1979 UK Championship

Non-ranking snooker tournament, November–December 1979 August 2019 1979 Coral UK Championship 1979 11 19 1979 12 1 y Preston Guild Hall Preston England WPBSA Non-ranking event £15,000 £4,500 Terry Griffiths WAL (119) John Virgo ENG Terry Griffiths WAL 14–13 1978 1980 The 1979 UK Championship (officially the 1979 Coral UK Championship) was a professional non-ranking snooker tournament that took place between 19 November and 1 December 1979 at the Guild Hall in Preston, England. This was the third edition of the UK Championship that would later become part of snooker's Triple Crown. The event was sponsored by Coral for the second year in a row. John Virgo won the championship, in his only major tournament win, by defeating Terry Griffiths 14–13 in the final, despite being deducted two frames for arriving late. The defending champion, Doug Mountjoy, was defeated 5–9 by Steve Davis in the opening round. Griffiths compiled the tournament's highest break of 119 in his semi-final win over Bill Werbeniuk. The last session of the final was broadcast by the BBC on its Grandstand programme; however, due to a strike by BBC personnel, the final frames of the match – including Virgo being awarded the championship – were never broadcast or recorded. Tournament summary The 1979 UK Championship was a professional non-ranking event held between 19 November and 1 December 1979 at the Preston Guild Hall, England. The tournament was the third edition of the annual UK Championship (the first edition was held in 1977). The event saw 27 players compete, with the highest-ranked eight players based on the previous year's World Championship receiving a bye to the last 16,Everton, Clive. "Testing for recruits", The Guardian, London, 12 September 1979, p. 25. and the last six players competing in a playoff round. This was the first time that any seedings list for a professional snooker tournament had occurred. Ray Reardon did not compete at the event, having signed a sponsorship contract with General Motors to only play in specific tournaments and exhibitions. Rex Williams and 1979 World Championship semi-finalist Eddie Charlton did not play at the event; they instead opted to play in a tour of Australia. Matches until the final were contested as best-of-17-frames matches, with the final played as best-of-27-frames. The preliminary rounds saw two matches reach a final-frame decider, with both John Dunning and Jackie Rea winning matches 9–8. Early rounds The last 24 round was played from 20 to 23 November 1979. Future six-time world champion Steve Davis made his debut in the competition and defeated John Dunning 9–3. Another future world champion Joe Johnson also made his debut in the competition, playing his third professional tournament, but lost 3–9 to Bill Werbeniuk. All three players who competed in the preliminary round were defeated in the last 24. The round of 16 saw Steve Davis overcome reigning champion Doug Mountjoy 9–5. World number four and three-time world champion John Spencer was defeated by Bill Werbeniuk 8–9. Former winner Patsy Fagan defeated two-time Pot Black champion Graham Miles 9–5. John Virgo defeated Tony Meo 9–6, despite being 5–0 and 5–3 down after the first session, making a break of 102 in frame 11. Dennis Taylor and Willie Thorne contested a final frame decider, with Taylor defeating Thorne to win 9–8. Having won the 1979 World Snooker Championship earlier that year, Terry Griffiths defeated Cliff Wilson 9–4. Quarter–semi-finals The quarter-finals were contested from 24 to 26 November 1979. John Virgo took an early lead over Steve Davis 4–3, and later 8–7 in their match. In frame 16, Virgo had the chance to win, and Davis accidentally dropped his cue, making a loud sound. Virgo still potted the next shot during the noise and make a clearance to win the match 9–7. Post-match, Davis commented to Virgo that it was the only time he had ever wanted his opponent to not miss. Elsewhere, Dennis Taylor defeated Patsy Fagan 9–6, Bill Werbeniuk defeated Ray Edmonds 9–8, and Terry Griffiths defeated Alex Higgins 9–7. The semi-finals were played from 27 to 29 November 1979. The semi-finals were similar to the 1979 World Snooker Championship, where John Virgo played Dennis Taylor and Terry Griffiths played Eddie Charlton. In place of Charlton, Bill Webeniuk took on Griffiths. Despite having lost heavily at the world championships (12–19), Virgo defeated Taylor 9–4 to reach his only major final. In the second semi-final, Terry Griffiths defeated Werbeniuk 9–3. Final thumb|right|upright|John Virgo (pictured in 2003) won his only major title defeating Terry Griffiths 14–13. The final was contested as a best-of-27 frame match, held between 30 November and 1 December 1979. The match was held over three sessions, with two on the first day and the final on the second, between John Virgo and world champion Terry Griffiths. Virgo took an early lead, winning the first five frames including breaks of 63 and 67. Griffiths won two of the remaining frames, but trailed 7–2 after the first session. The second session saw Griffiths win the first three frames to trail 7–5 before Virgo led 11–7 at the end of the session. The final session was played on 1 December 1979 and was broadcast on Grandstand. With the final being live on national television, the match was moved from the regular 1:45 p.m. start time to 12 noon. Virgo, having not seen that the times had changed, was reading a paper in his hotel room when he was informed that he had missed the start time for the session.Late Cue in Nick of Time for Virgo 3 December 1979 Daily Mirror County London, England 26 British Newspaper Archive 20 August 2019 Virgo was over 