1986 World Snooker Championship


The 1986 World Snooker Championship was a professional snooker tournament that took place between 19 April and 5 May 1986 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. It was the sixth and final ranking event of the 1985–86 snooker season and the 1986 edition of the World Snooker Championship, which was first held in 1927. The total prize fund was £350,000 with £70,000 awarded to the winner. The tournament was sponsored by cigarette manufacturer Embassy.
The defending champion was Northern Ireland's Dennis Taylor, who had defeated Steve Davis 18–17 in the 1985 World Snooker Championship final to win his first title. Taylor lost in the first round of the event 10–6 to Mike Hallett. The world number 16 Joe Johnson defeated Davis 18–12 in the final to win his sole ranking event. Prior to the competition, bookmakers' odds for a Johnson victory were 150–1. A total of 20 century breaks were made during the tournament, the highest of which was a 134 made by Davis.

Overview

The World Snooker Championship is a professional tournament and the official world championship of the game of snooker. Founded in the late 19th century by British Army soldiers stationed in India, the sport was popular in the British Isles. However, in the modern era, which started in 1969 when the World Championship reverted to a knockout format, it has become increasingly popular worldwide, especially in East and Southeast Asian nations such as China, Hong Kong and Thailand.
Joe Davis won the first World Championship in 1927, the final match being held in Camkin's Hall, Birmingham, England. Since 1977, the event has been held in the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. The 1986 Championship featured 32 professional players competing in one-on-one snooker matches in a single elimination format, each played over several. The 32 competitors in the main tournament were selected using a combination of the top players in the world snooker rankings and a pre-tournament qualification stage.

Prize fund

The tournament featured a prize fund of £350,000 with a bonus of £80,000 paid to the first player, if any, who made a maximum break. £70,000 was reserved for the winner of the tournament, with a full breakdown of prize money as shown below:
Main Event
Qualifying

Qualifying

Qualifying matches took place at Preston Guild Hall from 26 March to 6 April 1986. All matches were played as the best-of-19 frames. Joe O'Boye recorded the first century break of the qualifying rounds, compiling a 118 in his 8–10 defeat by Bill Oliver. Paul Thornley put together 126 in his 10–3 win over Derek Mienie. John Hargreaves was 2–9 down to Bernie Mikkelsen but won five frames in a row to recover to 7–9, before being knocked out 7–10. Dave Gilbert also won five consecutive frames, going from 5–7 behind to win 10–7 against Roger Bales. Veteran professional Bernard Bennett suffered the only whitewash of the first round, failing to win a frame against Sakchai Sim Ngam. James Giannaros, Jim Rempe and Wayne Sanderson all withdrew from the competition.
In the second qualifying round, the Scottish Professional Championship winner Stephen Hendry made a break of 141 during his match against Paddy Browne, which was the highest break in qualifying and earned him a prize of £1,750. Hendry had led 8–3 and 9–8 before winning 10–9. At 8–8 against Bob Chaperon, Frank Jonik conceded the next frame when 22 points behind despite the to s, totalling 22 points - enough for him to draw the game, still being on the table. He then conceded the 18th frame while 53 points behind with six reds still remaining, meaning that up to 75 points were available without snookers, and lost the match 8–10. Jimmy van Rensberg beat Ian Williamson on the final black in the of their contest, clearing green to brown to win that frame 42–41. On his way to his second round match, Steve Newbury was involved in a traffic collision which injured his wife and wrecked his car. Despite the accident, Newbury beat Omprakesh Agrawal 10–5. There was one whitewash in the second round, by Ray Edmonds against Billy Kelly.
Hendry made breaks of 117 and 91 in his 10–8 third round defeat of Wayne Jones during which Jones had recovered from 3–7 to 8–8. Les Dodd lost only one frame against former world snooker championship promoter Mike Watterson, and Peter Francisco saw off Fred Davis, a former billiards and snooker world champion, by the same margin. Robby Foldvari, who had won the World Billiards Championship in March 1986, beat the 1974 World Snooker Championship runner-up Graham Miles 10–7. John Spencer qualified to meet another former champion, Alex Higgins by beating Newbury 10–7. Hendry had led Dene O'Kane 6–3 and went on to win 10–9 to become the youngest-ever qualifier for the Crucible stages at that time. O'Kane was one of three top-32 seeds to lose in the fourth round, the others being Mark Wildman and Murdo MacLeod. Wilman had led Edmonds 9–6 but lost 9–10, and MacLeod was beaten 6–10 by Danny Fowler.

