The 1974 World Snooker Championship (also known as 1974 Park Drive World Snooker Championship for sponsorship reasons) was a professional

snooker Snooker (pronounced , ) is a cue sports, cue sport played on a Billiard table#Snooker and English billiards tables, rectangular table covered with a green cloth called baize, with six Billiard table#Pockets 2, pockets, one at each corner and o ...

tournament that took place from 16 to 25 April 1974 at the Belle Vue in

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

, England. It was the 1973 edition of the

World Snooker Championship The World Snooker Championship is the longest-running and most prestigious tournament in professional snooker. It is also the wealthiest, with total prize money in 2022 of £2,395,000, including £500,000 for the winner. First held in 1927 Wor ...

, established in

1927 Events January * January 1 – The British Broadcasting ''Company'' becomes the British Broadcasting ''Corporation'', when its Royal Charter of incorporation takes effect. John Reith becomes the first Director-General. * January 7 * ...

. The 1974 tournament was promoted by Snooker Promotions, and sponsored by tobacco brand Park Drive. The event attracted 31 entrants and carried a prize fund of £10,000. Seven qualifying matches were held; the seven winners of these joined the other 17 players in the main tournament.

Ray Reardon Ray may refer to: Fish * Ray (fish), any cartilaginous fish of the superorder Batoidea * Ray (fish fin anatomy), a bony or horny spine on a fin Science and mathematics * Ray (geometry), half of a line proceeding from an initial point * Ray (gr ...

won the title by defeating

Graham Miles Graham Miles (11 May 1941 – 12 October 2014) was an English snooker player. Career Miles turned professional in 1971. He first gained recognition in 1974, when he reached the final of the World Championship. Although he lost 12–22 to Ray Re ...

22–12 in the final. It was Reardon's third World Championship win, after his first in

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli intensity of X (''Extrem ...

; he was the defending champion from 1973 World Snooker Championship. He went on to win a further three titles, the last of them in

1978 Events January * January 1 – Air India Flight 855, a Boeing 747 passenger jet, crashes off the coast of Bombay, killing 213. * January 5 – Bülent Ecevit, of Republican People's Party, CHP, forms the new government of Turkey (42nd go ...

. There were five

century break In snooker, a century break (also century, sometimes called a ton) is a of 100 points or more, compiled in one to the table. A century break requires potting at least 25 consecutive balls, and the ability to score centuries is regarded as a m ...

s during the competition, the highest of which was 131 by Miles. A plate competition was held, for losers in the first and second rounds of the main tournament. John Spencer defeated

John Pulman Herbert John Pulman (12 December 192325 December 1998) was an English professional snooker player who was the World Snooker Champion from 1957 to 1968. He won the title at the 1957 Championship, and retained it across seven challenges from 1 ...

15–5 in the plate competition final, and recorded six century breaks during his four matches.

Background

The

is a professional tournament and the official

world championship A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

of the game of

. The sport was developed in the late 19th century by British Army soldiers stationed in India. Professional

English billiards English billiards, called simply billiards in the United Kingdom and in many former British colonies, is a cue sport that combines the aspects of carom billiards and pool. Two (one white and one yellow) and a red are used. Each player or team us ...

player and

billiard hall A billiard, pool or snooker hall (or parlour, room or club; sometimes compounded as poolhall, poolroom, etc.) is a place where people get together for playing cue sports such as pool, snooker or carom billiards. Such establishments commonly serve ...

manager

Joe Davis Joseph Davis (15 April 190110 July 1978) was an English professional snooker and English billiards player. He was the dominant figure in snooker from the 1920s to the 1950s, and has been credited with inventing aspects of the way the game i ...

noticed the increasing popularity of snooker compared to billiards in the 1920s, and with

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

-based billiards equipment manager

Bill Camkin William Alexander Camkin (1894 – 26 April 1956) was a billiard hall owner who came to prominence in the early years of the World Snooker Championship, when many of the tournament's matches were held at his clubs. He was involved in various aspe ...

, persuaded the

Billiards Association and Control Council The Billiards and Snooker Control Council (B&SCC) (formerly called the Billiards Association and Control Council (BA&CC)) was the governing body of the games of English billiards and snooker and organised professional and amateur championships ...

(BACC) to recognise an official professional snooker championship in the 1926–27 season. In 1927, the final of the first professional snooker championship was held at Camkin's Hall; Davis won the tournament. The annual competition was not titled the World Championship until

1935 Events January * January 7 – Italian premier Benito Mussolini and French Foreign Minister Pierre Laval conclude Franco-Italian Agreement of 1935, an agreement, in which each power agrees not to oppose the other's colonial claims. * ...

, but the 1927 tournament is now referred to as the first World Snooker Championship. In 1952, the, following a dispute between the Professional Billiards Players' Association (PBPA) and the BACC about the distribution of income from the world championship, the PBPA members established an alternative competition known as the

World Professional Match-play Championship The World Professional Match-play Championship was a professional snooker tournament established in 1952 as an alternative to the professional World Snooker Championship by some of the professional players, following a dispute with the Billia ...

, the editions of which are now recognised as world championships, whilst only two players entered for the BACC's

1952 World Snooker Championship The 1952 World Snooker Championship was a snooker tournament held between 25 February and 8 March 1952 at Houldsworth Hall, in Manchester, England. The event featured only two entrants – Australian Horace Lindrum and New Zealander Clark McCon ...

. The World Professional Match-play Championship continued until 1957, after which there were no world championship matches until professional

Rex Williams Desmond Rex Williams (born 20 July 1933) is a retired English professional snooker and billiards player. He was the second player to make an official maximum break, achieving this in an exhibition match in December 1965. Williams won the Worl ...

gained agreement from the BACC that the world championship would be staged on a challenge basis, with defending champion Pulman featuring in the first match. Pulman retained the title in several challenges from 1964 to 1968. The 1969 championship, when the tournament reverted to a knockout format, is regarded as the first of the modern snooker era, and was won by John Spencer. From

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using Solar time, me ...

, the championship was organised by the

World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association The World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA) is the governing body of professional snooker and English billiards based in Bristol, England. It owns and publishes the official rules of the two sports and engages in promotion ...

(WPBSA), which was the renamed PBPA. The defending champion was

, who defeated

Eddie Charlton Edward Francis Charlton, (31 October 1929 – 8 November 2004) was an Australian professional snooker and English billiards player. He remains the only player to have been world championship runner-up in both snooker and billiards without winn ...

38–32 in the

1973 Events January * January 1 - The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union. * January 15 – Vietnam War: Citing progress in peace negotiations, U.S. ...

final.

Format

The 1974 competition was promoted by Snooker Promotions, a company established by

Peter West Peter Anthony West (12 August 1920 – 2 September 2003) was a BBC presenter and sports commentator best known for his work on the corporation's cricket, tennis and rugby coverage as well as occasionally commentating on hockey. Throughout his tel ...

and

Patrick Nally Patrick Nally is a British entrepreneur and specialist consultant, widely acknowledged as the 'Founding Father' of modern sports marketing'Founding Father', Chris Britcher, ''SportBusiness International'' (May 2003), p.36-38 The tournament was sponsored by tobacco brand Park Drive, with £10,000 prize money. This was the last time that Park Drive sponsored the event and there was no sponsor the following year. The venue was Belle Vue,

. There were 31 entrants. A qualifying round was held on 11 April, and the main tournament was held from 16 to 25 April 1974, initially with concurrent play across eight different

snooker table A billiard table or billiards table is a bounded table on which cue sports are played. In the modern era, all billiards tables (whether for carom billiards, pool, pyramid or snooker) provide a flat surface usually made of quarried slate, that i ...

s, and two per day. The seven qualifiers and nine other players contested the first round matches, with winners from those matches each then meeting one of the eight players who had been exempted to the second round.

Prize fund

The winner of the event received £2,000 from a total prize fund of £10,000. The breakdown of prize money for the event is shown below. * Winner: £2,000 * Runner-up: £1,200 * Third: £800 * Fourth: £750 * Quarter-finalists: unknown * Second round losers: unknown * First round losers: £150

Tournament summary

Qualifying

A qualifying round was held on 11 April, with seven matches played as the best-of-15 frames; a seven-frame session followed by an eight-frame session. Former champion

whitewashed

Jack Karnehm Jack Karnehm (18 June 1917, Tufnell Park, north London, England – 28 July 2002, Crowthorne, Berkshire) was a British snooker commentator, who was regularly heard on BBC television from 1978 until 1994, and a former amateur world champion at t ...

8–0. Dennis Taylor won the first frame against

Marcus Owen Marcus Willoughby Owen (4 April 1935 – December 1987) was a Welsh professional snooker player. Career Before turning professional, Owen won the English Under-16 Championship in 1949, and reached the final in 1950. Owen also won the Engli ...

on a , but this was the only frame he won in the first session of seven frames. David Taylor, recovering from tonsilitis, won in the against

Ron Gross Ronald Gross (1932 – 25 December 2005) was an English professional snooker player. He won the English Amateur Championship three times before turning professional Career Gross was born in 1932. When he was seven, he was partially paralysed ...

Warren Simpson Warren Alwyn Simpson (28 March 1922 – 28 June 1980) was an Australian snooker player. He was world amateur champion before turning professional in the early 1960s. Career Simpson won amateur championships at state and national level before be ...

, feeling ill from the effects of his diabetes, won seven consecutive frames from 1–3 against Jack Rea to progress. A report in ''

Snooker Scene ''Snooker Scene'' is a monthly magazine about snooker and other cue sports. It was established by Clive Everton in 1972 from the amalgamation of the Billiards and Snooker Control Council's ''Billiards and Snooker'' and his own ''World Snooker''. ...

'' magazine described the general standard of play in the qualifying round as "disappointing".

First round

The first round matches were played as the best-of-15 frames on 16 April across two sessions - seven frames in the afternoon session and eight frames in the evening. Simpson discharged himself from hospital, where he had spent several days due to influenza, one hour before his match against

Bernard Bennett Bernard Bennett (31 August 1931 – 12 January 2002) was an English former professional player of snooker and English billiards, whose career spanned twenty-six years between 1969 and 1995. Bennett was a stalwart of professional snooker and ...

, and lost 2–8.

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 Hi ...

led 3–1 against

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 bot ...

, but lost 4–8. Tournament debutant

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 ...

took five successive frames from 2–2 against Geoff Thompson, and won 8–3. Pulman followed his whitewash of Karnehm in qualifying with another win without losing a frame, against

Sidney Lee Sir Sidney Lee (5 December 1859 – 3 March 1926) was an English biographer, writer, and critic. Biography Lee was born Solomon Lazarus Lee in 1859 at 12 Keppel Street, Bloomsbury, London. He was educated at the City of London School , ...

.In the round's other matches, Marcus Owen eliminated

Maurice Parkin Maurice Parkin is an English former professional snooker player. Career Parkin turned professional in 1971, entering the 1972 World Championship that season. He won his first qualifying round match 11–10 against Geoff Thompson, but was def ...

8–5; Ian Anderson won only the second frame against

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 ...

;

Kingsley Kennerley Kingsley Kennerley (27 December 1913 – 26 June 1982) was an English billiards and snooker player. Career In the period from 1937 to 1940 Kennerley enjoyed considerable success as an amateur in both billiards and snooker. He won the English Am ...

lost 5–8 to

Jim Meadowcroft Jim Meadowcroft (15 December 1946 – 25 September 2015) was an English professional snooker player who latterly was a coach and a commentator on the game. His most successful years were during the 1970s; he was ranked number 12 in the world in ...

; and John Dunning defeated David Taylor 8–6.

Second round

On 17 and 18 April the best-of-29 frames second round matches were held. The matches were sceduled across three seven-frame sessions and a concluding eight-frame session. Reardon constructed a 6–1 lead against Meadowcroft, and took six of the following seven frames too. After completing a 15–3 victory, Reardon questioned – in a tone that the ‘’

Daily Telegraph Daily or The Daily may refer to: Journalism * Daily newspaper, newspaper issued on five to seven day of most weeks * ''The Daily'' (podcast), a podcast by ''The New York Times'' * ''The Daily'' (News Corporation), a defunct US-based iPad new ...

