The 1980 Pot Black event was a professional invitational snooker tournament, which was held at the Pebble Mill Studios in Birmingham. The tournament began with eight players competing in two groups of four using a round-robin format. The matches were one-frame shoot-outs in the group stages, two-frame aggregate scores in the semi-finals, and best-of-three-frames in the final.
Broadcast on BBC2, the programmes started at 21:00 on Friday 4 January 1980. Alan Weeks presented the programme with Ted Lowe as commentator and Sydney Lee as referee.
The first programme of the series featured reigning Pot Black champion Ray Reardon playing against the then world champion Terry Griffiths making his Pot Black debut. Reardon reached the final where he lost 1–2 to Eddie Charlton who himself won his third title equalling the record set by John Spencer.
Main draw Group 1
Player 1ScorePlayer 2Broadcast Date Ray Reardon1–0 Terry Griffiths4 January 1980 John Spencer0–1 Dennis Taylor18 January 1980 Ray Reardon1–0 John Spencer1 February 1980 Terry Griffiths0–1 Dennis Taylor22 February 1980 Terry Griffiths0–1 John Spencer29 February 1980 Ray Reardon0–1 Dennis Taylor14 March 1980
Group 2
Player 1ScorePlayer 2Broadcast Date Doug Mountjoy125–10 Graham Miles11 January 1980 Perrie Mans0–1 Eddie Charlton25 January 1980 Doug Mountjoy0–1 Perrie Mans15 February 1980 Graham Miles0–1 Eddie Charlton29 February 1980 Doug Mountjoy0–1 Eddie Charlton7 March 1980 Graham Miles93-18 Perrie Mans21 March 1980
Knockout stage
References