1980 World Snooker Championship

Embassy World Snooker Championship

Tournament information
Dates	22 April–5 May 1980
Venue	Crucible Theatre
City	Sheffield
Country	England
Organisation(s)	WPBSA
Format	Ranking event
Total prize fund	£60,000
Winner's share	£15,000
Highest break	Steve Davis (136) Kirk Stevens (136)
Final
Champion	Cliff Thorburn
Runner-up	Alex Higgins
Score	18–16
← 1979 1981 →

The 1980 World Snooker Championship (also known as the 1980 Embassy World Snooker Championship for the purposes of sponsorship) was a professional ranking snooker tournament that took place between 22 April and 5 May 1980 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England.

Cliff Thorburn won in the final 18–16 against Alex Higgins. The tournament was sponsored by cigarette manufacturer Embassy.

Tournament summary

• Tony Meo, Cliff Wilson and Ray Edmonds made their Crucible debuts. However, they lost in the first round 9–10 against Alex Higgins, 6–10 against Doug Mountjoy and 5–10 David Taylor respectively.^[1][2][3] John Pulman made his last appearance at the World Championship, losing 5–10 against Canadian Jim Wych.^[4]
• The championship extended the players who played the Crucible from 16 to 24 with the top eight players going automatically in to round 2.^[5]
• To accommodate these eight extra matches, the frames in each match were also revamped. The first round went to 19 frames, the second and quarter-finals to 25, the semi-finals to 31 and the final to 35 frames. The format still continues today except for the semi-final, which became a 33-frame match in 1997.^[5]
• The coverage of the final was interrupted by coverage of the Iranian Embassy siege, as the BBC took the snooker off the air to bring live coverage of the SAS storming the Iranian Embassy in London.^[6]
• John Street refereed the final.^[7]

Prize fund

The breakdown of prize money for this year is shown below:^[8]

• Winner: £15,000
• Runner-up: £8,000
• Semi-final: £4,000
• Quarter-final: £2,000
• Last 16: £1,500
• Last 32: £750
• Highest break: £1,000
• Maximum break: £10,000
• Total: £60,000

Main draw

Numbers in (parentheses) indicate seedings.

Source:^[5][9][10]

	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
		Patsy Fagan (16)	6				Terry Griffiths (1)	10
		Steve Davis	10				Steve Davis	13
												Steve Davis	9
												Alex Higgins (11)	13
		Alex Higgins (11)	10		Perrie Mans (8)	6
		Tony Meo	9				Alex Higgins (11)	13
																	Alex Higgins (11)	16
																Kirk Stevens	13
		Graham Miles (9)	3				John Spencer (5)	8
		Kirk Stevens	10				Kirk Stevens	13
												Kirk Stevens	13
												Eddie Charlton (4)	7
		John Virgo (10)	10		Eddie Charlton (4)	13
		Jim Meadowcroft	2				John Virgo (10)	12
																						Alex Higgins (11)	16
																						Cliff Thorburn (3)	18
		Doug Mountjoy (13)	10				Cliff Thorburn (3)	13
		Cliff Wilson	6				Doug Mountjoy (13)	10
												Cliff Thorburn (3)	13
												Jim Wych	6
		John Pulman (14)	5		Dennis Taylor (6)	10
		Jim Wych	10				Jim Wych	13
																	Cliff Thorburn (3)	16
																David Taylor (15)	7
		David Taylor (15)	10				Fred Davis (7)	5
		Ray Edmonds	3				David Taylor (15)	13
												David Taylor (15)	13
												Ray Reardon (2)	11
		Bill Werbeniuk (12)	10		Ray Reardon (2)	13
		Willie Thorne	9				Bill Werbeniuk (12)	6

Century breaks

There were 11 century breaks at the championship.^[9] Kirk Stevens and Steve Davis shared the high break prize when they both made a 136 break. It was the first time the highest break went to two players.^[11][12][13] There was also a £5,000 bonus for compiling a higher break than the championship record of 142.^[8]

• 136, 116 Steve Davis
• 136 Kirk Stevens
• 123, 104 Doug Mountjoy
• 122 Alex Higgins
• 119, 114 Cliff Thorburn
• 108 John Spencer
• 106 Fred Davis
• 101 Bill Werbeniuk

References

1. "Tony Meo at the World Championship". Snooker Database. Retrieved 10 June 2012.
2. "Cliff Wilson at the World Championship". Snooker Database. Retrieved 10 June 2012.
3. "Ray Edmonds at the World Championship". Snooker Database. Retrieved 10 June 2012.
4. "John Pulman at the World Championship". Snooker Database. Retrieved 10 June 2012.
5. "Embassy World Championship". Snooker Scene. Archived from the original on 24 January 2013. Retrieved 9 May 2012.
6. Weir, Stuart. "World Snooker: Everything you wanted to know but were afraid to ask about the Crucible.(Sport)". Sunday Mail on HighBeam Research. Retrieved 10 June 2012. (subscription required)
7. Downer, Chris (2012). Crucible Almanac. p. 143.
8. Downer, Chris (2012). Crucible Almanac. p. 130.
9. "World Championship 1980". Global Snooker. Retrieved 27 April 2011.
10. Downer, Chris (2012). Crucible Almanac. pp. 10–11.
11. Kastner, Hugo. "Snooker – Spieler, Regeln & Rekorde (May 2011 update)" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 27 May 2012. Retrieved 27 May 2012.
12. "Crucible Centuries". Snooker.org. Archived from the original on 23 May 2011. Retrieved 8 August 2012.
13. Downer, Chris (2012). Crucible Almanac. p. 146.