1986 World Snooker Championship

Embassy World Snooker Championship

Tournament information
Dates	19 April–5 May 1986
Venue	Crucible Theatre
City	Sheffield
Country	England
Organisation(s)	WPBSA
Format	Ranking event
Total prize fund	£350,000
Winner's share	£70,000
Highest break	Steve Davis (134)
Final
Champion	Joe Johnson
Runner-up	Steve Davis
Score	18–12
← 1985 1987 →

The 1986 World Snooker Championship (also referred to as the 1986 Embassy World Snooker Championship for the purposes of sponsorship) was a professional ranking snooker tournament that took place between 19 April – 5 May 1986 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England.

Joe Johnson won his only world title by defeating Steve Davis 18–12 in the final. The tournament was sponsored by cigarette manufacturer Embassy.

Tournament summary

• Like John Spencer in 1978, Terry Griffiths in 1980 and Steve Davis in 1982, defending champion Dennis Taylor fell to the Crucible curse,^[1] and lost his opening match 6–10 against Mike Hallett.^[2]
• Johnson was a 150–1 outsider at the start of the championship, as he had never won a tournament in his seven-year career.^[2] He defeated Dave Martin in the first round and Hallett in the second.^[3] In the quarter-finals he overturned a 9–12 deficit to defeat Griffiths 13–12; before he beat Tony Knowles 16–8 in the semi-finals to set up a final against Steve Davis, the world number one. After the first days play ended at 8–8, Johnson took a 13–11 lead before the last session of the match. Johnson then won five of the last six frames to win the match 18–12 for his only world title.^[2]
• Future world champion and world No. 1 Stephen Hendry made his debut losing 8–10 to Willie Thorne.^[2][4] It also made him the youngest player in the championship's history at the age of 17 years and 3 months.^[5] Another debutant in 1986 was Danny Fowler, who lost 2–10 to Terry Griffiths.^[6]
• Three-time world champion John Spencer made his final appearance at the tournament, losing 7–10 to Alex Higgins.^[7]

Prize fund

The breakdown of prize money for this year is shown below:^[3][8]

• Winner: £70,000
• Runner-up: £42,000
• Semi-finals: £21,000
• Quarter-finals: £10,500
• Last 16: £5,250
• Last 32: £2,953
• Last 48: £1,203
• Highest break: £7,000
• Maximum break: £80,000
• Total: £350,000

Main draw

Shown below are the results for each round. The numbers in parentheses beside some of the players are their seeding ranks (each championship has 16 seeds and 16 qualifiers).^{[3][9][10][11]}

First round

Second round

Quarter-finals

Semi-finals

Best of 19 frames

Best of 25 frames

Best of 25 frames

Best of 31 frames

19 April

Dennis Taylor (1)

6

24 & 25 April

Mike Hallett

10

Mike Hallett

6

19 & 20 April

Joe Johnson (16)

13

Joe Johnson (16)

10

29 & 30 April

Dave Martin

3

Joe Johnson (16)

13

20 & 21 April

Terry Griffiths (8)

12

Alex Higgins (9)

10

25 & 26 April

John Spencer

7

Alex Higgins (9)

12

20 & 21 April

Terry Griffiths (8)

13

Terry Griffiths (8)

10

1, 2 & 3 May

Danny Fowler

2

Joe Johnson (16)

16

21 & 22 April

Tony Knowles (4)

8

Kirk Stevens (5)

10

26, 27 & 28 April

Dean Reynolds

6

Kirk Stevens (5)

13

22 & 23 April

Eddie Charlton (12)

12

Eddie Charlton (12)

10

29 & 30 April

Cliff Wilson

6

Kirk Stevens (5)

9

22 & 23 April

Tony Knowles (4)

13

Silvino Francisco (13)

10

27 & 28 April

Rex Williams

4

Silvino Francisco (13)

10

23 & 24 April

Tony Knowles (4)

13

Tony Knowles (4)

10

Neal Foulds

9

23 & 24 April

Cliff Thorburn (3)

10

27 & 28 April

Bill Werbeniuk

5

Cliff Thorburn (3)

13

23 April

Eugene Hughes

6

David Taylor (14)

7

29 & 30 April

Eugene Hughes

10

Cliff Thorburn (3)

13

22 April

Willie Thorne (11)

6

Willie Thorne (11)

10

26, 27 & 28 April

Stephen Hendry

8

Willie Thorne (11)

13

21 & 22 April

John Campbell

9

Ray Reardon (6)

8

1, 2 & 3 May

John Campbell

10

Cliff Thorburn (3)

12

20 & 21 April

Steve Davis (2)

16

Jimmy White (7)

10

25 & 26 April

John Virgo

7

Jimmy White (7)

13

20 & 21 April

John Parrott

8

Tony Meo (10)

4

29 & 30 April

John Parrott

10

Jimmy White (7)

5

19 & 20 April

Steve Davis (2)

13

Doug Mountjoy (15)

10

24, 25 & 26 April

Perrie Mans

3

Doug Mountjoy (15)

5

19 April

Steve Davis (2)

13

Steve Davis (2)

10

Ray Edmonds

4

Final (Best of 35 frames) Crucible Theatre, Sheffield, 4 May & 5 May 1986). Referee: John Street[12]
Joe Johnson (16)  England	18–12	Steve Davis (2)  England
24–85, 60–49, 0–108, 14–111, 70–0, 68–36, 74–14, 13–66, 4–108, 1–76, 27–64, 72–20, 95–22, 63–37, 76–8, 0–137, 85–26, 57–44, 66–11, 86–36, 35–84, 31–73, 70–40, 7–100, 69–9, 52–63, 49–32, 64–38, 83–40, 86–27	Century breaks: 3 (Davis 3) Highest break by Johnson: 75 Highest break by Davis: 108	24–85, 60–49, 0–108, 14–111, 70–0, 68–36, 74–14, 13–66, 4–108, 1–76, 27–64, 72–20, 95–22, 63–37, 76–8, 0–137, 85–26, 57–44, 66–11, 86–36, 35–84, 31–73, 70–40, 7–100, 69–9, 52–63, 49–32, 64–38, 83–40, 86–27
Joe Johnson wins the 1986 Embassy World Snooker Championship

Qualifying

Round 5 (Best of 19 frames)[3]
Mike Hallett	10–7	Jim Wych
Dave Martin	10–5	Nigel Gilbert
John Spencer	10–7	Steve Newbury
Danny Fowler	10–6	Murdo MacLeod
Dean Reynolds	10–7	Warren King
Cliff Wilson	10–6	Paul Medati
Rex Williams	10–3	Marcel Gauvreau
Neal Foulds	10–9	Peter Francisco
Bill Werbeniuk	10–8	Barry West
Eugene Hughes	10–7	Tommy Murphy
Stephen Hendry	10–9	Dene O'Kane
John Campbell	10–6	Jimmy van Rensberg
John Virgo	10–8	Steve Longworth
John Parrott	10–6	Robby Foldvari
Perrie Mans	10–7	Les Dodd
Ray Edmonds	10–9	Mark Wildman

Century breaks

There were 20 century breaks in the championship, a record which stood until 1991. The highest breaks were 134 made by Davis in the main events,^[13][14][15] and 141 made by Hendry and in the qualifying event.^[3]

References