor. Terry Griffiths and Tony Meo finished their first session all-square at 4–4, but Griffiths added nine of the next eleven frames to his tally, and won 13–6.
Dennis Taylor went from 9–11 against Kirk Stevens to progress to the next round with a 13–11 scoreline; he compiled breaks of 135 and 133 during the match. Stevens had been unable to use the practice table at the venue before the match because it was being used to record a programme for a television broadcast. According to Karnehm, Stevens was "frustrated and bitterly hot-tempered when he came out for the second session... his pots missed by fractions, his safety shots would unluckily stay in the open, his judgement was becoming erratic." Bill Werbeniuk led Perrie Mans 6–2 after their first session, and went on to win 13–5. Former champions Ray Reardon and John Spencer were level at 11–11, with Reardon then winning 13–11.