1980 World Snooker Championship

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The 1980 Embassy World Snooker Championship took place at the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield between 22 April and 5 May 1980.

Cliff Thorburn won in the final 18–16 against Alex Higgins.

[edit] Notable moments

The final was contested by Alex Higgins (who was heavily favoured to win his second world title) and Cliff Thorburn. Whilst leading 9–5, Higgins started to showboat and take on unnecessarily risky shots, a number of which he missed. Thorburn slowly reeled him in and eventually pipped him 18–16. Higgins's wife Lynne had a cake prepared exclaiming 'Alex Higgins 1980 World Champion', and both players posed with the cake after the final!

The final frames of the final were interrupted by coverage of the Iranian Embassy Siege. The BBC took the snooker off the air to bring news as the SAS went into the Iranian Embassy in London to rescue the hostages. Coverage on BBC2 resumed while BBC1 continued with the news coverage.

Debutants this year included Tony Meo, who gave Higgins a scare in the first round match when he lost 9–10. Canadian left-hander Jim Wych beat John Pulman, who had made his last appearance in the Crucible stages of the championship, 10–5. Cliff Wilson and Ray Edmonds also made their debuts.

Kirk Stevens and Steve Davis shared the high break prize when they both made a 136. Stevens made his during his first round match against Graham Miles and Davis made his against Alex Higgins in the quarter-final. It was the first time the highest break would go to two players.

A few frames later on the Davis/Higgins match, Higgins attempted a 147. He was the first player at the Crucible to pot 15 reds and 15 blacks but he missed the green when he attempted to fluke it when he was on a difficult shot – ending his hopes of winning £10,000.

The longest frame of the championship was between Cliff Thorburn and Doug Mountjoy in the second round match which the 18th of 23 frames they played in the match took 69 minutes to complete. It took 21 minutes to pot the last brown! That record was surpassed in 2006.

The championship extended the players who played the Crucible from 16 to 24 with the Top 9–16 ranked players going automatically to play 8 qualifiers. The winner of the first round would play a Top 8 player.

To accommodate these eight extra matches, the frames in each match were also revamped. The first round went to 19 frames in two sessions, the second and quarter-finals to 25 in three sessions, the semi-finals to 31 in four sessions and the final to 35 frames in four sessions. The format still continues today except for the semi-final, which became a 33-frame match in 1997.

Round 1 Best of 19 frames				Round 2 Best of 25 frames			Quarter-finals Best of 25 frames			Semi-finals Best of 31 frames			Final Best of 35 frames

	Steve Davis	10			Terry Griffiths (1)	10
	Patsy Fagan	6			Steve Davis	13
								Steve Davis	9

								Alex Higgins	13
	Alex Higgins	10	Perrie Mans (8)	6

	Tony Meo	9			Alex Higgins	13
											Alex Higgins	16

											Kirk Stevens	13
	Kirk Stevens	10			John Spencer (5)	8

	Graham Miles	3			Kirk Stevens	13
								Kirk Stevens	13

								Eddie Charlton (4)	7
	John Virgo	10	Eddie Charlton (4)	13

	Jim Meadowcroft	2			John Virgo	12
														Alex Higgins	16

														Cliff Thorburn (6)	18
	Doug Mountjoy	10			Cliff Thorburn (6)	13

	Cliff Wilson	6			Doug Mountjoy	10
								Cliff Thorburn (6)	13

								Jim Wych	6
	Jim Wych	10	Dennis Taylor (3)	10

	John Pulman	5			Jim Wych	13
											Cliff Thorburn (6)	16

											David Taylor	7
	Bill Werbeniuk	10			Ray Reardon (2)	13

	Willie Thorne	9			Bill Werbeniuk	6
								Ray Reardon (2)	11

								David Taylor	13
	David Taylor	10	Fred Davis (7)	5

	Ray Edmonds	3			David Taylor	13