1973 World Snooker Championship

The 1973 World Snooker Championship (also known as 1973 Park Drive World Snooker Championship for sponsorship reasons) was a snooker tournament that took place between 16 and 28 April 1973 at the City Exhibition Hall in Manchester, England.[1]

Park Drive World Snooker Championship
Tournament information
Dates16–28 April 1973 (1973-04-16 – 1973-04-28)
VenueCity Exhibition Hall
CityManchester
CountryEngland
OrganisationWPBSA
Total prize fund£8,000
Winner's share£1,500[1]
Highest break John Spencer (ENG) (139)
Final
Champion Ray Reardon (WAL)
Runner-up Eddie Charlton (AUS)
Score38–32
← 1972
1974 →

Ray Reardon won in the final 38–32 against Eddie Charlton.

Background

The World Snooker Championship is a professional tournament and the official world championship of the game of snooker.[2] The sport was developed in the late 19th century by British Army soldiers stationed in India.[3]: 1  Professional English billiards player and billiard hall manager Joe Davis noticed the increasing popularity of snooker compared to billiards in the 1920s, and with Birmingham-based billiards equipment manager Bill Camkin, persuaded the Billiards Association and Control Council (BACC) to recognise an official professional snooker championship in the 1926–27 season.[4] In 1927, the final of the first professional snooker championship was held at Camkin's Hall; Davis won the tournament.[5] The annual competition was not titled the World Championship until 1935,[6] but the 1927 tournament is now referred to as the first World Snooker Championship.[7][8]

In 1952, the, following a dispute between the Professional Billiards Players' Association (PBPA) and the BACC about the distribution of income from the world championship, the PBPA members established an alternative competition known as the World Professional Match-play Championship, the editions of which are now recognised as world championships, whilst only two players entered for the BACC's 1952 World Snooker Championship.[9]: 47 [10] The World Professional Match-play Championship continued until 1957, after which there were no world championship matches until professional Rex Williams gained agreement from the BACC that the world championship would be staged on a challenge basis, with defending champion Pulman featuring in the first match.[10][11][12] Pulman retained the title in several challenges from 1964 to 1968.[10]

The 1969 championship, when the tournament reverted to a knockout format, is regarded as the first of the modern snooker era, and was won by John Spencer.[13][14] From 1972, the championship was organised by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA), which was the renamed PBPA. For 1973, the tournament was sponsored by Park Drive. The defending champion was Higgins, who had won in 1972.

Tournament summary
  • The competition took place over 13 days, rather than the months it had taken to complete previous championships. Park Drive sponsored the event.[1]
  • The first-round matches were played on 16 April, the second round matches on 17 and 18 April, the quarter-finals on 19 and 20 April, the semi-finals from 21 to 23 April with the final played over 5 days from 24 to 28 April.
  • Cliff Thorburn and Dennis Taylor made their debuts; both would later become world champions. They played each other in the first round and Thorburn won 9–8.[15][16]
  • Alex Higgins beat Fred Davis in the quarter-finals 16–14. The match is noted for a rain interruption.[17]
  • Reardon staged a recovery when, having trailed John Spencer 12–19, he won their semi-final 23–22.[17]

Reardon lost the first session of the final against Eddie Charlton 0–7, but after the fourth session Reardon led 17–13, and he was 27–25 up after seven sessions. At the start of the eighth session, Reardon was affected by the bright lighting that had been installed for the purposes of television coverage, and Charlton won three frames. Reardon complained about the lighting, and two large lights focused on the audience were turned off. From 27–28, Reardon won four of the next five frames in the session,[18] and went on to win 38–32. For the first time some frames of the final were televised by the BBC.[17] Spencer made the highest break of the tournament with 139.[19]

Main draw

Ressults are shown below. Winning players are denoted in bold.[20][21][22]

  Round 1
Best of 17 frames		 Round 2
Best of 31 frames		 Quarter-finals
Best of 31 frames		 Semi-finals
Best of 45 frames		 Final
Best of 75 frames
                                     
