List of world snooker champions
The World Snooker Championship snooker tournament founded in 1927 and since 1977 played at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. The event is played over 17 days in late April and early May, and is chronologically the third of the three Triple Crown events of the season since 1977–78, when the UK Championship was first held. The event was not held from 1941 to 1945 because of World War II or between 1958 and 1963 due to declining interest.
The governing body that organises this event is the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association. Prior to this in 1968, the world championship was organised by the Billiards Association and Control Council (BACC), except for a few years when the Professional Billiards Players' Association (PBPA) staged their own event, the World Professional Match-play Championship.[1]
The best player at the World Snooker Championship was Joe Davis, who won 15 consecutive titles between 1927 and 1946. The record in the modern era, usually dated from 1969 of a knock-out tournament format, rather than a challenge format, is held by Stephen Hendry, who won the title 7 times between 1990 and 1999.
Champions
Main pages: World Snooker Championship and World Professional Match-play Championship
| Format | Organiser |
|---|---|
| Knockout tournament (Template:Gc) | BACC |
| Challenge event with defending champion receiving a bye to the final (*) | BACC |
| World Professional Match-play Championship (◊) | PBPA |
| Challenge matches (‡) | BACC |
| Knockout tournament | WPBSA |
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Statistics
Multiple champions
| Player | Total | Years | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
 Joe Davis
|
15 | 1927, 1928, 1929, 1930, 1931, 1932, 1933, 1934, 1935, 1936, 1937, 1938, 1939, 1940, 1946 | † 10/7/1978 |
| Fred Davis
|
8 | 1948, 1949, 1951, 1952*, 1953*, 1954*, 1955*, 1956* | † 16/4/1998 |
| John Pulman
|
8 | 1957*, 1964 , 1964, 1965, 1965, 1965, 1966, 1968
|
† 25/12/1998 |
 Stephen Hendry
|
7 | 1990, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1999 | active |
| Ronnie O'Sullivan
|
7 | 2001, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2013, 2020, 2022 | active |
| Steve Davis
|
6 | 1981, 1983, 1984, 1987, 1988, 1989 | retired |
 Ray Reardon
|
6 | 1970, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1978 | retired |
| John Higgins ¤
|
4 | 1998, 2007, 2009, 2011 | active |
| Mark Selby ¤
|
4 | 2014, 2016, 2017, 2021 | active |
| Mark Williams ¤
|
3 | 2000, 2003, 2018 | active |
| John Spencer
|
3 | 1969, 1971, 1977 | † 11/7/2006 |
| Walter Donaldson
|
2 | 1947, 1950 | † 24/5/1973 |
 Alex Higgins
|
2 | 1972, 1982 | † 24/7/2010 |
|
Challenge match |
| * | World Professional Match-play Championship |
| ¤ | Player competed in 2019 |
Champions by country
|
|
List Of World Snooker Champions Media
The World Snooker Championship trophy
Notes
- ↑ Due to World War II[6]
- ↑ Due to a disagreement with the Billiards Association and Control Club and the Professional Billiards Players' Association (PBPA), Lindrum and McConachy were the only players to compete, with most professional players playing in the World Professional Match-play Championship instead. As a result, Lindrum's title win is sometimes ignored, with Cliff Thorburn (CAN), Ken Doherty (IRL), Neil Robertson (AUS) and Luca Brecel (BEL) usually regarded as the only non-United Kingdom winners.[5]
- ↑ Due to a lack of interest there was no championship organised between 1958 and 1963. In 1964, it was agreed between the Professional Billiard Players Association and the BACC that the championship would be contested by having the reigning champion play in challenge matches. There were seven such challenge matches between 1964 and 1968, until knockout competition resumed with the 1969 Championship.[8] The agreement in 1964 was that there should be a stake by both parties of £50 (equivalent to earnings of £2,000 in 2021[9]), that matches could be of any duration agreed by both participants, and that the challenger would be responsible for finding a suitable venue.[10]
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 The title was decided over a series of matches rather than frames.[11]
- ↑ Some sources give the score as 37–32. The CueSport Book of Professional Snooker: The Complete Record & History (2004) says "Higgins triumphed 37-31 (not 37-32 as so many publications have wrongly printed)"[13]
References
- ↑ "World Snooker Title". The Glasgow Herald: 2. 19 February 1952. https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=F1tAAAAAIBAJ&sjid=C48MAAAAIBAJ&pg=5966%2C3977587.
- ↑ Turner, Chris. "World Professional Championship". cajt.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk. Chris Turner's Snooker Archive. Archived from the original on 16 April 2013. Retrieved 24 February 2011.
- ↑ "World Championship – Roll of Honour". Global Snooker. Archived from the original on 22 February 2012. Retrieved 18 March 2013.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - ↑ "Hall of Fame". Snooker.org. Archived from the original on 28 July 2019. Retrieved 24 February 2011.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 "History of the World Snooker Championship". worldsnooker.com. World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association. Archived from the original on 15 March 2011. Retrieved 30 April 2011.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 "Embassy World Championship". snookerscene.co.uk. Snooker Scene. Archived from the original on 24 January 2013. Retrieved 9 May 2012.
- ↑ [2][3][4][5][6]
- ↑ Everton, Clive (1985). Guinness Snooker: The Records. Enfield: Guinness Superlatives Ltd. pp. 55–56. ISBN 978-0-85112-448-3.
- ↑ Officer, Lawrence H. "Five Ways to Compute the Relative Value of a UK Pound Amount, 1270 to Present". MeasuringWorth. Archived from the original on 2 January 2024. Retrieved 2 January 2024.
- ↑ "Professional Snooker". Billiards and Snooker (the Billiards Association and Control Council): 13. January 1964.
- ↑ Everton, Clive (1981). Guinness Book of Snooker. Enfield: Guinness Superlatives Ltd. p. 65. ISBN 978-0-85112-230-4.
- ↑ Snooker: Higgins makes final flourish. 28 February 1972. p. 7. https://archive.org/details/sim_american-sportswear-knitting-times_1972-02-28_41_9/page/n6.
- ↑ Hayton, Eric; Dee, John (2004). The CueSport Book of Professional Snooker: The Complete Record & History. Rose Villa Publications. p. 8. ISBN 978-0954854904.