Cliff Thorburn award received Canada's Sports Hall of Fame
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 Higgins 18–16 in the final.
He is generally recognised as the sport's first world champion from outside the United Kingdom—since Australian Horace Lindrum's 1952 title is usually disregarded—and he remains the only world champion from the Americas. He was runner-up in two other world championships, losing 21–25 to John Spencer in the 1977 final and 6–18 to Steve Davis in the 1983 final. At the 1983 tournament, Thorburn became the first player to make a maximum break in a World Championship match, achieving the feat in his second-round encounter with Terry Griffiths. He was the second player to make an officially recognised maximum in professional competition, after Steve Davis at the 1982 Classic.
Ranked world number one during the 1981–82 season, Thorburn was the first non-British player to top the world rankings. He won the invitational Masters in 1983, 1985, and 1986, making him the first player to win the tournament three times and the first to retain the title. He retired from the main professional tour in 1996. Inducted into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame in 2001 and the Snooker Hall of Fame in 2014, he competed in Snooker Legends events and on the World Seniors Tour, winning the 2018 Seniors Masters at the Crucible Theatre at age 70. He retired from competitive snooker after the 2022 UK Seniors Championship.Personal life
Thorburn is the father of one son and one daughter, the latter of whom is transgender. Following his World Championship victory, he bought a house in England with the intention of spending more time in Britain. His manager Darryl McKerrow was killed in a hunting accident during the 1984–85 season, and Thorburn was subsequently managed by Robert Windsor, until joining Barry Hearn's Matchroom Sport in January 1988. Thorburn was made a Member of the Order of Canada in 1984. He was added to the BC Sports Hall of Fame in 1995, and inducted into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame in 2001.His instruction book, Cliff Thorburn's Snooker Skills, was published in 1987 by Hamlyn, and his autobiography, Playing for Keeps, co-written with Everton, was published by Partridge Press in the same year. Thorburn is the head coach for cue sports at the Canadian Billiards and Snooker Association, director of coaching and an ambassador for the Pan American Billiards & Snooker Association, and a member of the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association International Expert Coaching Advisory Panel.
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