2006 World Snooker Championship


The 2006 World Snooker Championship was a professional snooker tournament. It was held at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. It was the 30th consecutive year that the World Snooker Championship was staged at the venue. It started on 15 April 2006 and was scheduled to finish on 1 May 2006, but continued into the early hours of 2 May. The sixth and final ranking tournament of the 2005–06 snooker season, it was organised by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association and sponsored for the first time by online casino 888.com. The total prize fund was £896,240, of which the winner received £200,000.
The qualifying rounds took place from 8 to 13 January and from 14 to 15 March 2006 at Pontin's, in Prestatyn, Wales. The 16 qualifiers and the top 16 players from the snooker world rankings reached the tournament's main stage at the Crucible. Shaun Murphy was the defending champion, having defeated Matthew Stevens 18–16 in the 2005 final. He lost in the quarter-finals against eventual runner-up Peter Ebdon and became another world champion who fell to the Crucible curse and could not defend his first world title.
There was just one debutant at the event for the first time - Barry Hawkins. Graeme Dott defeated Ebdon 18–14 in the final. Ending at 12:52 a.m. BST, it surpassed the 1985 final between Dennis Taylor and Steve Davis as the latest finish for a World Championship final. A total of 46 century breaks were compiled during the event's main stage, the highest being a 140 made by Ronnie O'Sullivan. Another 52 century breaks were made during the qualifying rounds.

Background

The inaugural 1927 World Snooker Championship, then known as the Professional Championship of Snooker, took place at various venues in England between November 1926 and May 1927. Joe Davis won the final—held at Camkin's Hall in Birmingham from 9 to 12 May 1927—and went on to win the tournament 15 consecutive times before retiring undefeated after the 1946 edition. The tournament went into abeyance after only two players contested the 1952 edition, due to a dispute between the Professional Billiards Players' Association and the Billiards Association and Control Council. The PBPA established an alternative tournament, the World Professional Championship, of which the six editions held between 1952 and 1957 are retroactively regarded as legitimate continuations of the World Snooker Championship. However, due to waning public interest in snooker during the era, that tournament was also discontinued, and the world title was uncontested between 1958 and 1963.
Then-professional player Rex Williams was instrumental in reviving the World Snooker Championship on a challenge basis in 1964. John Pulman, winner of the 1957 World Professional Championship, defended the world title across seven challenge matches between 1964 and 1968. The World Snooker Championship reverted to an annual knockout tournament for the 1969 edition, marking the beginning of the championship's "modern era". The 1977 edition was the first staged at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, where it has remained since. The most successful players in the modern era was Stephen Hendry, having won the title seven times. Hendry was also the tournament's youngest winner, having captured his first title at the 1990 event, aged. Ray Reardon became the oldest winner when he secured his sixth title at the 1978 event, aged.
English player Shaun Murphy won his first world title at the 2005 championship, defeating Welsh player Matthew Stevens 18–16 in the final. Organised by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association, the 2006 tournament was sponsored by online casino 888.com. Following new EU and UK legislation banning tobacco advertising, it could not be sponsored by Embassy, as had been the case for the previous three decades. In January 2006, World Snooker – the sport's governing body – announced that the online casino 888.com would be the new sponsors of the event for the next five years. However, this decision led to conflict with some players who lost income from their own personal sponsors, who were rival firms of 888.com. Concerns were expressed among the sport's elite at the decrease in prize money and in the number of ranking events since the loss of tobacco sponsorship. For the 2006 World Championship, the winner's cheque was down 20% on what it was in 2005.

Prize fund

The breakdown of prize money for this year is shown below:
  • Winner: £200,000
  • Runner-up: £100,000
  • Semi-final: £40,800
  • Quarter-final: £20,800
  • Last 16: £12,680
  • Last 32: £9,600
  • Last 48: £6,400
  • Last 64: £4,000
  • Televised stage highest break: £10,000
  • Qualifying stage maximum break: £5,000
  • Televised stage maximum break: £147,000
  • Total: £896,240

