1986 World Snooker Championship

The tournament featured a prize fund of £350,000 with a bonus of £80,000 if a player made a maximum break.[13] The winner of the event won a total of £70,000. The breakdown of prize money for the event is shown below:[13][14]

Qualifying matches took place at Preston Guild Hall from 26 March to 6 April 1986.[15] All matches were played as the best-of-19 frames.[16] 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.[16]

In the second qualifying round, the Scottish Professional Championship winner Stephen Hendry made a break of 141 during match against Paddy Browne, which was the highest break in qualifying and earnt £1,750. Hendry had led 8–3 and 9–8 before winning 10–9.[16] At 8–8 against Bob Chaperon, Frank Jonik conceded the frame when 22 points behind with the brown to black balls, totalling 22 points, still on the table, which meant he could draw the frame. He then conceded the 18th frame from 53 points behind with six reds still remaining, meaning that up to 75 points were available without snookers, and lost 8–10.[16] Jimmy van Rensberg beat Ian Williamson on the final black in the deciding frame of their contest, clearing green to born to win that frame 42–41. On his way to his second round match, Steve Newbury was involved in a traffic collision that injured his wife and wrecked his car. He beat Omprakesh Agrawal 10–5. There was one whitewash in the second round, by Ray Edmonds against Billy Kelly.[16]

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.[17] 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.[18] Robby Foldvari, who had won the World Billiards Championship in March 1986, beat the 1974 World Snooker Championship runner-up Graham Miles 10–7.[19][20] Newbury became the first player in this year's competition to qualify for the Crucible rounds against a top 16 player, with a 10–2 win over Ian Black. John Spencer qualified to meet another former champion, Alex Higgins by beating Newbury 10–7.[16] 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.[16]

Defending champion Dennis Taylor lost in the opening round

The first round were played as the best-of-19-frames matches over two sessions, and all took place between 19 and 24 April.[13][21] Defending champion Dennis Taylor, looking jaded according to Clive Everton, lost the first seven frames against Mike Hallett, and ended their first session 1–8 behind.[22] 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, known as the Crucible Curse.[23][24] Second seed Davis beat Ray Edmonds 10–4.[25] Third seed Thorburn beat Bill Werbeniuk 10–5, whilst fourth seed Tony Knowles won a close match against Neal Foulds 10–9.[26]

The 16th seed Joe Johnson defeated Dave Martin 10–3 in the first round, his first win in three appearances at the Championship.[25] Jimmy White compiled a 121 break in the final frame of his 10–7 victory over John Virgo.[27] The three-time world champion Spencer made his final appearance at the tournament, losing 7–10 to Alex Higgins in the first round.[28] Future seven-time champion Stephen Hendry made his debut, losing 8–10 to Willie Thorne in the first round.[23][29][30] Aged 17 years and 3 months, Hendry was the youngest player ever to compete at the World Snooker Championship.[31] Another debutant in 1986 was Danny Fowler, who lost 2–10 to Terry Griffiths.[32] Six-times world championship winner Ray Reardon was knocked out 8–10 by John Campbell.[33][34]

In the other matches of the round, Doug Mountjoy beat Perrie Mans 10–3,[25] qualifier John Parrott beat Tony Meo 10–4,[27] Kirk Stevens beat Dean Reynolds 10–6,[30] Silvino Francisco beat Rex Williams 10–4, Eugene Hughes beat David Taylor 10–7, and Eddie Charlton beat Cliff Wilson 10–6.[34]

The second round matches were played as the best-of-25 frames matches over three sessions, and all took place between 24 and 28 April.[26][35][36][37][38] Davis and Mountjoy, who had contested the 1981 final, ended their first session tied at 4–4,[26] and the second with Davis leading 11–5. Mounjoy did not pot a ball in the final session as Davis completed a 13–5 victory.[36]

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.[37] 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 fluked a red ball to win frame 15 and a frame later was 9–7 ahead at the end of their second session.[36] The match went to a deciding frame, with Griffiths prevailing 13–12.[37] 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.[38]

Johnson led Hallett 5–3 after their first session, before completing a 13–6 win, making a break of 110 in frame 13.[35] 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.[35] White won three of the next five frames to win 13–8.[36] Thorne beat the Australian Professional Championship winner Campbell 13–9.[38] In the other second round matches, Knowles beat Fransciso 13–10 and Thorburn beat Hughes 13–6.[39]

The quarter-finals were played as the best-of-25 frames matches over three sessions on 29 and 30 April.[39][40] 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.[40][41] 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.[39][40]

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."[40] Thorburn took a 9–3 lead, and finished the second session 11–5 ahead. His wife Barbara Thorburn, in Canada, gave birth to their second child during the match.[42] 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.[40]

Steve Davis (pictured in 2012) won his semi-final match 16–12 to reach his fifth final

The semi-finals were played between 1–3 May as best-of-31-frames matches played over four sessions.[41][43][44] The first semi-final featured Tony Knowles and Joe Johnson. Johnson trailed at 0–1 and 1–2 but ended their first session ahead 4–3, with Knowles having missed middle pocket pots to let him into both the sixth and seventh frames.[43][45] 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.[44] He took the first two frames of the last session to win at 16–8; and reach his first world championship final.[46] Johnson played having taken painkillers for a cyst on his back before the match.[47]

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, but tied the match at 3–3.[47] Davis won the next three to lead 6–3; but led by only a single frame at 8–7 after the second session.[44] 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.[41] 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.[46]

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.[46][48] 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.[49] 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, following which Johnson won four consecutive frames.[23] Davis won the last frame to leave the match level at 8–8 overnight.[50]

On the second day, Johnson wore an unusual pair of red, pink and white leather shoes.[49] Upon the restart, Johnson had 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.[50] The session ended with Johnson ahead at 13–11.[23] In the final session, crowd response was in favour of Johnson. Johnson, who had played with an attacking style throughout the event,[50] won three of the next four to lead 16–12 before the mid-session interval.[50][48] Johnson won frame 29, and secured a break of 64 in frame 30 to win the match 18–12.[23][50][48] The win helped lift him from 16th place in the 1985–1986 professional rankings to eighth for 1986–1987.[33]

Davis, being runner-up in two successive championships, commented to interviewer David Vine "We can't go on meeting like this, David".[50] Johnson retorted "I hope we can still be friends".[50] The popularity of Johnson's win resulted in an appearance on television show Wogan, as well as accompanying Cliff Richard in a box to watch Wimbledon.[50] This was Johnson's only ranking event win in his career. He would win two non-ranking tournaments at the 1987 Scottish Masters and 1989 Norwich Union Grand Prix.[50] In the 1987 World Snooker Championship the following year, both Davis and Johnson contested the final, with Davis winning 18–14.[51][52] Johnson's attacking style of snooker, notable for his long potting, has been seen as a harbinger of the style than became dominant in the 1990s.[49] The odds on Johnson was 150 to 1 against 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.[23] 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.[53]

There were 12 century breaks made in qualifying. The highest was a 141 made by Stephen Hendry.[13][16]