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1979 World Challenge Cup
The 1979 World Challenge Cup was the first snooker tournament to have a team format of six nations with three players per team. The event was held between 20 and 27 October 1979 at the Haden Hill Leisure Centre in Birmingham, England. Cliff Thorburn Clifford Charles Devlin Thorburn (born 16 January 1948) is a Canadian retired professional snooker player. Nicknamed "The Grinder" because of his slow, determined style of play, he won the World Snooker Championship in 1980, defeating Alex ... made the highest break of the tournament, 126. __TOC__ Main draw Teams Group A Group B Final References {{Snooker season 1979/1980 World Cup (snooker) 1979 in snooker ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
World Cup (snooker)
The World Cup is an invitational team snooker tournament created by Mike Watterson. The annual contests featured teams of three (two since 2011) players representing their country against other such teams. Steve Davis has won the event more times than any other player, with four titles for England. History The event began in 1979 as the World Challenge Cup with the sponsorship of State Express. It was held at the Haden Hill Leisure Centre, Birmingham, with six teams participating: England, Northern Ireland, Wales, Canada, Australia and Rest of the World. The teams were broken into two round-robin groups and the matches were best of 15 frames. The top teams in the groups met in the final. In 1980 the tournament moved to the New London Theatre and the Northern Ireland team was replaced by an All-Ireland team. The event was renamed to the World Team Classic in 1981 and moved to the Hexagon Theatre in Reading. The matches were reduced to best of seven and the top two teams from the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alex Higgins
Alexander Gordon Higgins (18 March 1949 – 24 July 2010) was a Northern Irish professional snooker player who is remembered as one of the most iconic figures in the game. Nicknamed "Hurricane Higgins" because of his fast play, he was World Champion in 1972 and 1982, and runner-up in 1976 and 1980. He became the first qualifier to win the world title in 1972, a feat only two players have achieved since – Terry Griffiths in 1979 and Shaun Murphy in 2005. He won the UK Championship in 1983 and the Masters in 1978 and 1981, making him one of eleven players to have completed snooker's Triple Crown. He was also World Doubles champion with Jimmy White in 1984, and won the World Cup three times with the All-Ireland team. Higgins came to be known as the "People's Champion" because of his popularity, and is often credited with having brought the game of snooker to a wider audience, contributing to its peak in popularity in the 1980s. He had a reputation as an unpredictable ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by total area. Its southern and western border with the United States, stretching , is the world's longest binational land border. Canada's capital is Ottawa, and its three largest metropolitan areas are Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver. Indigenous peoples have continuously inhabited what is now Canada for thousands of years. Beginning in the 16th century, British and French expeditions explored and later settled along the Atlantic coast. As a consequence of various armed conflicts, France ceded nearly all of its colonies in North America in 1763. In 1867, with the union of three British North American colonies through Confederation, Canada was formed as a federal dominion of four provinces. This began an accretion of provinces and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label=Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares an open border to the south and west with the Republic of Ireland. In 2021, its population was 1,903,100, making up about 27% of Ireland's population and about 3% of the UK's population. The Northern Ireland Assembly (colloquially referred to as Stormont after its location), established by the Northern Ireland Act 1998, holds responsibility for a range of devolved policy matters, while other areas are reserved for the UK Government. Northern Ireland cooperates with the Republic of Ireland in several areas. Northern Ireland was created in May 1921, when Ireland was partitioned by the Government of Ireland Act 1920, creating a devolved government for the six northeastern counties. As was intended, Northern Irela ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jimmy Van Rensberg
Jimmy van Rensberg (born 24 October 1931) is a South African former professional snooker player. He won the South African Professional Championship in 1984. He was a record 12-time winner of the South African Amateur Championship. Career Born in 1931, van Rensberg turned professional in 1978 at the relatively advanced age of 46. He entered few tournaments in his first several seasons on tour, reaching the final of the 1979 South African Professional Championship after beating Silvino Francisco in the semi-finals; this was van Rensberg's first match in the event, and he lost the final 6–9 to Derek Mienie. After losing 1–9 to Tony Meo in qualifying for the 1980 World Championship, van Rensberg next played a competitive match in the 1984 edition of the tournament. There, he beat Vic Harris 10–7 and in his last-64 match, came to trail Ray Edmonds 0–7. He won the next three frames, but Edmonds took the eleventh and twelfth to leave van Rensberg 3–9 behind; however, fr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Patsy Fagan
Patsy Fagan (born 15 January 1951) is an Irish former professional snooker player. Having been runner-up in the 1974 English Amateur Championship, he turned professional in October 1976. He experienced early success with victories at the 1977 UK Championship and the 1977 Dry Blackthorn Cup but following a car accident, developed a psychological block when using the which affected his playing and he did not win another title. He lost his professional status in 1989 following a 2–9 playoff defeat by Brady Gollan and now works as a snooker coach. His highest career ranking was 11, in 1978/79. Early life and amateur career Fagan was born in Dublin on 15 January 1951, one of twelve children. He started playing snooker at the age of 12, and moved to London in 1968. He played at the Chiswick Memorial Club, and in 1974 it was reported in a local newspaper that in a six-frame session he had recorded a break of 106, another over 80, and three more over 70. In the 1974 English Amateur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Perrie Mans
