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What was the score in the 1972 World Final?

Postby mick745

Traditionally snooker records have recorded the 1972 World Championship Final as Alex Higgins 37-32 John Spencer. However, a couple of other sources have this as 37-31. Which is correct.

Page 8 of the Cuesport book of professional snooker for instances says:

"Higgins triumphed 37-31 (not 37-32 as so many publications have wrongly printed)" - why say that if it wasn't the case?

Cuetracker has 37-32 but two framescores are missing:

https://cuetracker.net/tournaments/worl ... p/1972/906

The complete International Director of snooker players - John Kobylecky has 37-31 (page 225) as the score stating "The key to his victory was his session whitewash which took him to 27-21. Spencer closed to 31-33 ahead of Higgins' four frame winning run to the line".

Seems strange that there is a disputed score in a world final. What is the truth?

Re: What was the score in the 1972 World Final?

Postby SnookerEd25

Ordinarily, i would trust Clive Everton as the font of all (snooker & billiards) knowledge. In his 'the Story of Billiards & Snooker' (published 1978) he gives the score as 37-32. Perhaps we'll never know for sure. I suppose we have to trust the official sources; the WST website, for example, has it 37-31 so I guess that is the 'official' score. I would love to know how the confusion came about though.

Even better, I'd love to hear from someone who was there...

Re: What was the score in the 1972 World Final?

Postby SnookerEd25

Seems the newspapers of the day were reporting it as 37-31. I'd go with that. The fact that there is one frame (out of the whole final) with a 'missing frame score' is more than dubious.


Tried posting links but they don't seem to work properly. Seen Sports pages from the Sydney Morning Herald, the Glasgow Morning Post and the Age (?) all from the day after the conclusion and all reporting as 37-31.

Re: What was the score in the 1972 World Final?

Postby mick745

SnookerEd25 wrote:Ordinarily, i would trust Clive Everton as the font of all (snooker & billiards) knowledge. In his 'the Story of Billiards & Snooker' (published 1978) he gives the score as 37-32. Perhaps we'll never know for sure. I suppose we have to trust the official sources; the WST website, for example, has it 37-31 so I guess that is the 'official' score. I would love to know how the confusion came about though.

Even better, I'd love to hear from someone who was there...


It would seem very likely that Clive Everton would have been there in person, reporting for Snooker Scene yet just six years later printed the score wrongly in his own publication (maybe?).

i guess snooker scene would have carried a full report of the match - with reporters that had been in attendance - so what did Clive Everton's magazine say i wonder?

Re: What was the score in the 1972 World Final?

Postby badtemperedcyril

Snooker Scene has 37-32 in its lead page write up but 37-31 further in. In the pages detailing the scores it doesn’t add up. The I researched this extensively in lots of newspapers and can categorically say the final score was 37-31. Cuetracker is wrong also. It states 37-32 but again, it doesn’t add up to that.

Re: What was the score in the 1972 World Final?

Postby acesinc

I just popped in this morning and happened to see this thread. I am no expert on history topics such as this, I wasn't even aware of the existence of Snooker until 1984, but something does come to mind. The opening scene of The Rack Pack starts with the '72 Championship, smoky, seedy atmosphere. And then the lights go out. I had heard the story of the lights going out before so I don't believe that part is just apocryphal to add dramatic effect. I expect that it probably really did happen. So then.....what happened with that frame when the lights went out? One would think that nothing would be disturbed and the two players would pick up the frame where it left off and the outcome would (theoretically) be unaffected. But maybe that is not how it was? Perhaps if Spencer were ahead and the table were disturbed before resumption, then some sort of compromise would need to be reached and my educated guess would be that an additional frame or frames may be required at match's end under certain circumstances.

I emphasize this is mere speculation, but let's say had they decided to scrap that interrupted frame, the compromise would be that if the match came to a decider frame and Higgins won, then Spencer (by virtue of his lead in the interrupted frame that he presumably would have won) would get an additional frame essentially forcing a second, final decider. If Spencer had won the initial decider frame, then the match would be over immediately, because the interrupted frame wouldn't have mattered anyway.

But ultimately, the match did not come down to a decider, it was won by a margin. So my wild guess pulled out my bum is that some sources give the interrupted frame win to Spencer while others do not. Part of this theory does come from my knowledge of the Rules. Remember that the Referee has ultimate power to arbitrate in the interest of fair play in any circumstance not directly covered in the Rules (perhaps such as a frame being interrupted by dark).

Re: What was the score in the 1972 World Final?

Postby badtemperedcyril

There was a strike going on and power was lost on one day of the final. They brought in mobile generators to get the lights working but they were quite dim. The generators also caused much moisture in the hall and condensation on the balls! Don't have these issues at the Marshall Arena...

I don't know about a frame being interrupted though.

The only similar occurrence I can think of would be the following year at Manchester City Halls, when it rained in during the Fred Davis - Alex Higgins quarter final. They had to mark where all the balls were and cover the table while the leaky roof was patched up. :rain: :snooker: