5 Crucible Moments

We're currently on that part of the year when all Snooker fans are only waiting for the World Championship to come. It's Snooker's blue ribband event with it's Crucible magic, magic that was built with 40 years of history shown by the BBC.
Throughout these 40 years there have been many remarkable and unforgettable moments, and my friend Chris Varney, a big Snooker fan who's featured here in the blog a few times before, has selected his top 5 World Championship moments ever since it was first held at the Crucible Theatre in 1977. 

My Top 5 World Championship Moments - Chris Varney

5th 1997 - Fastest 147 > A moment of pure sporting genius to start the list with Ronnie O'Sullivan hitting a maximum break in 5 minutes and 20 seconds. Mick Price would have the best seat in the house as the rocket rattled in the fifteen reds and blacks and then followed the colours in sequence to make history and a record highly unlikely to be broken. One lucky fan would leave with his chalk as the rocket threw it into the ecstatic crowd in a day never to be forgotten in Crucible history.

4th 2013 - The year of The Rocket > Only one competitive match all season could not stop Ronnie O'Sullivan as he swept to his fifth world title with an 18-12 defeat of Barry Hawkins. He would not lose a session all championship and would become the first back-to-back winner since Stephen Hendry successfully defended his title back in 1996. Is the rocket the best ever? Well that's a debate amongst snooker and sport's fans in general but this title puts him in the argument at least. However some ultimately view sportsmen and women on most titles won throughout their career and in this he still falls short of Stephen Hendry in most wins. Still playing top-class snooker the rocket and his legion of fans still harbour hope of matching and even surpassing the greatest.

3rd 1982 - A. Higgins v Reardon > A charismatic genius winning his second title - a decade after his first. Ever wondered what the best break has been? Tune in to the 1982 semi-final between Alex Higgins and Jimmy White, Higgins facing almost certain defeat made a scintillating break of 69 to level up at 15-15 and keep his dreams alive. A long green, black full length of the table, a red delicately cut into the middle pocket and an awesome blue that would see it fly into the green pocket and white pinball across the side cushion for the next red which would be another tricky one. In the final he would meet a legend of the game with six world's to his name, the great Ray Reardon. Higgins would close out the final with a big century (a rarity in those days) in a green shirt for his beloved Northern Ireland and would famously cry with his wife and baby daughter with the trophy.

2nd 1994 - Hendry v White > One of the best ever finals in one of the best ever rivalries. Could White finally win in his sixth final? His great nemesis had already beaten him in the 1990, 1992 and 1993 finals. White would have one hand on the famous silver trophy but would miss a pretty straightforward black off the spot and Hendry with ice-cool precision would clear for his fourth title at the home of snooker. Hendry would cause further Crucible pain with a semi-final win over White in 1995.

1st 1985 - Taylor v Davis > In a thrilling final that saw Davis lead 8-0 and 17-15, Taylor along with 18.5 million BBC viewers and close to 1,000 inside the Crucible Theatre would be the one left smiling as he potted the final black at 12.23am. Taylor potted a tricky full length of the table brown, a difficult blue down the top cushion and a tricky pink in baulk with the white glued to the side cushion. Finally in a 68-minute final frame Taylor would pot the final black and realise his dream of becoming world snooker champion.



Well, I want to thank Chris for that great piece, I'm sure it's all a great warm-up for more history-writing to begin on Saturday 15th this month at the Crucible. To follow all the action from the ongoing qualifiers, like Ronnie O`Sullivan Brasil on Facebook.