30 minutes late to the arena and was docked two frames for arriving late.Virgo penalized but recovers to take first title. The Times London, England 3 December 1979 60490 9 The Times Digital Archive 20 August 2019 Griffiths took the two remaining frames before the interval to tie the match 11–11. During the interval, Griffiths approached Virgo and offered half of the prize money for the event, apologetic at the situation of having frames awarded. Virgo replied: "You haven't won it yet," noting the match hadn't finished. Virgo won frame 23 to lead 12–11, before Griffiths tied the match again at 12–12. Griffiths made a break of 68 to lead 13–12, before a break of 50 in frame 26 by Virgo took the match into a deciding frame. Virgo won the final frame to claim the match 14–13 and his sole major title win. The final frames of the final were unaired, due to a strike of BBC staff, with cameramen leaving the arena during the final frame. Main draw The following is the full results from the event. Players in bold are denoting match winners. Preliminary round Best of 17 frames John Dunning ENG 9–8 David Greaves ENG Mike Hallett ENG 9–1 Maurice Parkin ENG Jackie Rea NIR 9–8 Bernard Bennett ENG Last 24 Best of 17 frames Steve Davis ENG 9–3 John Dunning ENG Tony Meo ENG 9–7 David Taylor ENG Willie Thorne ENG 9–4 Roy Andrewartha WAL Patsy Fagan IRL 9–4 Mike Hallett ENG Bill Werbeniuk CAN 9–3 Joe Johnson ENG Ray Edmonds ENG 9–3 Jim Meadowcroft ENG Pat Houlihan ENG 9–3 Jackie Rea NIR Cliff Wilson WAL 9–7 John Pulman ENG Wales Doug Mountjoy 5 England Steve Davis 9 England John Virgo 9 England Tony Meo 6 Northern Ireland Dennis Taylor 9 England Willie Thorne 8 England Graham Miles 5 Ireland Patsy Fagan 9 England John Spencer 8 Canada Bill Werbeniuk 9 England Fred Davis 6 England Ray Edmonds 9 Northern Ireland Alex Higgins 9 England Pat Houlihan 3 Wales Terry Griffiths 9 Wales Cliff Wilson 4 England Steve Davis 7 England John Virgo 9 Northern Ireland Dennis Taylor 9 Ireland Patsy Fagan 6 Canada Bill Werbeniuk 9 England Ray Edmonds 8 Northern Ireland Alex Higgins 7 Wales Terry Griffiths 9 England John Virgo 9 Northern Ireland Dennis Taylor 4 Canada Bill Werbeniuk 3 Wales Terry Griffiths 9 England John Virgo 14 Wales Terry Griffiths 13 no Final Final: Best of 27 frames. Referee: The Guild Hall, Preston, England, 30 November and 1 December 1979. John Virgo 14–13 Terry Griffiths First session: 70–60, 67–9, 81–24, 100–24 (63), 103–26 (67), 52–61, 73–24 (69), 96–29, 22–90Second session: 32–68, 4–126 (60), 49–51, 86–38, 50–59, 136–3 (93), 57–56 (57), 8–108 (71), 55–45Third session: 2–0 Griffiths (Virgo docked 2 frames) 43–61, 50–73, 65–44, 17–91 (56), 26–96 (68), 74–19 (50), 78–8 93 Highest break 71 0 Century breaks 0 6 50+ breaks 4 Century breaks A total of five century breaks were made during the tournament, the highest of which being a 119 by Terry Griffiths. 119, 118 Terry Griffiths 104 Alex Higgins 103 Pat Houlihan 102 John Virgo References Let Me Tell You About Alex – Crazy Days and Nights on the Road with the Hurricane Virgo, John John Blake Publishing 2012 9781843584407 26 March 2019 https://books.google.com/books?id=GbT_AQAAQBAJ&q=%221979+UK+Championship%22+&pg=PT46 A Short History of the UK Championship: The 1970s snookerscene.blogspot.com 24 November 2011 24 January 2019 http://snookerscene.blogspot.com/2011/11/short-history-of-uk-championship-1970s.html https://web.archive.org/web/20190125020303/http://snookerscene.blogspot.com/2011/11/short-history-of-uk-championship-1970s.html 25 January 2019 live y error in source Hystory of UK Championship snooker – YouTube BBC Sport 24 January 2019 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i54vOeFFNk0 https://web.archive.org/web/20140321210444/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i54vOeFFNk0 21 March 2014 dead Snooker's World Champions: Masters of the Baize Luke Williams, Paul Gadsby 2012 Random House 9781780577159 26 March 2019 https://books.google.com/books?id=Q-leu17OGcIC&pg=PT108 John Virgo: Say Goodnight, JV – My Autobiography 9781786068590 24 January 2019 https://books.google.com/books?id=wTg3DwAAQBAJ&pg=PT10 https://web.archive.org/web/20190124203816/https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=wTg3DwAAQBAJ&pg=PT10 24 January 2019 live Virgo John 2 November 2017 John Blake Snooker ace John Virgo reveals how gambling addiction nearly ruined his life Bletchly Rachael mirror 27 October 2017 26 March 2019 https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/other-sports/snooker/i-borrowed-200k-fund-gambling-11422181 1979 UK Championship Results http://www.snookerdatabase.co.uk/EventResults.aspx?EventKey=127 Snooker Database 13 October 2010 https://web.archive.org/web/20111007102407/http://www.snookerdatabase.co.uk/EventResults.aspx?EventKey=127 7 October 2011 live Top 10 UK Championship Finals – World Snooker World Snooker 26 December 2017 24 January 2019 http://www.worldsnooker.com/top-10-uk-championship-finals/ https://web.archive.org/web/20190124203814/http://www.worldsnooker.com/top-10-uk-championship-finals/ 24 January 2019 live Turner Chris UK Championship http://www.cajt.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/uk.html https://web.archive.org/web/20120216160153/http://www.cajt.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/uk.html 16 February 2012 cajt.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk Chris Turner's Snooker Archive 1 March 2011 UK Championship http://www.snookerscene.co.uk/page.php?id=34 https://web.archive.org/web/20130124071813/http://www.snookerscene.co.uk/page.php?id=34 24 January 2013 Snooker Scene 5 February 2013 1979 UK Championship UK Championship UK Championship UK Championship