1997 World Snooker Championship

Tournament summary

• The semi-final matches were best of 33 for the first time, having previously been best of 31.
• Ronnie O'Sullivan made the fastest maximum break in history with a time of 5 minutes and 8 seconds, and the fourth in the history of the tournament.
• Terry Griffiths' first round encounter against Mark Williams was his last ever professional match and meant that he retired having played 999 frames at The Crucible. This match was also three time World Champion Williams' Crucible debut.
• Other debutants this year were Bradley Jones (England); Graham Horne; David McLellan and future World Champion and twice runner-up Graeme Dott (all Scotland); Lee Walker and Dominic Dale (Wales). All these players lost in the first round except Dale and Walker, who reached the last-16 and quarter finals respectively. This meant that all three Welsh debutants won their first round matches.
• Alain Robidoux had his best run at the World Championship, reaching the semi-finals. The Canadian player lost 7–17 to Ken Doherty.
• James Wattana reached the semi-finals for the second time (after 1993) but the Thai player lost 13–17 to defending champion Stephen Hendry.
• Hendry's five-year run as World Champion came to an end after losing to Doherty 12–18. It was Hendry's first defeat at the World Championship since 1991, spanning 29 matches, a Crucible record.
• Doherty became only the second player from outside the United Kingdom to win the world title in the modern era, following Cliff Thorburn in 1980.
• Alan Chamberlain refereed his first and only World Championship final. He was the first referee since Jim Thorpe in 1984 to officiate a debut final. All finals up to this year were officiated by either John Williams, Len Ganley or John Street. The next four years also had referees debuting the final: Lawrie Annandale in 1998, Colin Brinded in 1999, John Newton in 2000 and Eirian Williams in 2001, before John Williams did his 10th final in 2002.

Prize fund

The breakdown of prize money for this year is shown below:

• Winner: £210,000
• Runner-up: £126,000
• Semi-finalist: £63,000
• Quarter-finalist: £31,500
• Last 16: £16,800
• Last 32: £9,450
• Highest break: £18,000
• Maximum break: £147,000
• Total £1,260,000

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).

Best of 19 frames Best of 25 frames Best of 25 frames Best of 33 frames Best of 35 frames |19 April|Scotland Stephen Hendry (1)|10|England Andy Hicks|6 |19 & 20 April|Wales Mark Williams (16)|10|Wales Terry Griffiths|9 |20 & 21 April|Wales Darren Morgan (9)|10|England Gary Wilkinson|5 |20 & 21 April|England Ronnie O'Sullivan (8)|10|England Mick Price|6 |22 April|England Nigel Bond (5)|8|England Stephen Lee|10 |23 & 24 April|Thailand James Wattana (12)|10|Scotland Graeme Dott|9 |23 April|England Jimmy White (13)|9|England Anthony Hamilton|10 |21 & 22 April|England John Parrott (4)|10|England Bradley Jones|9 |19 & 20 April|England Peter Ebdon (3)|3|England Stefan Mazrocis|10 |22 & 23 April|Canada Alain Robidoux (14)|10|England Brian Morgan|8 |19 & 20 April|England Dave Harold (11)|7|Wales Lee Walker|10 |21 & 22 April|Scotland Alan McManus (6)|10|Scotland Billy Snaddon|9 |19 & 20|Ireland Ken Doherty (7)|10|England Mark Davis|8 |21 April|England Steve Davis (10)|10|Scotland David McLellan|2 |23 & 24 April|Malta Tony Drago (15)|9|Wales Dominic Dale|10 |22 & 23 April|Scotland John Higgins (2)|10|Scotland Graham Horne|6 |25 & 26 April|Scotland Stephen Hendry (1)|13|Wales Mark Williams (16)|8 |24, 25 & 26|Wales Darren Morgan (9)|13|England Ronnie O'Sullivan (8)|12 |27 & 28 April|England Stephen Lee|7|Thailand James Wattana (12)|13 |26, 27 & 28 April|England Anthony Hamilton|11|England John Parrott (4)|13 |25 & 26 April|England Stefan Mazrocis|9|Canada Alain Robidoux (14)|13 |24 & 25 April|Wales Lee Walker|13|Scotland Alan McManus (6)|10 |26 & 27 April|Ireland Ken Doherty (7)|13|England Steve Davis (10)|3 |27 & 28 April|Wales Dominic Dale|5|Scotland John Higgins (2)|13 |29 & 30 April|Scotland Stephen Hendry (1)|13|Wales Darren Morgan (9)|10 |29 & 30 April|Thailand James Wattana (12)|13|England John Parrott (4)|10 |29 & 30 April|Canada Alain Robidoux (14)|13|Wales Lee Walker|8 |29 & 30 April|Ireland Ken Doherty (7)|13|Scotland John Higgins (2)|9 |1, 2 & 3 May|Scotland Stephen Hendry (1)|17|Thailand James Wattana (12)|13 |1 & 2 May|Canada Alain Robidoux (14)|7|Ireland Ken Doherty (7)|17 |4 & 5 May|Scotland Stephen Hendry (1)|12|Ireland Ken Doherty (7)|18