Pierre "Perrie" Mans (born 14 October 1940) is a retired professional snooker player from South Africa, who first won the South African Professional Championship in 1965, and won the event 20 times. Mans won the Benson & Hedges Masters in 1979 and reached the final of the World Championship in 1978. Background Mans' father, Peter Mans, who died in 1975, was also a professional snooker player, making the quarter-finals of the 1950 World Snooker Championship. Snooker career Mans won the South African Amateur Championship in 1960, the only occasion in which he competed in the event. He then turned professional and took the South African Professional Championship from Fred Van Rensburg in 1965. Mans first entered the World Snooker Championship in 1970. His first victory in the Championship came in the 1973 event when he defeated Ron Gross 9–2 before losing 8–16 to Eddie Charlton. However, in 1974 he pulled off a major surprise by defeating John Spencer 15–13 in the sec ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ian Anderson (snooker Player)
Ian Anderson (born 2 April 1946) is an Australian former professional snooker player. He is the current president of the World Pool-Billiard Association. Career Anderson turned professional in 1973, playing his first World Championship match against Perrie Mans of South Africa in 1974; Anderson held Mans to 1–1, but Mans pulled away to win 8–1. The following year, he was eliminated 4–15 in the last 16 by Rex Williams, and in 1976, he lost 5–8 to Jackie Rea. In the 1979 tournament, Anderson was defeated in qualifying by Steve Davis, by 9 frames to 1, but in the 1982 Australian Masters, the group stage being in one-frame shoot-out format, he defeated Ray Reardon 70–48 and incumbent World Champion Alex Higgins 70–50 before losing 115–119 over two frames to Davis in the semi-final. In 1979 he won the Australian Masters, his sole professional win as a snooker player. His other professional final came the year before in 1978, when he was defeated 29-13 by Eddie Charlto ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paddy Morgan
Paddy Morgan (born 7 January 1943) is an Australian former professional snooker and English billiards player. He was born in Belfast, and moved to Coventry in 1960. Following an amateur career in which he won junior and national titles in both sports, and reached the semi-finals of the 1968 World Amateur Snooker Championship, he emigrated to Australia in 1969. He became a professional player in 1970 and competed in the World Snooker Championship for the first time in the 1971 tournament. In 1972, he was runner-up to Leslie Driffield in the World Open Billiards Championship, which featured both amateurs and professionals competing against each other, losing the final 2,404–3,055. In snooker, he defeated Dennis Taylor and Alex Higgins to reach the semi-finals of the 1976 World Professional Match-play Championship. Morgan was twice runner-up in the Australian Professional Snooker Championship (in 1976 and 1977). He was a member of the Australia team at the World Cup o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gary Owen (snooker Player)
Gary Owen (born 1929 in Tumble, Carmarthenshire, Wales; died 1995 in Brisbane, Australia) was an Welsh–born Australian snooker player. Career Owen was the inaugural British Under-16 champion in 1944 and reached the final of the prestigious English Amateur Championship six years later. He then gave up competitive play for a number of years, returning only in the early 1960s. In 1963 he matched the achievement of his brother Marcus, winning the English Amateur Championship. This qualified him to compete for England at the inaugural World Amateur Championship in Calcutta that year. He won all his matches in a round-robin format and took the title. He became world amateur champion for a second time in 1966, beating future world professional champion John Spencer who was the runner-up. In 1968 Owen, Spencer and Ray Reardon become the first players in a generation to turn professional. His best performance as a professional came in 1969 when he reached the final of the reconst ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kirk Stevens
Kirk Stevens (born August 17, 1958) is a Canadian former professional snooker player. Career Stevens started playing young, achieving his first aged just 12. He turned professional aged 20, and reached the semi-finals of the World Championship aged 21. In 1984 he achieved a maximum 147 break in a televised match against Jimmy White in the Benson & Hedges Masters, which remained the only such break ever made in the competition until Ding Junhui achieved the same feat in 2007. His stylish choice of attire (he often appeared at major tournaments wearing an all-white suit, as opposed to the traditional black suit with a white shirt) and his youthful 'popstar' good looks made him a ladies' favourite. In 1985 he was wrongfully accused of taking stimulants before the final of the Dulux British Open Snooker Championship by South African Silvino Francisco. Stevens lost 9–12. Francisco was subsequently fined by the world governing body of snooker, the WPBSA, for the comments. The WPBS ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bill Werbeniuk
William Alexander Werbeniuk ( ; 14 January 1947 – 20 January 2003) was a Canadian professional snooker and pool player. Recognisable for his girth, he was nicknamed "Big Bill". Werbeniuk was a four-time World Championship quarter-finalist and also a UK Championship semi-finalist, reaching a career high world ranking of #8 for the 1983–84 season. Early life William Werbeniuk was born on 14 January 1947 in Winnipeg. His paternal grandfather had immigrated to Canada from Ukraine; his father, according to Werbeniuk, "was one of the biggest fences in Canada" and "committed armed robberies, peddled drugs, every larceny in the language." His father also owned Pop's Billiards on Logan Avenue in Winnipeg, where Werbeniuk began playing snooker as a child. Werbeniuk spent a portion of his youth travelling with Cliff Thorburn and playing pool for money. Career Werbeniuk won the Canadian Snooker Championship in 1973, with a 16–15 victory against Robert Paquette after being 12–15 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
