1980–81 snooker world rankings

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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. [1] [2] [3]

Contents

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. [4] [3] 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. [4] [5] 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. [5] John Spencer, the 1977 champion, dropped from fourth place to 15th. [5] 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. [5]

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. [4] [6] [7] 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. [5] 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. [4]

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. [2] [8] [9] [lower-alpha 1]

Snooker world rankings 1980/1981
RankingName 1978 1979 1980 Total
1Flag of Wales (1959-present).svg  Ray Reardon  (WAL)5229
2Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg  Cliff Thorburn  (CAN)2158
3Flag of Australia (converted).svg  Eddie Charlton  (AUS)3328
4Ulster Banner.svg  Alex Higgins  (NIR)1247
5Flag of Wales (1959-present).svg  Terry Griffiths  (WAL)516
6Ulster Banner.svg  Dennis Taylor  (NIR)1416
7Flag of South Africa (1928-1982).svg  Perrie Mans  (RSA)4116
8Flag of England.svg  Fred Davis  (ENG)3216
9Flag of England.svg  David Taylor  (ENG)1135
10Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg  Bill Werbeniuk  (CAN)2215
11Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg  Kirk Stevens  (CAN)134
12Flag of England.svg  John Virgo  (ENG)0314
13Flag of England.svg  Steve Davis  (ENG)123
14Flag of Wales (1959-present).svg  Doug Mountjoy  (WAL)1113
15Flag of England.svg  John Spencer  (ENG)1113
16Flag of England.svg  Graham Miles  (ENG)2103
17Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg  Jim Wych  (CAN)22
18Flag of Ireland.svg  Patsy Fagan  (IRL)2002
19Flag of England.svg  John Pulman  (ENG)1001
20Flag of England.svg  Willie Thorne  (ENG)1001
21Flag of England.svg  Pat Houlihan  (ENG)1001
22Flag of England.svg  Rex Williams  (ENG)0000
23Flag of England.svg  Jim Meadowcroft  (ENG)0000
24Flag of England.svg  John Dunning  (ENG)0000
25Flag of Australia (converted).svg  Ian Anderson  (AUS)000
26Flag of England.svg  Bernard Bennett  (ENG)0000
27Flag of Australia (converted).svg  Paddy Morgan  (AUS)000
Preceded by
1979/1980
1980/1981Succeeded by
1981/1982

Notes

  1. It is unclear why six players with 0 points were included in the rankings.

Related Research Articles

Raymond Reardon is a retired Welsh professional snooker player. He turned professional in 1967 and dominated the sport in the 1970s, winning the World Snooker Championship six times and more than a dozen other tournaments. Reardon was World Champion in 1970, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, and 1978, and runner-up in 1982. He won the inaugural Pot Black tournament in 1969, the 1976 Masters, and the 1982 Professional Players Tournament.

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The World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association, the governing body for professional snooker, first published official world rankings for players on the main tour for the 1976–77 season. Before this, the defending champion was seeded first, and the previous year's runner-up second, for each tournament.

The World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association, the governing body for professional snooker, first published official world rankings for players on the main tour for the 1976–77 season. Before this, the defending champion was seeded first, and the previous year's runner-up second, for each tournament.

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.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">1981–82 snooker world rankings</span>

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1982–83 snooker world rankings</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">1983–84 snooker world rankings</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">1984–85 snooker world rankings</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">1986–87 snooker world rankings</span>

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References

  1. "Official rankings". Snooker Scene . Birmingham: Everton's News Agency. August 1976. p. 10.
  2. 1 2 Turner, Chris. "Historical World Rankings 1975/76 to 1989/90". Chris Turner's Snooker Archive. Archived from the original on 8 June 2012. Retrieved 26 February 2011.
  3. 1 2 Turner, Chris (September 2000). "World Rankings – History and Development". Global Snooker Centre. Archived from the original on 3 August 2004. Retrieved 24 June 2013.
  4. 1 2 3 4 "World rankings: the old order under attack". Snooker Scene . Birmingham: Everton's News Agency. June 1980. pp. 5–8.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 Karnehm, Jack; Carty, John (1981). "New faces and changing fortunes". World Snooker with Jack Karnehm. London: Pelham. pp. 11–16. ISBN   978-0-7207-1328-2.
  6. "Embassy World Professional Championship". Snooker Scene . Birmingham: Everton's News Agency. February 1981. pp. 18–19.
  7. Everton, Clive (6 January 1981). "Scope for surprises". The Guardian . London. p. 21. Archived from the original on 3 September 2023. Retrieved 3 September 2023.
  8. "Ranking History". Snooker.org. Archived from the original on 15 December 2018. Retrieved 6 February 2011.
  9. Hayton, Eric; Dee, John (2004). The CueSport Book of Professional Snooker: The Complete Record & History. Lowestoft: Rose Villa Publications. pp. 119–123. ISBN   978-0-9548549-0-4.