With the start of the World Championship just 22 hours away (can you tell that I’m excited?), here are some interesting facts and figures as provided by Chris Turner who has his own excellent website here.
World Championship Trivia
- This is the 33rd year that the championship, which began in 1927, has been held at the Crucible
- The oldest winner was Ray Reardon, 45 years and 203 days, in 1978. The youngest was Stephen Hendry in 1990 at 21 years and 106 days.
- The oldest player to appear in the final stages was Fred Davis who was 70 years and 8 months when he last played at the Crucible in 1984.
- Jimmy White was the first teenager to play at the Crucible losing 10-8 to Steve Davis in 1981. One year later, Dean Reynolds became the first teenager to win a match there when he beat Fred Davis 10-7.
- There has only ever been one whitewash at the Crucible. That was in 1992 when John Parrott beat Eddie Charlton 10-0 in round one.
- Apart from the Crucible, Leicester Sq. Hall / Thurston’s has staged the most championships with twelve.
- Mark Williams won 13 frames in a row to beat Quinten Hann 13-2 (from 0-2) in the second round in 2003.
- Dominic Dale amassed a total of 167 points in one frame of a first round match against Nigel Bond in 1999. His score included 44 penalty points and a break of 122.
- The longest gap between world tiles has been ten years. Alex Higgins won on 1972 and 1982.
- Joe Davis, Ronnie O’Sullivan and Shaun Murphy are the only champions who have never also lost in a final.
- Other than Jimmy White’s six, no player has lost in more than two finals since the championship was revived in 1969. No less than eight players have lost in two. They are, Eddie Charlton (1973 and ’75), Alex Higgins (’76 and ’80), Cliff Thorburn (’77 & ’83), Steve Davis (’85 & ’86), Stephen Hendry (’97 & ’02), Ken Doherty (’98 & ’03), Matthew Stevens (2000 & ’05) and Peter Ebdon (’96 & ’06).
- Mark Williams (2000 & 2003) is the only left-hander to have won the world title.
- There have been 1068 century breaks at the Crucible of which Stephen Hendry has made 116, including 16 (a record) in 2002.
- There have been eight 147 breaks- Cliff Thorburn (1983), Jimmy White (1992), Stephen Hendry (1995), Ronnie O’Sullivan (1997, 2003 & 2008), Mark Williams (2005) and Ali Carter (2008) – in the final stages.
- There has never been an all-Scottish or all-Irish final. There was one all-Welsh final when Mark Williams beat Matthew Stevens in 2000.
- When Ronnie O’Sullivan won the title in 2001, he was the first English winner for ten years.
- In 2006, Peter Ebdon was the first Englishman to lose in the final since he himself lost to Hendry ten years earlier.
- The most consecutive wins by any one country, since 1969, is the five Scottish wins by Stephen Hendry from 1992 to 1996.
- The biggest margin of victory in a final was the 18-3 scoreline by which Steve Davis beat John Parrott in 1989, whilst there have been three occasions when the final went to the deciding frame – 1985 (Taylor beat Davis), 1994 (Hendry beat White) and 2002 (Ebdon beat Hendry).
- Terry Griffiths is the only player to have won the title at the Crucible on debut (other than the first year of course!). There will be four debutants there this year; Martin Gould, Andrew Higginson, Rory McLeod and Ricky Walden.
- Ronnie O’Sullivan is bidding to become the first player to successfully defend the title for 13 years. Stephen Hendry in 1996 was the last.