UK Championship: A short history of snooker’s second most prestigious event - Part 1 (1977-1978)
UK Championship is World Snooker’s second biggest event, which started in 1977 as a non-ranking small event but as time passed, this tournament grabbed more attention and importance throughout the world and now, it has the second highest number of viewers,
both live and on television, after the World Snooker Championship.
Legendary snooker player, Steve Davis, is the only player so far who has won this tournament on a record six occasions (1980, 1981, 1984-1987). Scotland’s Stephen Hendry secured the UK Championship title five times during his snooker career(1989, 1990, 1994-1996),
while the Rocket, Ronnie O’Sullivan, has won it four times (1993, 1997, 2001, 2007).
After its advent, the historical snooker event has been organised in five different venues, Blackpool, Preston, Bournemouth, York and Telford.
1977 – A small beginning
The first edition of UK Championship took place in 1977 as a non-ranking professional snooker event by the name of 1977 Super Crystalate UK Championship at the Tower Circus, in Blackpool, from November 26-December 3, 1977. Mike Watterson was the organiser
of this tournament, who instituted the championship with the sponsors from Super Crystalate ball manufacturers.
The first event of UK Championship featured 24 cueists who battled for the title. The top 16 were drawn in two rounds according to the rankings (top eight in last-16, while the rest in last 24). The first three rounds, until the quarter-finals, were best-of-nine
while semi-finals were best-of-17 and the final, best-of-23.
Winner of the first UK Championship was Republic of Ireland’s Patsy Fagan, who defeated Doug Mountjoy of Wales by the score line of 12-9. Both cuemen were placed in Round 1 draws, from where they began their run into the final encounter. The final match-up
was televised on BBC.
1978 – The Championship continues
The venue for the second episode of UK Championship changed from Blackpool to Guildhall, in Preston. The UK Championship 1978 commenced from November 22 and concluded on December 1, 1978, with Coral Racing as the sponsors of the event.
The format of the championship also changed in 1978. The main draw started from the last-16, while last-24 round was formulated as qualifiers. On the other hand, number of frames per match was also altered. The first-round matches were formatted best-of-17
until the semi-finals, while the final encounter was a best-of-29 frames show.
For the first time, qualifiers were played before the main draw matches, where a lot of drama was seen. Terry Griffiths, currently a snooker coach and one of the legendary players, entered the event for the first time but could not surge further into the
initial round and crashed out of the event during the qualifiers at the hands of Rex Williams by 8-9.
Another surprise was the defeat of defending champion, Patsy Fagan, who lost to David Taylor in the initial round by the score line of 7-9. The second UK Championship saw a new champion, runner-up in 1977 UK Championship, Doug Mountjoy, who defeated David
Taylor 15-9.
The final clash was again televised on BBC. At that time, the late Alex Higgins was considered as one of the top dogs of snooker along with David Taylor, Dennis Taylor and Doug Mountjoy. Alex Higgins dominated the UK Championship in later years but he started
showing his guts right in the middle of early UK Championship editions.
Tags: