1980–81 snooker world rankings

none September 2023 September 2023 The World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA), the governing body for professional snooker, first published official world rankings for players on the main tour for the 1976–77 season. Before this, for each tournament the defending champion was seeded first, and the previous year's runner-up second.Official rankings Snooker Scene August 1976 Everton's News Agency Birmingham 10Turner Chris Historical World Rankings 1975/76 to 1989/90 http://www.cajt.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/HistoricRank1.html https://web.archive.org/web/20120608214119/http://www.cajt.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/HistoricRank1.html 8 June 2012 Chris Turner's Snooker Archive 26 February 2011Turner Chris World Rankings – History and Development http://www.globalsnookercentre.co.uk/files/History/history_rankings.htm Global Snooker Centre 24 June 2013 https://web.archive.org/web/20040803184513/http://www.globalsnookercentre.co.uk/files/History/history_rankings.htm September 2000 3 August 2004 Players' performances in the previous three World Snooker Championships (1978, 1979 and 1980) contributed to their points total. For each of the three years, the World Champion gained five points, the runner-up received four, losing semi-finalists got three, losing quarter-finalists got two, and losers in the last-16 round received a single point.World rankings: the old order under attack Snooker Scene Everton's News Agency Birmingham June 1980 5–8 Ray Reardon, who had not won a major title for two years, retained the number one ranking that he had held since the inception of the rankings, despite only reaching the quarter-finals of the 1979 and 1980 championships.Karnehm Jack Jack Karnehm Carty John 1981 World Snooker with Jack Karnehm New faces and changing fortunes Pelham London 978-0-7207-1328-2 11–16 The 1980 World Champion, Cliff Thorburn, was ranked second, and Eddie Charlton was placed third, as he had been for each year since the 1976/1977 list. John Spencer, the 1977 champion, dropped from fourth place to 15th. Player and commentator Jack Karnehm remarked that in the 1976/1977 rankings Reardon was ten points ahead of the player ranked tenth, but in the 1980/1981 list there were only four points between the first and tenth-ranked places, which Karnehm considered showed a greater parity between the top players. The eight highest-ranked players were placed directly into the last-16 round of the 1981 World Snooker Championship, with defending champion Thorburn as the top seed. The next eight from the list were placed into the first round and would face a player from the qualifying competition.Embassy World Professional Championship Snooker Scene Everton's News Agency Birmingham February 1981 18–19Everton Clive Clive Everton Scope for surprises https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-guardian-scope-for-surprises/131146918/ The Guardian London 6 January 1981 21 3 September 2023 3 September 2023 https://web.archive.org/web/20230903232227/https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-guardian-scope-for-surprises/131146918/ live Karnehm criticised the ranking system for not taking into consideration players' performances at tournaments other than the world championship and, because the points were accumulated over three years, having a bias against new players. The article in Snooker Scene magazine discussing the ranking list for 1980/1981 also contained concerns about the advantage to established players, whilst arguing that no better alternative system had been proposed. Rankings The professional world rankings for snooker players in the 1980–81 season are listed below. Points gained in each of the three World Snooker Championships are shown, with the total number of points given in the last column. A "–" symbol indicates that the player did not participate in that year's championship.Ranking History http://www.snooker.org/rnk/history.asp?sort=1980/1981&order=asc Snooker.org 6 February 2011 15 December 2018 https://web.archive.org/web/20181215121059/http://www.snooker.org/rnk/history.asp?sort=1980/1981&order=asc liveHayton Eric Dee John 2004 The CueSport Book of Professional Snooker: The Complete Record & History Rose Villa Publications Lowestoft 978-0-9548549-0-4 119–123It is unclear why six players with 0 points were included in the rankings. +Snooker world rankings 1980/1981 Ranking Name 1978 1979 1980 Total 1 Ray Reardon WAL 5 2 2 9 2Cliff Thorburn CAN 2 1 5 8 3 Eddie Charlton AUS 3 3 2 8 4Alex Higgins NIR 1 2 4 7 5Terry Griffiths WAL – 5 1 6 6 Dennis Taylor NIR 1 4 1 6 7 Perrie Mans RSA 1928 4 1 1 6 8Fred Davis ENG 3 2 1 6 9David Taylor ENG 1 1 3 5 10Bill Werbeniuk CAN 2 2 1 5 11Kirk Stevens CAN – 1 3 4 12John Virgo ENG 0 3 1 4 13Steve Davis ENG – 1 2 3 14 Doug Mountjoy WAL 1 1 1 3 15 John Spencer ENG 1 1 1 3 16 Graham Miles ENG 2 1 0 3 17Jim Wych CAN – – 2 2 18Patsy Fagan IRL 2 0 0 2 19John Pulman ENG 1 0 0 1 20 Willie Thorne ENG 1 0 0 1 21 Pat Houlihan ENG 1 0 0 1 22Rex Williams ENG 0 0 0 0 23Jim Meadowcroft ENG 0 0 0 0 24John Dunning ENG 0 0 0 0 25 Ian Anderson AUS – 0 0 0 26 Bernard Bennett ENG 0 0 0 0 27Paddy Morgan AUS 0 – 0 0 1979/1980 1981/1982 1980/1981 Notes References 1980 Rankings 1981 Rankings 1980