First round

The first round was played as best-of-19-frame matches over two sessions, and took place between 19 and 24 April. Defending champion Dennis Taylor, looking jaded according to Clive Everton, lost the first seven frames of his match against Mike Hallett, and ended the first session 1–8 behind. He won five more frames, but lost 6–10. Like Spencer in 1978, Terry Griffiths in 1980, Cliff Thorburn in 1981 and Steve Davis in 1982, Taylor was unable to retain his first world championship. This inability of a first time champion to defend their title has become known as the Crucible Curse. Second seed Steve Davis beat Ray Edmonds 10–4. Third seed Thorburn beat Bill Werbeniuk 10–5, whilst fourth seed Tony Knowles won a close match against Neal Foulds 10–9.
The 16th seed Joe Johnson defeated Dave Martin 10–3 in the first round, his first win in three appearances at the Championship. Jimmy White compiled a 121 break in the final frame of his 10–7 victory over John Virgo. The three-time world champion Spencer made his final appearance at the tournament, losing 7–10 to Alex Higgins in the first round. Future seven-time champion Stephen Hendry made his debut, losing 8–10 to Willie Thorne in the first round. Aged 17 years and 3 months, Hendry was the youngest player ever to compete at the World Snooker Championship. Another debutant in 1986 was Danny Fowler, who lost 2–10 to Terry Griffiths. Six-times world championship winner Ray Reardon was knocked out 8–10 by John Campbell.
In the other matches of the round, Doug Mountjoy beat Perrie Mans 10–3, qualifier John Parrott beat Tony Meo 10–4, Kirk Stevens beat Dean Reynolds 10–6, Silvino Francisco beat Rex Williams 10–4, Eugene Hughes beat David Taylor 10–7, and Eddie Charlton beat Cliff Wilson 10–6.

Second round

The second round was played as best-of-25 frames matches over three sessions, and took place between 24 and 28 April. Steve Davis and Doug Mountjoy, who had contested the 1981 final, ended their first session tied at 4–4, and the second with Davis leading 11–5. Mountjoy did not pot a ball in the final session as Davis completed a 13–5 victory. Higgins missed a black ball from its spot that would have put him 6–2 ahead of Griffiths at the end of their first session, but Griffiths won the frame to leave Higgins 5–3 ahead instead. Griffiths had the better of their second session, and made a break of 110 to level at 6–6. Whilst the next two frames were shared, Griffiths a to win frame 15 and a frame later was 9–7 ahead at the end of their second session. The match went to a deciding frame, with Griffiths prevailing 13–12. The Stevens and Charlton match also went to a deciding frame, with Stevens winning the last three frames from 10–12 behind to win 13–12.
Johnson led Hallett 5–3 after their first session, before completing a 13–6 win, making a break of 110 in frame 13. Parrott and White were level at 4–4 and 6–6 before White won a run of four frames to lead 10–6 after the second session. White won three of the next five frames to win 13–8. Thorne beat the Australian Professional Championship winner Campbell 13–9. In the other second round matches, Knowles beat Fransciso 13–10 and Thorburn beat Hughes 13–6.

Quarter-finals

The quarter-finals were played as best-of-25 frames matches over three sessions on 29 and 30 April. Joe Johnson led Terry Griffiths 9–7 at the end of the first day of their match. On resumption, Griffiths won five frames in a row to come within one frame of winning the match at 12–9. Johnson took the next four to win 13–12, making two century breaks in those four frames. Steve Davis played Jimmy White, a replay of the 1984 World Snooker Championship final. Davis made a break of 134 in the opening frame and played consistently well in beating Jimmy White 13–5, whilst White missed a number of relatively simple pots.
Cliff Thorburn played Willie Thorne and won 13–6. The Times report of the match said that Thorne "was never allowed to play his usual fluent game." Thorburn took a 9–3 lead, and finished the second session 11–5 ahead. His wife Barbara Thorburn, gave birth to their second child in the couple's native Canada during the match. Tony Knowles played Kirk Stevens. After the first session, the pair were level at 4–4, and then again 8–8 after the second session. At the beginning of the final session, Knowles won five of the next six frames to win 13–9.

Semi-finals

The semi-finals took place between 1 and 3 May as best-of-31-frames matches played over four sessions. The first semi-final featured Tony Knowles and Joe Johnson. Johnson trailed at 0–1 and 1–2 but ended their first session 4–3 ahead, with Knowles having missed middle pocket pots to let him into both the sixth and seventh frames. According to Sydney Friskin's match report in The Times, Johnson gave the appearance of being relaxed and was potting well as he built a 10–5 lead over Knowles by the end of their second session, before finishing their third session at 14–8. He took the first two frames of the last session to win 16–8; and reach his first world championship final. Johnson played having taken painkillers for a cyst on his back before the match.
The second semi-final was played between Steve Davis and Cliff Thorburn. In the sixth frame with Davis leading 3–2, Thorburn was on course for a maximum break but failed on the ninth black, although he did go on to win the frame and tie the match at 3–3. Davis won the next three to lead 6–3, but led by only a single frame at 8–7 after the second session. Davis trailed 8–9 and 9–10 the next day before his fifth century break of the tournament, a 112, levelled the match at 10–10. A missed black from Davis gave Thorburn the opportunity to win the next frame, and Davis won the last of the session to tie the match 11–11 going into the final session. Davis won five frames against Thorburn's one in the final session, making a 122 break in the last frame as he concluded a 16–12 win to reach his fifth world final.

Final

The final was played as a best-of-35 frames match on 4 and 5 May, played over four sessions. Johnson and Davis had never played a professional match against each other. Davis was considered much more likely to win the final, reflected in the bookmaker's odds of 2/9 for Davis and 5/1 for Johnson. Davis took a 3–1 lead into the interval of the first session, having made breaks of 108 and 107. Johnson then took the next three frames to finish the first session 4–3 ahead. In the second session, Davis started strongly, winning four frames in succession to put himself 7–4 ahead. This was followed by a mid-session interval, after which Johnson won four consecutive frames. Davis won the last frame to leave the match level at 8–8 overnight.
On the second day, Johnson wore an unusual pair of red, pink and white leather shoes. Upon the restart, Johnson won another run of four frames to take him into a 12–8 lead, assisted by a fluke on a red ball in the 18th frame. The session ended with Johnson ahead at 13–11. In the final session, the crowd responded in favour of Johnson. Johnson, who had played with an attacking style throughout the event, won three of the next four to lead 16–12 before the mid-session interval. Johnson won frame 29, and secured a break of 64 in frame 30 to win the match 18–12. The win helped lift him from 16th place in the 1985–1986 professional rankings to eighth for 1986–1987.
Davis, being runner-up in two successive championships, commented to interviewer David Vine "We can't go on meeting like this, David". Johnson retorted "I hope we can still be friends". The popularity of Johnson's win resulted in an appearance on television show Wogan, as well as him accompanying Cliff Richard in a box to watch Wimbledon. This was Johnson's only ranking event win in his career, although he would go on to win two non-ranking tournaments - the 1987 Scottish Masters and 1989 Norwich Union Grand Prix. In the 1987 World Snooker Championship the following year, both Davis and Johnson contested the final, with Davis winning 18–14. Johnson's attacking style of snooker, notable for his long potting, has been seen as a harbinger of the style that became dominant in the 1990s. The odds on Johnson were 150 to 1 against him winning the event as he had not won any tournaments in his seven-year career and had never previously won a match at the Crucible. A condensed version of the final was showcased on BBC Two on 22 April 2020 in place of the 2020 World Snooker Championship which was postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Main draw

The numbers in parentheses beside some of the players are their seeding ranks. Players in bold denote match winners. Shown below are the results for the event:

Qualifying

Four rounds of qualification were played at the Guild Hall in Preston, England from 26 March to 6 April 1986. All matches were played as the best-of-19 frames. Players in bold denote match winners.

Round 1

Round 2

Rounds 3 and 4

Century breaks

There were 20 century breaks in the championship, the highest until the 1991 event. The highest break was a 134 made by Davis.
There were 12 century breaks made in qualifying. The highest was a 141 made by Stephen Hendry.