1975 World Snooker Championship

The 1975 World Snooker Championship was a professional snooker tournament that took place between 9 April and 1 May 1975 at various venues in Australia. The event was the 1975 edition of the World Snooker Championship, first held in 1927. The tournament featured 27 participants, eight of whom were seeded and received byes to the second round. The event featured a prize fund of A$30,000 with the winner receiving A$7,500. This was the second World Snooker Championship to be held outside of the United Kingdom after 1969, when the World Championship reverted to a knockout format. The tournament was promoted by Eddie Charlton Promotions on behalf of the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association.

The final was held at the Nunawading Basketball Centre on Burwood Highway, in Burwood East, Victoria. Defending champion Ray Reardon played Eddie Charlton in a best of 61  match. Reardon won 10 of the 12 frames on the second day to lead 16–8 but Charlton took the first nine frames on day three and moved into the lead. Reardon then led 23–21 before Charlton won eight frames in a row to lead 29–23, requiring just two of the last nine frames to win. However Reardon then took seven frames in a row and, although Charlton levelled the match at 30–30, Reardon won the deciding frame to secure a 31–30 victory. It was the third consecutive year that Reardon won the title, and his fourth overall. Dennis Taylor made the highest  of the tournament, 128, in his quarter-final match against Gary Owen.

Overview and format

The World Snooker Championship is the preeminent tournament in professional snooker. Joe Davis won the first edition, in 1927 at Camkin's Hall in Birmingham, England. Ray Reardon was the defending champion in 1975, having defeated Graham Miles 22–12 in the 1974 final.

The championship was held from 9 April to 1 May 1975 at multiple locations across Australia. This was the second time since 1969 that the championship was held outside the United Kingdom, after 1971. Tobacco brand Park Drive did not continue their sponsorship from 1974. The World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association appointed Eddie Charlton Promotions as the promoter. Charlton was a leading player, and the losing finalist in the 1973 World Snooker Championship. Snooker historian Clive Everton later wrote that "Some sports might have found it odd that a world championship should be promoted by one of its leading contenders but professional snooker, ever since the days of Joe Davis, was used to the idea of a player or clique of players having control of either promotion or administration, or both."

The event featured 27 participants, with a preliminary round, and eight seeded players who were awarded byes to the second round. The number of frames increased during the tournament, with the opening rounds being the best of 29, the quarter-finals and semi-finals best of 37 and the final a best of 61 frames match.

There was controversy about the seedings. John Spencer was seeded 8 which meant that he met top seed Reardon in the quarter-finals; the pair were regarded as the two leading players. 1972 champion Alex Higgins was also in the top half of the draw, while promoter Eddie Charlton was in the bottom half. Several years later, in his autobiography, Reardon called the seedings for the tournament "a farce". Journalist and author John Dee referred to "shady goings on perhaps by the draw committee who seemed to be doing their utmost to bring the title to Australia."

Prize fund 
The breakdown of prize money for this year is shown below:

Winner: A$7,500
Runner-up: A$4,000
Semi-final: A$3.000
Quarter-final: A$1,500
Last 16: A$750
Total: A$30,000

Tournament summary 
Most of the early round matches were played in New South Wales although the semi-finals were played in Canberra and Brisbane with the final in Melbourne. Reardon arrived in Australia on 3 March for to play a series of 23 exhibition matches against Charlton ahead of the tournament.

This was the only year that Rex King, Ron Mares and Phil Tarrant ever participated in the main Championship. Jim Charlton and Lou Condo also made their world championship debuts.

Preliminary round
The three preliminary matches were the best of 29 frames, and each featured an Australian player against an English one. David Greaves won in the  against Jim Charlton. Lou Condo led Maurice Parkin 13–8 going into their final session; he won the first two frames of the concluding session to complete a 15–8 victory. Tarrant needed to win only a single frame from their last session to defeat Bernard Bennett after building a 14–7 lead, and took the match 15–8.

First round
First round matches were played across 29 frames. Warren Simpson, runner-up in 1970, defeated Ron Mares 19–10 after he had achieved a winning margin at 15–5. John Pulman eliminated Tarrant 23–6, having assured his win at 15–9. David Taylor defeated at Rex King 15–8. Ian Anderson, who, aged 28, was one of the youngest competitors, took a 6–1 lead against Lou Condo, and won 15–8.

South African Professional Championship winner Perrie Mans was defeated by Dennis Taylor 15–12. Mans was down by two frames after the first session, but recovered to 7–7, before Taylor pulled ahead in the third session. The pair shared the two s for a final score of 16–13. Gary Owen progressed to the next round after achieving a decisive margin against Greaves at 15–3. He won all but one of the dead frames, for 25–4. Jim Meadowcroft led Bill Werbeniuk 2–5, but Werbeniuk reached a winning score at 15–9. Cliff Thorburn took a 10–4 lead against Paddy Morgan, gained the win at 15–6, and finished the contest at 17–12.

Second round
In the second round, matches were contested over 29 frames. Reardon took a 4–3 lead against Simpson in their first session. and eventually won 15–11, after which Simpson won the three dead frames. Spencer defeated Pulman 15–10; the four dead frames were shared for a final score of 17–12. Higgins defeated David Taylor 15–2, with Taylor narrowing his deficit during the dead frames to leave the final score 20–9 to Higgins. Williams led Anderson 9–3, and won 15–4; as each player took five of the dead frames, it ended 20–9.

In a match that was played against a noisy background of numerous slot machines at the Marrickville RSL Club, Dennis Taylor won each of the first three sessions against Davis by the odd frame, 4–3. Davis then took the first four frames of the final session to lead 13–12; two frames later he led 14–13, but Taylor won the next two frames to secure a 15–14 victory. Davis later wrote that the tournament "turned out to be a farce from my point of view... the noise and distraction were incredible".

Owen defeated Dunning 19–10, having secured his passage to the next round at 15-8. Charlton made the first century break of the championship, 125, during his 15-11 defeat of Werbeniuk. Werbeniuk added only one of the dead frames, ending at 12–17. Thorburn won six of the seven frames in the first session against Miles, followed by him adding all seven frames from their second session. Miles won only four of the 29 frames they played; Thorburn won at 15–2.

Quarter-finals
The quarter-final matches were played across 37 frames. Spencer recorded breaks of 114 and 103, and had a two-frame lead after the first session of his match against Reardon. The pair each won three frames in the second session, to leave Spencer leading 7–5. During the fourth session, five breaks of over 50 were made and Reardon levelled the match at 12–12. Reardon won the match 19–18. Reardon commented after the match, "I think this was probably the greatest match ever played... I've never potted better or defended better, and I don't think John has." The match between Higgins and Williams was delayed for 50 minutes during the second session after an overhead light fell onto the snooker table. Higgins later led 13–5. The final score was 21–16 to Higgins, who had won the match at 19–12.

Taylor gained a 13–5 leads against Owen, and made the highest break of the tournament, 128, during his 19–9 win. The final score was 23–14 to Taylor. Charlton and Thorburn drew each of their first three sessions 3–3. Charlton established an advantage in the fourth session, and ended it 13–11 up. Thorburn later recalled that, shortly after the commencement of the fifth session, Charlton started to play more quickly: "He went for everything. He hardly missed a thing. He was running around the table, running around it!" Thorburn, writing in 1987, remarked that he had never faced anyone who played as well as Charlton had during that session. The final score was 23–14 to Charlton, with a conclusive score reached at 19-12.

Semi-finals
The semi-finals were the best of 37 frames. Reardon took the first two sessions against Higgins by margins of 5–1 and 4–2, but Higgins drew level at 10–10; Reardon went on to win 19–14.

Taylor flew in a light aircraft from Sydney on the morning of his match with Charlton; the aircraft encountered turbulence, and, according to Everton, Taylor "never recovered from a poor start". Charlton took 10 of the first 12 frames, and was 16–8 ahead after four sessions, going on to win 19–12. In his autobiography, Taylor recalled that "Charlton was playing well, with his famous gun-barrel cueing action", but also mentioned that he had been at a disadvantage playing on a table that Charlton was used to from his earlier matches in the tournament.

Final
The final was held at the Nunawading Basketball Centre on Burwood Highway, in Burwood East, Victoria, as the best of 61 frames. Reardon led 16-8, but Charlton then won the next nine frames to take the lead. Reardon was ahead 22-20, but Charlton won eight of the following frames lead 28-23. Reardon produced a seven-frame winning streak to leave himself needing one further frame at 30–29. Charlton won the 60th frame. In the deciding frame, Reardon made a 62 break, to claim victory at 31–30. It was Reardon's third consecutive championship win, and his fourth overall. In all, he won six world titles. Charlton never reached the final again, but he was runner-up at the World Billiards Championship in 1984 and 1988.

The 1975 tournament received significantly less UK press coverage than the three preceding world championships had done; the level of coverage in the Australian press was described as "very poor" by Snooker Scene. Everton considered that for Charlton, losing the final was "a psychological set back from which [he] never recovered".

Schedule

Results

Preliminary matches
Results of the preliminary matches were as follows. Scores shown do not include dead frames.

Main draw 
Below is the results from the event. Players in bold denote match winners, whilst numbers in brackets are the players seeding. Scores shown do not include dead frames.

Century breaks
The following century breaks were made during the tournament:
128  Dennis Taylor
124, 109  Eddie Charlton
114, 103  John Spencer
104  Ray Reardon

Notes

References

1975
World Snooker Championship
World Snooker Championship
Sports competitions in Melbourne
1970s in Melbourne
World Snooker Championship
World Snooker Championship