1997 World Snooker Championship

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Embassy World Snooker Championship
Tournament information
Dates19 April – 5 May 1997
VenueCrucible Theatre
CitySheffield
CountryEngland
OrganisationWPBSA
FormatRanking event
Total prize fund£1,260,000
Winner's share£210,000
Highest breakEngland Ronnie O'Sullivan (147)
Final
ChampionRepublic of Ireland Ken Doherty
Runner-upScotland Stephen Hendry
Score18–12
← 1996
1998 →

The 1997 World Snooker Championship (also referred to as the 1997 Embassy World Snooker Championship for the purposes of sponsorship) was a professional ranking snooker tournament that took place between 19 April and 5 May 1997 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England.

Ken Doherty won his only World title by defeating defending champion Stephen Hendry 18–12 in the final. Doherty also became the first snooker player to win the World Championship at junior, amateur and professional level.[1] The tournament was sponsored by cigarette manufacturer Embassy.

Tournament summary

  • The semi-final matches were best of 33 for the first time, having previously been best of 31.[2]
  • Ronnie O'Sullivan made the quickest maximum break in history with a time of 5 minutes and 8 seconds,[3] and the fourth in the history of the tournament.[4]
  • Terry Griffiths' first round encounter against Mark Williams was his last ever professional match.[5] This match was also three time World Champion Williams' Crucible debut.
  • Other debutants this year were Bradley Jones (England); Graham Horne; David McLellan and future World Champion and twice runner-up Graeme Dott (all Scotland); Lee Walker and Dominic Dale (Wales). All these players lost in the first round except Dale and Walker, who reached the last-16 and quarter finals respectively. This meant that all three Welsh debutants won their first round matches.
  • Stephen Hendry's five-year run as World Champion came to an end after losing to Ken Doherty 12–18. It was Hendry's first defeat at the World Championship since 1991,[6] spanning 29 matches, a Crucible record.[7]
  • Doherty became only the second player from outside the United Kingdom to win the world title in the modern era, following Cliff Thorburn in 1980.[4][8]
  • Alan Chamberlain refereed his first and only World Championship final. He was the first referee since Jim Thorpe in 1984 to officiate a debut final. All finals up to this year were officiated by either John Williams, Len Ganley or John Street. The next four years also had referees debuting the final: Lawrie Annandale in 1998, Colin Brinded in 1999, John Newton in 2000 and Eirian Williams in 2001, before John Williams did his 10th final in 2002.[9]

Prize fund

The breakdown of prize money for this year is shown below:[10][11]

  • Winner: £210,000
  • Runner-up: £126,000
  • Semi-finalist: £63,000
  • Quarter-finalist: £31,500
  • Last 16: £16,800
  • Last 32: £9,450
  • Highest break: £18,000
  • Maximum break: £147,000
  • Total £1,260,000

Main draw

Shown below are the results for each round. The numbers in parentheses beside some of the players are their seeding ranks (each championship has 16 seeds and 16 qualifiers).[10][12] Template:World Snooker Championship Rounds

Century breaks

There were 39 century breaks in this year's championship.[10][13][14]

Qualifying

The qualifying matches were held between 2 January and March 1997 at the Newport Centre in Newport, Wales.

Round 2–3

Round 2
(Best of 19 frames) 		Round 3
(Best of 19 frames)
Wales Matthew Stevens 10–7 Northern Ireland Jason Prince England Andy Hicks 10–7 Wales Matthew Stevens
England Alfie Burden 10–6 England Barry Pinches Wales Terry Griffiths 10–4 England Alfie Burden
Republic of Ireland Michael Judge 10–5 Wales Anthony Davies England Gary Wilkinson 10–9 Republic of Ireland Michael Judge
England Jimmy Michie 10–9 Wales Paul Davies England Mick Price 10–9 England Jimmy Michie
Scotland Drew Henry 10–3 Scotland Alan Burnett England Stephen Lee 10–5 Scotland Drew Henry
Scotland Graeme Dott 10–7 Scotland Geoff Dunn Scotland Graeme Dott 10–8 Northern Ireland Joe Swail
England Karl Broughton 10–5 Republic of Ireland Fergal O'Brien England Anthony Hamilton 10–5 England Karl Broughton
England Bradley Jones 10–9 Scotland Jamie Burnett England Bradley Jones 10–4 England Dave Finbow
England Stefan Mazrocis 10–9 England Jason Weston England Stefan Mazrocis 10–4 Scotland Chris Small
England Brian Morgan 10–7 England Nick Pearce England Brian Morgan 10–6 New Zealand Dene O'Kane
Wales Lee Walker 10–8 Scotland Euan Henderson Wales Lee Walker 10–7 Northern Ireland Dennis Taylor
Scotland Billy Snaddon 10–3 England Paul Davison Scotland Billy Snaddon 10–7 England Rod Lawler
England Mark Davis 10–6 Northern Ireland Terry Murphy England Mark Davis 10–5 England Jason Ferguson
Scotland David McLellan 10–6 England Nick Dyson Scotland David McLellan 10–9 England Neal Foulds
Wales Dominic Dale 10–3 England Jonathan Birch Wales Dominic Dale 10–6 England Willie Thorne
Scotland Graham Horne 10–6 England Mark King Scotland Graham Horne 10–7 England Steve James

References

  1. ^ "Ken Doherty". Riley England. Archived from the original on 30 September 2011. Retrieved 3 October 2011.
  2. ^ Downer, Chris (2012). Crucible Almanac. p. 76.
  3. ^ "Various Snooker Records". Chris Turner's Snooker Archive. Chris Turner. Archived from the original on 10 February 2013. Retrieved 11 May 2012.
  4. ^ a b "World Professional Championship". Chris Turner's Snooker Archive. Chris Turner. Archived from the original on 16 April 2013. Retrieved 11 May 2012.
  5. ^ "Terry Griffiths profile". Snooker Database. Retrieved 11 May 2012.
  6. ^ "Stephen Hendry at the World Championships". Snooker Database. Retrieved 11 May 2012.
  7. ^ Everton, Clive. "Snooker: Doherty ready to fulfil rich promise". The Independent. Archived from the original on 25 January 2013. Retrieved 11 May 2012 – via HighBeam Research. (subscription required)
  8. ^ Downer, Chris (2012). Crucible Almanac. p. 125.
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference Almanac page 143 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  10. ^ a b c "Embassy World Championship 1997". Snooker.org. Retrieved 28 October 2010.
  11. ^ Downer, Chris (2012). Crucible Almanac. p. 130.
  12. ^ Downer, Chris (2012). Crucible Almanac. pp. 44–45.
  13. ^ "Crucible Centuries". Snooker.org. Archived from the original on 23 May 2011. Retrieved 3 April 2012.
  14. ^ Downer, Chris (2012). Crucible Almanac. p. 149.
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