Continuing with the World Championship Throwbacks, we arrive at the year 1978 where the Crucible holds the second WSC following a successful event in the prior year. John Spencer was the defending champion and aimed to keep that crown. Little did he know (along with the rest of us) was that he would be the first to succumb to what is now commonly known as the ‘Crucible Curse’.
This championship was significant because of the players involved. As mentioned earlier, John Spencer sought to defend his crown however fell short in the first round to eventual runner-up, Perrie Mans (13-8). Spencer could at least take some solace in doubling his tournament earnings by compiling the highest break of 138. Willie Thorne, Alex Higgins and Doug Mountjoy are also among those that fell in the first round.
Fred Davis famously reached the semi-finals of the WSC in 1978 at age 64, watched by his brother Joe. Davis beat Dennis Taylor, Patsy Fagan as well as John Virgo in qualifying to reach his last semi-final appearance in a World Championship. There would be a battle for third place between the semi-finalists which Eddie Charlton would win in a best-of-13 (first to 7) contest. Davis would reach the quarter-finals in the following year then struggle to get to these later stages as the years went on.
The 1978 final would be contested by 5x pre-Crucible champion, Ray Reardon who fought to secure a world title at Sheffield, which would be home to the WSC for at least the next 40 years; and Perrie Mans, who dominated the South African Professional Championship and would achieve one of his career highlights by reaching the final of the World Championship.
The final was played over a best-of-49 (first to 25) match, which would be one of the last WSC’s to be contested over a longer format. It was a closely fought contest following the first day and after the score-line reached 10-10, Reardon started to pull away at 13-11, 18-14 and eventually 25-18 as he further etched his names into the snooker history books.
This victory would secure Reardon’s sixth World Championship trophy, a number that would only be matched or passed by the likes of Steve Davis, Stephen Hendry and Ronnie O’Sullivan in the decades that followed. Reardon became the oldest winner of the WSC at 45 years old, a record previously held by Joe Davis. Despite having successful ventures in the World Championships to follow, 1978 would be the last year that Reardon lifted the trophy as he showed his class during this tournament proving that venue was irrelevant to him and that he was indeed, the best.
WSC 1978 was the first championship to be fully covered by the BBC, with an overwhelmingly positive audience response (close to 7 million viewers). It was a response such that, it required TV scheduling be cleared in order to broadcast the final live for those at home to witness.
Fun fact: Ray Reardon was 7-2 down to Doug Mountjoy in the first round, before mounting a comeback that would see him through to the second round with a 13-9 victory.
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