|(Best of 35 frames) Crucible Theatre, Sheffield, 4 & 5 May 1997. Referee: Alan Chamberlain |Stephen Hendry (1)

|12–18 |Ken Doherty (7)

|7–67, 117–5, 106–0, 13–77, 9–78, 51–75, 11–69, 122–0, 76–12, 32–89, 55–62, 43–57, 13–65, 50–85, 74–47, 28–60, 70–23, 24–71, 110–4, 0–86, 16–85, 45–59, 137–0, 75–12, 61–30, 114–0, 61–57, 23–82, 19–69, 49–71 |Century breaks: 5 (Hendry 5)

Highest break by Hendry: 137

Highest break by Doherty: 85 | 7–67, 117–5, 106–0, 13–77, 9–78, 51–75, 11–69, 122–0, 76–12, 32–89, 55–62, 43–57, 13–65, 50–85, 74–47, 28–60, 70–23, 24–71, 110–4, 0–86, 16–85, 45–59, 137–0, 75–12, 61–30, 114–0, 61–57, 23–82, 19–69, 49–71 |Ireland Ken Doherty wins the 1997 Embassy World Snooker Championship |Best of 19 frames |Best of 25 frames |Best of 25 frames |Best of 33 frames

Century breaks

There were 39 century breaks in this year's championship.

• 147, 133 Ronnie O'Sullivan
• 137, 122, 117, 114, 110, 106, 106, 101, 101 Stephen Hendry
• 134, 130, 111, 101 John Higgins
• 133, 129, 129, 102 John Parrott
• 131 Billy Snaddon
• 129, 121, 117 Anthony Hamilton
• 128, 121, 116, 108 Darren Morgan
• 127 Stefan Mazrocis
• 125 Jimmy White
• 123 Mark Williams
• 121, 113 Alain Robidoux
• 116, 104, 101 Ken Doherty
• 112 James Wattana
• 110 Dominic Dale
• 100 Stephen Lee
• 100 Alan McManus

Qualifying

The qualifying matches were held between 2 January and March 1997 at the Newport Centre in Newport, Wales. The last round was played at Telford International Centre, Telford on 24 and 25 March 1997.

Rounds 8–9

Results for the last two qualifying rounds are shown below.

References

Books

References

1. "Ken Doherty". Riley England.
2. Downer, Chris. (2012). "Crucible Almanac".
3. "Fastest 147 break in snooker". [[Guinness World Records]].
4. "World Professional Championship". Chris Turner.
5. "Terry Griffiths profile". Snooker Database.
6. "Stephen Hendry at the World Championships". Snooker Database.
7. Everton, Clive. "Snooker: Doherty ready to fulfil rich promise". The Independent.
8. Downer, Chris. (2012). "Crucible Almanac".
9. "Embassy World Championship 1997". Snooker.org.
10. Downer, Chris. (2012). "Crucible Almanac".
11. Downer, Chris. (2012). "Crucible Almanac".
12. Downer, Chris. (2012). "Crucible Almanac".
13. "Crucible Centuries". Snooker.org.
14. Downer, Chris. (2012). "Crucible Almanac".