’’ reported as "asking blandly" – "Who can beat me?"

led his older brother Gary Owen 9–5, after finishing the first session 4–3 ahead, and won 15–8.

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 Wor ...

made breaks of 69, 67, 64 and 63 while taking a 6–0 lead against Bennett, eventually eliminating him 15–4. Werbeniuk lost the first seven frames against Fred Davis, and was 4–10 behind after two sessions. Davis won the match 15–5. Charlton established a 5–2 lead against Dunning, but during the second session Dunning won six consecutive frames and was 8–6 up at the end of the session, despite Charlton making the tournament's first

, 100. Dunning increased his lead to four frames at 13–9. Charlton took the next four frames to draw level, but Dunning won the next two and progressed to the quarter-finals. Spencer, affected by influenza, was two frames behind Mans, 6–8, after two sessions. The quality of Mans's potting compensated for his inaccurate positional play as he ran out a 15–13 winner. Miles defeated Morgan 15–7, and Williams defeated Pulman 15–12.

Quarter-finals

The quarter-finals were staged on 19 and 20 April, as the best-of-29 frames: three seven-frame sessions followed by one of eight frames. Owen made a 102 break to equalise at 3–3 with Reardon, and won the following frame when Reardon went the final . Owen took the first two frames of the third session to draw level at 8–8, but toward the end of the match Reardon took four of the last five frames to win 15–11. Miles constructed a 4–0 lead against Dunning, and made a 110 break in the third frame of the third session, to put him 11–6 up. Dunning then won five frames in succession to equalise, and, with both players making a number of errors, Miles went on to take the match 15–13. According to ''Snooker Scene'', Higgins and Davis both looked "ill at ease" during their match. Higgins led 9–5 after the first day, and had an increased advantage at 11–6. . Davis narrowed his deficit to a single frame at 12–13. Higgins won the 26th frame with a break of 54, leaving him two ahead with three to play. With a break of 91 in the next frame, and a 45 in the following one, Davis forced a deciding frame, which he won. In this match against Williams, Mans won only three frames from the first 14, and lost 4–15. Williams made breaks of 30 or more in 15 of the 19 frames played.

Semi-finals

The semi-finals, as the best-of-29 frames, were played on 21 and 22 April. The matches were scheduled over four sessions; the first three sessions had seven frames, and the fourth session was eight frames. Reardon took an 11–3 lead against Davis, which included winning the last six frames of the first day. Reardon won the first four frames of the third session to secure a place in the final. Miles compiled a break of 131 to draw level at 3–3 with Williams, but was 3–4 behind at the conclusion of the first session. Williams, despite avoiding attacking play, made a series of errors, and Miles won 15–7.

Final

Reardon and Miles faced each other in the final, which took place from 23 to 25 April, as a best-of-43 frames contest across six sessions. The first two days both featured two seven-frame sessions. The sixth session was not required as the match was compelted during the fifth session. Miles made his third century break of the championship, 101, in the fifth frame. Reardon led 4–3 after the first session and 9–5 after the second. During the third session, Reardon compiled his best break of tournament so far, 97, having made a 76 in the preceding frame. Former champion Joe Davis]commented that Reardon was "a credit to the game. I’ve yet to see him become ruffled." Reardon lost three of four frames in the fourth session, leaving him 17–11 ahead. Reardon secured victory at 22–12. Reardon said "I don't feel that I played any better than mediocre in the final, but this is because Graham never put me under pressure. I don't feel the elation that I felt at winning last year." It was Reardon's third world snooker championship win, after his first in

. He went on to win a further three titles, the last of them in

Main draw

Results for the tournament are shown below. Winning players are denoted in bold.

Qualifying

The results from the qualifying competition were as follows. Winning players are denoted in bold.

Century breaks

There were five century breaks during the tournament: *131, 110, 101

*102

*102 John Dunning

Plate competition

A plate competition was held, for losers in the first and second rounds of the main tournament. Spencer won the plate by defeating Pulman 15–5 in the final, and recorded six century breaks during his four matches. He received £300 prize money for winning the plate.

Notes

References

{{Snooker season 1973/1974 World Snooker Championships, 1974

World Championship A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

Sports competitions in Manchester April 1974 sports events in the United Kingdom