The 1988 World Snooker Championship, also known as the 1988 Embassy World Snooker Championship for sponsorship reasons, was a professional snooker tournament that took place from 16 April to 2 May 1988 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. Organised by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA), it was the sixth and final ranking event of the 1987–88 snooker season and the twelfth consecutive World Snooker Championship to be held at the Crucible, the first tournament there having taken place in 1977.
A five-round qualifying event for the championship was held at the Preston Guild Hall from 22 March to 2 April 1988 for 113 players, 16 of whom reached the main stage, where they met the 16 invited seeded players. The tournament was broadcast in the United Kingdom by the BBC, and was sponsored by the Embassy cigarette company. The winner received £95,000 from the total prize fund of £475,000.
The defending champion was Steve Davis, who had previously won the World Championship four times. He met the 1979 champion Terry Griffiths in the final, which was a best-of-35- match. Davis won the match 18–11 after the pair had been level at 8–8 at the end of the first day of the final. Steve James scored the championship's highest , a 140, in his first-round match. There were 18 century breaks compiled during the championship.
Overview The World Snooker Championship is an annual professional snooker tournament organised by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA). Founded in the late 19th century by British Army soldiers stationed in India, the cue sport gained popularity in the British Isles in the 1920s and 1930s. In the modern era, which started in 1969 when the World Championship reverted to a knockout format, it has become increasingly popular worldwide, especially in East and Southeast Asian nations such as China, Hong Kong and Thailand.
Joe Davis won the first World Championship in 1927, organised by the Billiards Association and Control Council, the final match being held at Camkin's Hall in Birmingham, England. Since 1977, the event has been held at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. The 1988 championship featured 32 professional players competing in one-on-one snooker matches in a single-elimination format, each match played over several . These competitors in the main tournament were selected using a combination of the top players in the snooker world rankings and the winners of a pre-tournament qualification stage that took place at Preston Guild Hall from 22 March to 2 April 1988. The qualifying competition consisted of five knockout rounds, all contested as the best-of-19-frames, including a single preliminary round match. There were 113 players involved in the qualifying competition, which produced 16 players who each faced one of the top 16 players in the world rankings in the first round of the main event. The rounds held at the Crucible Theatre were broadcast in the United Kingdom by the BBC. The 1988 championship was sponsored by cigarette brand Embassy, and was also referred to as the Embassy World Snooker Championship.
Prize fund The tournament featured a total prize fund of £475,000, with £95,000 being awarded to the winner. The prize money allocation is shown below. An award of £90,000 would have been made to a player making a maximum break.
Main tournament
Winner: £95,000 Runner-up: £57,000 Semi-finalists: £28,000 Quarter-finalists: £14,250 Last 16: £7,125 Last 32: £4,007.81 Highest : £9,500
Qualifying Fourth qualifying round: £3,117.19 Third qualifying round: £1,632.81 Highest break: £2,375
Tournament summary
Qualifying Qualifying matches took place at Preston Guild Hall from 22 March to 2 April 1988. The qualifying competition consisted of five knockout rounds, including a single preliminary round match, starting with 113 players, and all qualifying matches were played as best-of-19-frames. American pool player Steve Mizerak made his professional snooker debut in the preliminary round, losing 3–10 to Anthony Harris. On the first day of the qualifying competition, Billy Kelly established a new record highest for world championship qualifying, compiling a 141 in the sixth frame of his match against Tony Kearney. Kelly won 10–4, concluding with a 76 break in the 14th frame. Alain Robidoux had walkovers against Frank Jonik, who withdrew due to problems with his back, and Robbie Grace, who was unable to travel from South Africa, which meant Robidoux earned a ranking merit point that enabled him to gain full professional status for the following season. He lost 2–10 to Bill Oliver in the third round.
Dene O'Kane, a quarter-finalist in 1987, led 9–8 against Eddie Sinclair but lost 9–10. Oliver eliminated six-time champion Ray Reardon 10–4 before losing 6–10 to Cliff Wilson. It was the first time in his career that Reardon had failed to qualify for the main event. Returning to snooker after a four-month absence during which he had been treated in a Canadian clinic for cocaine addiction, Kirk Stevens defeated Mark Bennett 10–7. Eight-time champion Fred Davis, aged 74, progressed past Jack Fitzmaurice, 10–8, and Jim Bear, 10–4, before losing 3–10 to John Campbell in the last qualifying round. John Spencer, three-times world champion, was eliminated 7–10 by Warren King at the same stage.
Four players, Steve James, Bob Chaperon, Tony Drago and Peter Francisco, qualified for the main event for the first time. James received a walkover against Terry Whitthread in the first round, and eliminated Joe O'Boye, Paddy Browne and Eugene Hughes; Chaperon defeated Robert Marshall, Tommy Murphy and David Taylor; Drago won against Tony Chappel; and Francisco eliminated Robby Foldvari.
First round The first round took place between 16 and 21 April, each match played over two as the best of 19 frames. Davis, who had won three of the five ranking events during the season leading up to the world championship, was Coral bookmakers' pre-tournament favourite to win, with odds of 5/4. Stephen Hendry, winner of the other two ranking tournaments, was the second favourite at 4/1. They were followed by Jimmy White at 8/1 and John Parrott at 10/1.
Davis won a closely contested match against John Virgo, finally prevailing 10–8. Mike Hallett was 8–1 ahead of Chaperon at the end of their first session, and completed a 10–2 victory. Alex Higgins, who won the competition in 1972 and 1982, had been banned (in April 1987) from the first two ranking events of the season, as part of a punishment imposed by the WPBSA for behaviour including headbutting the tournament director at the 1986 UK Championship. He trailed Drago 2–7 after their first session, and after being defeated 2–10, lost his place in the elite top 16 of the snooker world rankings for the first time since rankings were introduced in 1976. The 1985 champion Taylor was 4–5 behind to Bill Werbeniuk as their first session ended. After their second session the following morning was stopped due to over-running as a result of lengthy tactical exchanges and several delays while Werbeniuk visited the toilet during frames, eventually prevailed 10–8 when it was reconvened. This was Werbeniuk's last appearance at the World Snooker Championship finals.
Joe Johnson, champion in 1986 and runner-up in 1987, knocked out Wilson 10–7. Nine days after suffering a serious road traffic accident that wrote off his car, James compiled a break of 140, and another of 104, on his way to defeating Rex Williams 10–6. In the opening frame against King, Parrott produced a break of 80, which turned out to be his only break above 40 as he won 10–4. Cliff Thorburn, the champion in 1980 and the first player to make a maximum break in the championship, in 1983, was only able to compete after his lawyers managed to postpone a disciplinary hearing relating to his failed drug test at the 1988 British Open. He eliminated Stevens, who had undergone voluntary treatment for cocaine addiction and fell from fourth place to outside the top 32 in the rankings during the season. Thorburn won the match 10–6.
From 3–3 against Wayne Jones, Neal Foulds led 6–3 at the end of the first session and progressed by winning 10–7. Doug Mountjoy recorded a 10–6 win against Barry West, and Willie Thorne won by the same score against Peter Francisco. Steve Longworth won only a single frame as he went out 1–10 to the 1979 champion Terry Griffiths.
Tony Knowles eliminated Danny Fowler 10–8. Silvino Francisco made breaks of 91, 109 and 105 against Eddie Charlton in their first session, but still ended it 4–5 behind. Charlton, playing with a cue stick that he had only started using earlier that year, won 10–7. Hendry led Dean Reynolds 6–3 and 7–6, taking the last three frames to progress at 10–6. After winning the first seven frames against Campbell, White achieved a 10–3 victory.
Second round
The second round, which took place between 21 and 25 April, was played as best-of-25-frames matches spread over three sessions. Davis finished a 13–1 defeat of Hallett with a break of 106. This result matched the heaviest defeat ever recorded in the world snooker championship at the Crucible, Davis's 18–6 victory over Thorburn in the 1983 final. Drago, having defeated a former world champion in the first round, knocked out another in the second round, winning 13–5 against Dennis Taylor. James compiled a break of 112 in the last frame of the first session against Johnson and led 7–1. During the second session, he increased this to 11–3. Johnson won the last two frames of the second session, and the first four frames of the third session, before James took two consecutive frames to qualify 13–9. Thorburn defeated Parrott 13–10, after the pair had been level at 6–6 and 7–7.
Foulds equaled Davis's record for an emphatic victory at the Crucible, and had a break of 102, eliminating Mountjoy 13–1; Mountjoy's failure to progress further meant that he lost his place in the top 16 of the rankings. Griffiths reached the quarter-finals for the fifth year in succession, going from 9–9 to 13–9 against Thorne and concluding with a 101 break in the 22nd frame. Knowles led Charlton 12–4 as they started the third session, and won 13–7.
White finished the first session against Hendry 5–3 ahead, the pair both preferring attempts to pot balls rather than play shots. White added the first frame of the second session, before Hendry won six frames in a row, including breaks of 52, 79, 125, 56 and 101, thus led 9–6. White took the final frame of the second session. In the third session, Hendry claimed the first frame to lead 10–7. White replied with breaks of 62, 50, 78 and 71, to take the lead at 11–10. A 108 break from Hendry made it 11–11, but he scored no points in the 23rd frame as White moved ahead again. On a break of 43 in the 24th frame, White , and Hendry won the frame after a break of 48. In the , White started a break of 86 by a long-range , and prevailed 13–12 in the match. In all, the match featured twenty breaks of 50 or more, including three century breaks. The match was re-shown on BBC Two on 23 April 2020 in a series called Crucible Classics shown in place of the 2020 World Snooker Championship which was postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic. It was the first of seven Crucible matches between White and Hendry over the following decade, including four finals, White losing each encounter until their seventh world championship clash in 1998.
Quarter-finals