The World Snooker Championship
The sport's biggest night ended after midnight on a single black ball, watched by more than 18 million people, in a theatre built for plays.
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Quick Facts
- First held
- 1927, in Birmingham
- First champion
- Joe Davis, who beat Tom Dennis 20–11
- Home since 1977
- The Crucible Theatre, Sheffield
- Format
- 32 players in a knockout, played over about 17 days, with a qualifying tournament beforehand
- Most titles, modern era
- Stephen Hendry and Ronnie O'Sullivan, 7 each
- Most titles overall
- Joe Davis, 15, all won between 1927 and 1946
- First Crucible 147
- Cliff Thorburn, 1983
- Newest champion (2025)
- Zhao Xintong, the first Chinese winner
A billiard-hall idea from Birmingham
The championship began as a hustle for a sport that needed a stage. In 1927 the professional Joe Davis and the billiard-hall owner Bill Camkin set up a national tournament, with the final played at Camkin's Hall in Birmingham. Davis beat Tom Dennis 20–11 and became the first world champion. He then kept winning. Davis took every title until he stepped away from the event after 1946, 15 in total. Nobody has come close to that record, and nobody has matched him in sheer length of dominance. The event later faded for several years, with challenge matches standing in for a proper tournament, before it returned as a knockout in 1969.
The theatre where nobody wants to be quiet
Since 1977 the championship has lived at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, a venue built for drama with an audience wrapped tightly around the stage. That closeness is the point. Players can hear a cough from the second row, and the crowd can see them sweat. The first Crucible champion was John Spencer in 1977. Two years later Terry Griffiths won the title at his first attempt, coming through qualifying to do it. The Crucible has since become so closely tied to the event that players talk about it as a place with its own personality. Winning there makes a career.
The night the final went to the black
On 28 April 1985, Dennis Taylor met Steve Davis in the final. Davis was the dominant player of the decade and led 8–0 at one stage. Taylor clawed back to 17–17, forcing a deciding frame. That frame came down to the last black ball. Davis missed a tough shot, and Taylor potted it to win 18–17 just after midnight. He raised his cue above his head and waggled his finger in disbelief. More than 18 million people were watching on BBC2, still among the biggest TV audiences the channel has ever had. It is the match everyone mentions first, even people who couldn't tell a snooker table from a pool table.
Heroes, rebels and rank outsiders
Alex Higgins won in 1972 at just 22, then again in 1982 in a tearful, emotional finish. He called for his wife and baby daughter to join him at the table, a scene that became part of snooker legend. Steve Davis won six titles in the 1980s. Stephen Hendry then took over, becoming the youngest champion at 21 in 1990 and winning seven in all. Ronnie O'Sullivan matched that total in 2022, having won in 2001, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2013, 2020 and 2022. The tournament also loves a shock. Joe Johnson was a 150–1 outsider when he beat Davis in the 1986 final. Mark Selby has won four times, and Judd Trump, Luca Brecel and Kyren Wilson have all had their moments in the last few years.
Maximums, curses and quirks
Cliff Thorburn made the first 147 at the Crucible in 1983. Fourteen years later, O'Sullivan raced through one in 5 minutes and 8 seconds, still the fastest official maximum. The event has its own superstition too: the Crucible curse. No player has ever successfully defended the title in the year after winning it for the first time. The jinx has outlasted many champions, and every new one is asked about it. In 2025, Zhao Xintong became the first Chinese player to lift the trophy, beating Mark Williams in the final. Snooker, once rooted in British billiard halls, now draws a global audience.
Notable people
- Joe Davis
- Bill Camkin
- Alex Higgins
- Dennis Taylor
- Steve Davis
- Stephen Hendry
- Ronnie O'Sullivan
- Cliff Thorburn
- Joe Johnson
- Terry Griffiths
- John Spencer
- Mark Selby
- Zhao Xintong
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