Crucible curse

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The "Crucible curse" (also known as "The curse of the Crucible") refers to the fact that no first-time snooker world champion has retained his title the following year since the tournament moved to the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield in 1977.[1][2][3][4]

The last player to successfully defend his first world title was John Pulman in 1964, when the championship was still decided by challenge matches,[5] and the tournament had not yet moved to the Crucible Theatre. Since 1977, 17 world champions have experienced the curse, the most recent being Stuart Bingham at the 2016 World Snooker Championship.

The curse

The following first-time champions did not retain their title the following year. Of the seventeen players to have won their first championship at the Crucible Theatre, six lost in their first match as defending champion (Terry Griffiths in 1980, Steve Davis in 1982, Dennis Taylor in 1986, Graeme Dott in 2007, Neil Robertson in 2011 and Stuart Bingham in 2016) and only two went on to reach the final: Joe Johnson in 1987 and Ken Doherty in 1998.

Year[5][6] Defending champion[5][6] Progress Result Opponent Ref
1980 Wales Terry Griffiths Second round[N 1] 10–13 England Steve Davis [7]
1981 Canada Cliff Thorburn Semi-finals 10–16 England Steve Davis [8]
1982 England Steve Davis First round 1–10 England Tony Knowles [9]
1986 Northern Ireland Dennis Taylor First round 6–10 England Mike Hallett [10]
1987 England Joe Johnson Final 14–18 England Steve Davis [11]
1991 Scotland Stephen Hendry Quarter-finals 11–13 England Steve James [12]
1992 England John Parrott Quarter-finals 12–13 Scotland Alan McManus [13]
1998 Republic of Ireland Ken Doherty Final 12–18 Scotland John Higgins [14]
1999 Scotland John Higgins Semi-finals 10–17 Wales Mark Williams [15]
2001 Wales Mark Williams Second round 12–13 Northern Ireland Joe Swail [16]
2002 England Ronnie O'Sullivan Semi-finals 13–17 Scotland Stephen Hendry [17]
2003 England Peter Ebdon Quarter-finals 12–13 England Paul Hunter [18]
2006 England Shaun Murphy Quarter-finals 7–13 England Peter Ebdon [19]
2007 Scotland Graeme Dott First round 7–10 England Ian McCulloch [20]
2011 Australia Neil Robertson First round 8–10 England Judd Trump [21]
2015 England Mark Selby Second round 9–13 Scotland Anthony McGill [22]
2016 England Stuart Bingham First round 9–10 England Ali Carter

In years not listed above, the title was won by players who had already been world champions, and thus the "curse" did not apply. Three players have won consecutive titles at the Crucible: Steve Davis (1983–1984 and 1987–1989), Stephen Hendry (1992–1996) and Ronnie O'Sullivan (2012–2013), but only after they experienced the "curse".[5][23]

Pre-Crucible

Even before the World Championship was staged at the Crucible, no player in the modern game successfully defended his first world title. Of all first-time world champions, only three retained their title at the next World Championship: Joe Davis in 1928, his brother Fred Davis in 1949 and John Pulman at his first challenge match in 1964.

Additionally, Ray Reardon, Alex Higgins and John Spencer won the World Championship before the event was moved to the Crucible in 1977 (and failed to retain it the year after their first title); they all also failed to retain the title after winning it for the first time at the Crucible.

Year[5][6] Defending champion[5][6] Progress Result Opponent Ref
Defending FIRST WORLD TITLE
1970 England John Spencer Semi-finals 33–37 Wales Ray Reardon [24]
1971 Wales Ray Reardon Semi-finals 15–34 England John Spencer [25]
1973 Northern Ireland Alex Higgins Semi-finals 9–23 Australia Eddie Charlton [26]
Defending FIRST WORLD TITLE at CRUCIBLE THEATRE
1978 England John Spencer Last 16 8–13 South Africa Perrie Mans [27]
1979 Wales Ray Reardon Quarter-finals 8–13 Northern Ireland Dennis Taylor [28]
1983 Northern Ireland Alex Higgins Semi-finals 5–16 England Steve Davis [29]

Notes

  1. ↑ Griffiths, along with the other top 8 seeds, received a bye in the first round, thus the second round was his first match.

References

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  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  19. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  20. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  21. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  22. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  23. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  24. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  25. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  26. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  27. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  28. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  29. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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