 Pat Houlihan (ENG) 9      Alex Higgins (NIR) 16  
 Jackie Rea (NIR) 2      Pat Houlihan (ENG) 3  
   Alex Higgins (NIR) 16  
   Fred Davis (ENG) 14  
 David Greaves (ENG) 9  Fred Davis (ENG) 16
 Bernard Bennett (ENG) 8      David Greaves (ENG) 1  
   Alex Higgins (NIR) 9  
   Eddie Charlton (AUS) 23  
 Graham Miles (ENG) 9      John Pulman (ENG) 10  
 Geoff Thompson (ENG) 5      Graham Miles (ENG) 16  
   Graham Miles (ENG) 6
   Eddie Charlton (AUS) 16  
 Perrie Mans (RSA) 9  Eddie Charlton (AUS) 16
 Ron Gross (ENG) 2      Perrie Mans (RSA) 8  
   Eddie Charlton (AUS) 32
   Ray Reardon (WAL) 38
 Warren Simpson (AUS) 9      Gary Owen (WAL) 16  
 Maurice Parkin (ENG) 3      Warren Simpson (AUS) 14  
   Gary Owen (WAL) 6
   Ray Reardon (WAL) 16  
 Jim Meadowcroft (ENG) w/o  Ray Reardon (WAL) 16
 Kingsley Kennerley (ENG) w/d      Jim Meadowcroft (ENG) 10  
   Ray Reardon (WAL) 23
   John Spencer (ENG) 22  
 Cliff Thorburn (CAN) 9      Rex Williams (ENG) 16  
 Dennis Taylor (NIR) 8      Cliff Thorburn (CAN) 15  
   Rex Williams (ENG) 7
   John Spencer (ENG) 16  
 David Taylor (ENG) 9  John Spencer (ENG) 16
 John Dunning (ENG) 4      David Taylor (ENG) 5  

References
  1. 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.
  2. "Snooker championship". Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer. 11 May 1927. p. 20. Retrieved 12 March 2019 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  3. Hayton, Eric; Dee, John (2004). The CueSport Book of Professional Snooker: The Complete Record & History. Rose Villa Publications. ISBN 978-0954854904.
  4. Everton, Clive (23 September 2004). "Davis, Joseph [Joe]". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/31013. Archived from the original on 3 September 2019. Retrieved 11 May 2020. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  5. Morrison, Ian (1987). The Hamlyn Encyclopedia of Snooker. London: Hamlyn Publishing Group. pp. 27–30. ISBN 9780600556046.
  6. "Billiards – Professional title". Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer. 3 November 1934. p. 7. Retrieved 24 November 2015 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  7. Everton, Clive (1993). The Embassy Book of World Snooker. London: Bloomsbury. pp. 11–13. ISBN 0747516103.
  8. "History of snooker – a timeline". World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association. Archived from the original on 7 January 2021. Retrieved 29 May 2021.
  9. Williams, Luke; Gadsby, Paul (2005). Masters of the Baize. Edinburgh: Mainstream. ISBN 1840188723.
  10. Turner, Chris. "World Professional Championship". cajt.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk. Chris Turner's Snooker Archive. Archived from the original on 16 April 2013. Retrieved 9 February 2011.
  11. Morrison, Ian (1989). Snooker: records, facts and champions. Guinness Superlatives Ltd. p. 8. ISBN 0851123643.
  12. Hale, Janice (1991). Rothmans Snooker Yearbook 1991–92. Aylesbury: Queen Anne Press. pp. 294–295. ISBN 0356197476.
  13. "John Higgins eyes more crucible titles". The Daily Telegraph. London. 5 May 2009. Archived from the original on 30 April 2010. Retrieved 13 April 2020. the modern era, which began in 1969 when the World Championship became a knockout event.
    Pitt, Nick (20 April 2014). "Snooker: Pocket man O'Sullivan eager to chalk up another title: The champion is in irresistible form as he starts his defence at the Crucible". The Sunday Times. p. 13. in the modern era since 1969
    Hayton, Eric; Dee, John (2004). The CueSport Book of Professional Snooker: The Complete Record & History. Lowestoft: Rose Villa Publications. p. 7. ISBN 978-0954854904. the world championship ... took on the modern day look during the 1968–69 season
  14. "World Championship 1969". Global Snooker. Archived from the original on 28 December 2010. Retrieved 8 February 2011.
  15. "Cliff Thorburn at the World Championship". Snooker Database. Retrieved 8 August 2012.
  16. "Dennis Taylor at the World Championship". Snooker Database. Retrieved 8 August 2012.
  17. Kastner, Hugo. "Snooker – Spieler, Regeln & Rekorde (May 2011 update)" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 May 2012. Retrieved 27 May 2012.
  18. Everton, Clive (1993). The Embassy Book of World Snooker. London: Bloomsbury. pp. 35–36. ISBN 0747516103.
  19. "2004 Embassy World Championship Information". Global Snooker Centre. Archived from the original on 8 December 2004. Retrieved 9 May 2012.
  20. "World Championship 1973". Global Snooker. Archived from the original on 2010-12-28. Retrieved 8 February 2011.
  21. "1973 World Championships Results". Snooker Database. Retrieved 6 March 2012.
  22. "Embassy World Championship". Snooker Scene. Archived from the original on 24 January 2013. Retrieved 9 May 2012.
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