    Tournament summary

First round

The first round was played between 15 and 20 April as the best of 19 frames played over two. The defending champion, Shaun Murphy, was afflicted with a chest infection, but still defeated Thai player James Wattana 10–4. Three former world champions lost their first round matches. In his match against seven-time champion Stephen Hendry, Nigel Bond the for what would have been a win in the, but the dropped in the right-hand, which meant that the frame was tied at 48–48 due to the seven. Bond still won the match on the. This was the first time that a World Championship match was decided on a re-spotted black.
John Parrott, the 1991 champion, faced Graeme Dott, 2004 runner-up. Dott gained a 5–0 advantage, with breaks of 98, 50, 56, 80 and 57 extended to a 7–2 lead at the end of the first. Parrott only managed to win one more frame as Dott advanced into the second round with a 10–3 victory. "These days I can't sustain my concentration for long periods and if I'm on a break of 40 or 50 I know a bad is coming up. I just throw people a lifeline", Parrott said afterwards. John Higgins, winner in 1998 and champion of the Grand Prix and Masters during the season, lost 4–10 against qualifier Mark Selby. Selby, playing at the Crucible only for the second time in his career, clinched victory with a 110, his second century break of the match.
Neil Robertson also won a match at the event for the first time. His opponent, Paul Hunter, was playing in pain from chemotherapy treatment for a rare form of stomach cancer. "I didn't think I would make it here because I was in a pretty bad way", said Hunter. The first four frames were shared, but Robertson managed to put himself 7–2 ahead at the end of the first session. The encounter, which ended with a 10–5 victory for him, would turn out to be the last professional match for Hunter, who died later that year, aged 27. Six-time runner-up Jimmy White went into the second session with a three-frame deficit against David Gray, and lost two of the first three frames of the last session on the. Gray won the match 10–5, and it was White's last appearance in the televised stage of the World Championship.
Six-time champion Steve Davis, who was aged 48, built in the first session a four-frame cushion against qualifier and 1995 semi-finalist Andy Hicks. Although Hicks managed to cut the deficit by half when the match resumed, Davis then won four frames in a row to secure victory. "I was even able to laugh at some of the shots I missed and the crowd were laughing too", he commented after the game. Peter Ebdon, the 2002 champion, faced qualifier Michael Holt, who had made his debut at the Crucible the previous year. Breaks of 94, 87 and 66 helped Ebdon to a 4–0 lead, but Holt then reduced the score to only one behind frame with three on the trot, making a 102 century break in the process. Ebdon, who complained about the table being "very heavy" and playing "like a club table", went on to win 10–8, with two breaks of 79 and others of 84 and 72 along the way. Other players also made complaints about the tables, and organizers agreed to replace the used.
File:Barry Hawkins at Snooker German Masters 2013-01-30 4.jpg|thumb|alt=Barry Hawkins playing a shot|Barry Hawkins made his debut at the Crucible, but lost 1–10 to the 1997 champion Ken Doherty in the first round.
Barry Hawkins was the only player to make his debut at the main stage of the World Championship in this edition, meaning it was the first time that just one player was new at the Crucible. In his first-round match against Ken Doherty, the 1997 champion, he took the first frame with a 66 break, but then lost ten in a row, with Doherty compiling four half-centuries. "Ken had nobody to beat and I'm gutted after such a good season to have played like that", regretted Hawkins, who had, nonetheless, secured a place amongst the top 10 for the following season.
In a repeat of one of the 2000 semi-finals, two-time runner-up Matthew Stevens compiled two century breaks in the first session against Joe Swail, who was "absolutely disgusted" with the table and fell 3–6 behind in the scoreboard. In the last session, Stevens made another century, this time of 112, and clinched victory with a result of 10–5. 1992 and 1993 semi-finalist Alan McManus faced Marco Fu, quarter-finalist in 2003. Fu went into the final session with a 4–3 lead and won six out of the six frames that were played to seal victory, leaving McManus out of the top 16 for the following season. Stephen Maguire, who had not made it past the first round up to that point, defeated Mark King 10–6, producing breaks of 78 and 77 in the final session.
Two-time world champion Ronnie O'Sullivan made a century break of 106 in the first frame, in which he was helped by an "outrageous ", according to his rival Dave Harold, and took a 7–0 lead with further breaks of 67, 139 and 70. Harold responded with an 80 break and won another one to edge closer and end the first session 2–7. O'Sullivan won the match in the final session with a century of 100 and then half-centuries of 54 and 88 in the last two frames, for a 10–4 result. Mark Williams, the 2000 and 2003 champion, won the first four frames of his match against Anthony Hamilton, who then replied with a 115, but who would end up losing 1–10. "John Higgins has gone out, and now I hope Ronnie O'Sullivan, Stephen Hendry and Matthew Stevens go out and Willie Thorne comes in!", Williams said afterwards.
Stephen Lee, winner of the 2006 Welsh Open during the season, took a 6–3 lead against Ali Carter into the final session, but then fell one frame behind at 7–8 after Carter won five frames in a row, the last of them with a century of 135. Lee then produced breaks of 61 and 62 to move to one away from victory and also took the final one after Carter failed to a long-distance to win 10–8. 2004 quarter-finalist Joe Perry won the first frame against Ryan Day with a break of 97, but then lost seven on the trot. Going into the final session with a 7–2 lead, Day compiled breaks of 55 and 58 for a 10–3 victory. "I don't know if you can practice too hard but I left all my form on the practice table", said Perry.