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Crucible Classics #20

Postby Pink Ball

At number 20 in my countdown is:

20. 1983 World Championship Second Round: Cliff Thorburn 13-12 Terry Griffiths
45-72; 46-35; 73-42; 151(147)-0; 70-56; 51-77; 46-90(59); 73-29; 75(60)-29; 66-27; 37-72; 18-64(54); 67-44; 42-67; 58-49; 29-77; 23-75; 79-59; 53-68(68); 106(62)-0; 76-52; 54-64; 54-61; 17-113(97); 100(75)-20

Match Progress: 0-1, 1-1, 2-1, 3-1, 4-1, 4-2, 4-3, 5-3, 6-3, 7-3, 7-4, 7-5, 8-5, 8-6, 9-6, 9-7, 9-8, 10-8, 10-9, 11-9, 12-9, 12-10, 12-11, 12-12, 13-12

What are your memories/observations of this Crucible Classic?
Last edited by Pink Ball on 15 Apr 2020, edited 1 time in total.

Re: Crucible Classics #20

Postby D4P

There can't have been too many matches in history in which a player won a frame with 151 points, and another frame with 46 points...

Re: Crucible Classics #20

Postby vodkadiet1

The match started on Saturday afternoon and Thorburn made the maximum on Grandstand. He just picked up his box of fags and went to the mid session interval.

The third session started Sunday night but it certainly didn't finish Sunday! It finished at 3.51am on Monday morning. There is no footage of the closing frames as the cameramen went home about 2am.

Just before the end of Thorburn's match winning break with Griffiths needing about 8 snookers Griffiths is reported to have turned to one of the handful of remaining spectators and said "It doesn't look too good now does it?"

Re: Crucible Classics #20

Postby mick745

At least 100 spectators braved it until the end, presumably they had missed their buses anyway.

It is worth pointing out that the start of the final session was delayed due to an earlier overrunning match and Griffiths and Thorburn had been a couple of frames behind where they should have been.

Even so the final session of 11 frames took around 6hrs25mins to complete.

I bet some of the safety was good though.

Pity the cameras stopped rolling - I would loved to have seen the conclusion of that match. Not that i'd have been allowed to stay up.

I remember as an 8yo the maximum break being such a big deal at the time, I had certainly never seen one before.

Re: Crucible Classics #20

Postby SnookerFan

mick745 wrote:At least 100 spectators braved it until the end, presumably they had missed their buses anyway.

It is worth pointing out that the start of the final session was delayed due to an earlier overrunning match and Griffiths and Thorburn had been a couple of frames behind where they should have been.

Even so the final session of 11 frames took around 6hrs25mins to complete.

I bet some of the safety was good though.

Pity the cameras stopped rolling - I would loved to have seen the conclusion of that match. Not that i'd have been allowed to stay up.

I remember as an 8yo the maximum break being such a big deal at the time, I had certainly never seen one before.



Proper fans. :bowdown:

Re: Crucible Classics #20

Postby Iranu

SnookerFan wrote:
mick745 wrote:At least 100 spectators braved it until the end, presumably they had missed their buses anyway.

It is worth pointing out that the start of the final session was delayed due to an earlier overrunning match and Griffiths and Thorburn had been a couple of frames behind where they should have been.

Even so the final session of 11 frames took around 6hrs25mins to complete.

I bet some of the safety was good though.

Pity the cameras stopped rolling - I would loved to have seen the conclusion of that match. Not that i'd have been allowed to stay up.

I remember as an 8yo the maximum break being such a big deal at the time, I had certainly never seen one before.



Proper fans. :bowdown:

You’d have been back at the hotel by frame 5.

Re: Crucible Classics #20

Postby SnookerFan

Iranu wrote:You’d have been back at the hotel by frame 5.


In my defence, that Welsh Open Final was an exception. I'd had a virus the whole weekend, and still had managed to watch two semis and the opening session of the final. Before giving up in the mid-session of the evening.

In all my 14 years of attending live snooker, I've left before the end maybe three times. Two have them times have been due to feeling unwell, and one was to catch the late train.

Saying that, there's no way I'd have stayed to getting on until 4am. rofl

Re: Crucible Classics #20

Postby mick745

The BBC schedules list the late night snooker programme as starting at 2310. This was a Sunday night as well before most households had video recorders most having tobgo to work the next morning.

https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/schedules/b ... 1983-04-24

Griffiths and Thorburn still had nearly 5 hours of their match to go! I wonder if they joined the match live and stayed with it til the station closed down for the night?

it appears that on the other table was Perrie Mans v Kirk Stevens. Stevens with a 7-1 lead from the first session wrapped up a 13-3 win that evening to end the match a session early.

I suspect that Griffiths and Thorburn had the arena to themselves with the divide lifted for hours.

Re: Crucible Classics #20

Postby SnookerFan

mick745 wrote:it appears that on the other table was Perrie Mans v Kirk Stevens. Stevens with a 7-1 lead from the first session wrapped up a 13-3 win that evening to end the match a session early.


So, a player called Stevens manages to not bottle a lead.

Re: Crucible Classics #20

Postby vodkadiet1

mick745 wrote:The BBC schedules list the late night snooker programme as starting at 2310. This was a Sunday night as well before most households had video recorders most having tobgo to work the next morning.

https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/schedules/b ... 1983-04-24

Griffiths and Thorburn still had nearly 5 hours of their match to go! I wonder if they joined the match live and stayed with it til the station closed down for the night?

it appears that on the other table was Perrie Mans v Kirk Stevens. Stevens with a 7-1 lead from the first session wrapped up a 13-3 win that evening to end the match a session early.

I suspect that Griffiths and Thorburn had the arena to themselves with the divide lifted for hours.


You just reminded me about the scheduling in those days. Kirk Stevens was playing on a different table to Thorburn in their second round matches, yet they played each other in the quarters.

A more bizarre part of the scheduling that year was having players playing different matches on the same day. Tony Knowles and Tony Meo played the final session of their second round matches on the same day that they started their quarter final match. Meo had less than 2 hours rest between matches and that must have contributed to him losing the first session 7-1.

Re: Crucible Classics #20

Postby Alex0paul

I’m pretty sure I read that David Vine finished the live programme wearing pyjamas or something

Re: Crucible Classics #20

Postby lhpirnie

SnookerFan wrote:
mick745 wrote:At least 100 spectators braved it until the end, presumably they had missed their buses anyway.

It is worth pointing out that the start of the final session was delayed due to an earlier overrunning match and Griffiths and Thorburn had been a couple of frames behind where they should have been.

Even so the final session of 11 frames took around 6hrs25mins to complete.

I bet some of the safety was good though.

Pity the cameras stopped rolling - I would loved to have seen the conclusion of that match. Not that i'd have been allowed to stay up.

I remember as an 8yo the maximum break being such a big deal at the time, I had certainly never seen one before.



Proper fans. :bowdown:

Indeed. My personal record is the Fergal O'Brien-Tian Pengfei match in 2017, which finished at 2:30am. The last frame took 90 minutes: Tian successfully got 3 snookers, but missed a difficult pink. It was watched by only 5 people, including Mei Xiwen and Tian's wife who had the job of taking the devastated Tian home.


As we know, Fergal O'Brien did it again in his next match against Dave Gilbert...

Re: Crucible Classics #20

Postby SnookerEd25

I was going to say, she must have been so discombobulated by the whole affair she probably went home with the wrong bloke...

Which reminds me of the Muhammad Ali - Chuck Wepner fight in the 70s; Wepner had told his wife on the morning of the bout that tonight she'd be sleeping with the Heavyweight Champion of the World. So, when she went back to his dressing room after he'd endured a 15-round mauling (stopped just before the end) she asked him "So do I go to Ali's room, or will he come to mine?"

Re: Crucible Classics #20

Postby SnookerFan

SnookerEd25 wrote:I was going to say, she must have been so discombobulated by the whole affair she probably went home with the wrong bloke...

Which reminds me of the Muhammad Ali - Chuck Wepner fight in the 70s; Wepner had told his wife on the morning of the bout that tonight she'd be sleeping with the Heavyweight Champion of the World. So, when she went back to his dressing room after he'd endured a 15-round mauling (stopped just before the end) she asked him "So do I go to Ali's room, or will he come to mine?"


rofl rofl rofl

Talk about rubbing it in.

Re: Crucible Classics #20

Postby SnookerEd25

Ironically, she'd rather have been with Fergal O'Brien...