1981 World Snooker Championship
The 1981 World Snooker Championship (also known as the 1981 Embassy World Snooker Championship for sponsorship reasons) was a professional ranking snooker tournament that took place between 6 and 20 April 1981 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England.
| Tournament information | |
|---|---|
| Dates | 7–20 April 1981 |
| Venue | Crucible Theatre |
| City | Sheffield |
| Country | England |
| Organisation(s) | WPBSA |
| Format | Ranking event |
| Total prize fund | £75,000 |
| Winner's share | £20,000[1] |
| Highest break | .svg.png){kind=small} |
| Final | |
| Champion |  |
| Runner-up | |
| Score | 18–12 |
← 1980 1982 → | |
Steve Davis won his first world title, defeating Doug Mountjoy 18–12. The tournament was sponsored by cigarette manufacturer Embassy.
Tournament summary
- Jimmy White, Tony Knowles and Dave Martin made their World Championship debuts, but they lost in the first round 8–10 against Steve Davis, 8–10 against Graham Miles and 4–10 against Bill Werbeniuk respectively.[2][3][4]
- Steve Davis won his first world title at the third attempt, when he beat White, Alex Higgins, Terry Griffiths, and defending champion Cliff Thorburn, before beating Doug Mountjoy 18–12 in the final.[5]
- Both finalists defeated the top three seeds in their half of the draw.
Prize fund
The breakdown of prize money for this year is shown below:[6]
- Winner: £20,000
- Runner-up: £10,000
- Semi-final: £5,000
- Quarter-final: £2,500
- Last 16: £1,800
- Last 32: £875
- Highest break: £1,200
- Maximum break: £10,000
- Total: £75,000
Main draw
Numbers in (parentheses) indicate seedings.
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| Final: Best of 35 frames. Referee: John Williams [11] Crucible Theatre, Sheffield, England, 19 and 20 April 1981. | ||
| Steve Davis |
18–12 | Doug Mountjoy |
| First session: 74–40 (59), 71–38 (52), 80–7, 81–1, 92–14 (56), 93–0, 44–77, 9–110 (76), 2–70, 81–28, 61–62, 47–57, 73–24, 0–129 (129), 89–9 (81), 39–63, 69–43, 49–98, 112–15 (83), 81–34, 29–79, 30–86 (68), 102–9 (54), 15–75, 79–60 (55), 49–57, 100–32 (84), 119–8 (119), 62–30, 73–36 | ||
| 119 | Highest break | 129 |
| 1 | Century breaks | 1 |
| 8 | 50+ breaks | 2 |
Century breaks
There were 13 century breaks in the championship, equalling the record from 1979. Mountjoy meanwhile made a record at the World Championship making a 145 break beating the 142 of Rex Williams in 1965 and Bill Werbeniuk in 1979. With this record he earned a £5,000 bonus.[6] His record would last until the 1983 tournament.[12][13]
- 145, 129, 110
- 135, 133
- 134
- 119, 119, 106
- 112
- 101
- 100
- 100
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References
- Turner, Chris. "World Professional Championship". cajt.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk. Chris Turner's Snooker Archive. Archived from the original on 16 April 2013. Retrieved 11 May 2012.
- "Jimmy White at the World Championship". Snooker Database. Retrieved 10 June 2012.
- "Tony Knowles at the World Championship". Snooker Database. Retrieved 10 June 2012.
- "Dave Martin at the World Championship". Snooker Database. Retrieved 10 June 2012.
- "Steve Davis at the World Championship". Snooker Database. Retrieved 10 June 2012.
- Downer, Chris (2012). Crucible Almanac. p. 130.
- "World Championship 1981". Global Snooker. Archived from the original on 28 December 2010. Retrieved 28 October 2010.
- "1981 World Championships Results Grid". Snooker Database. Retrieved 28 October 2010.
- "Embassy World Championship". Snooker Scene. Archived from the original on 24 January 2013. Retrieved 3 April 2012.
- Downer, Chris (2012). Crucible Almanac. pp. 12–13.
- Downer, Chris (2012). Crucible Almanac. p. 143.
- "Crucible Centuries". Snooker.org. Archived from the original on 23 May 2011. Retrieved 9 November 2011.
- Downer, Chris (2012). Crucible Almanac. p. 146.