Champions at the Crucible Trivia Quiz

The World Snooker Championship is widely considered to have been inaugurated in 1927 when an event called the Professional Championship of Snooker was held across a number of venues in England. Fifty years later, the World Snooker Championship found a long term home at the Crucible Theatre in the "steel city" of Sheffield.

The first winner at the Crucible was England's John Spencer; he beat Canada's Cliff Thorburn by 25 frames to 21 in the final. This was not John Spencer's first World Snooker Championship win as he had previously been triumphant in 1969 and 1971.

Ray Reardon, born in the valleys of South Wales in 1932, was a dominant figure in world snooker throughout the 1970s. In the pre-Crucible era, Reardon - who had the nickname of "Dracula" on account of this somewhat vampiric appearance - had already amassed five World Snooker Championships victories (1970, 1973, 1974, 1975 and 1976).

His sixth, and final, championship win came in 1978 when he beat South Africa's Perrie Mans 25-18 in front of a Crucible audience.

Cliff Thorburn became the first non-British player to win the World Snooker Championship at the Crucible, doing so in 1980 by narrowly defeating the brilliant, but troubled, Alex Higgins (18-16). This final is remembered as being one where two very different playing styles clashed with the grinding, slower play of Thorburn placed in stark contrast to the flamboyant, erratic performance characteristic of "Hurricane" Higgins.

The win in 1980 would prove to be the Canadian's one and only Crucible championship victory, though he did reach the final again in 1983 (the less said about this the better as far as Thorburn is concerned as he suffered a bad defeat at the hands of Steve Davis, 18-6).

Up until the 2000s, when the game appeared to have successfully cultivated a greater breadth of talented players, each decade tended to be largely dominated by a single player (at least in terms of wins at the World Snooker Championship). In the 1930s it was Joe Davis (England) and, whilst the 1940s were largely interrupted by war, Fred Davis (England) came to prominence before going on to dominate the 1950s. Englishman John Pulman ruled the roost in the 1960s and Welshman Ray Reardon mostly took the spoils in the 1970s.

The 1980s unarguably belonged to Londoner, Steve "Interesting" Davis. His nickname is an ironic one as he was known for his methodical, granite-like play and for his less than engaging responses to post-match questioning by journalists. The "Interesting" moniker was used to caricature Davis in the British satire, 'Spitting Image'. All this aside, Steve Davis is one of the all time greats and he won six Snooker World Championships to prove it (1981, 1983, 1984, 1987, 1988 & 1989).

Snooker is a mentally demanding sport and whether or not a player can keep their composure is one of the intriguing facets of the game that keep audiences coming back year after year. Never was this so apparent as when Alex "Hurricane" Higgins of Northern Ireland was at the table. Alex Higgins had an undoubted natural talent for snooker but his rock and roll lifestyle often impacted his performance.

Despite his well-documented difficulties, Alex Higgins, the "People's Champion", still managed to win two World Snooker Championships; his first victory came in 1972 in the pre-Crucible era and his second victory came a full decade later in 1982 when he beat Ray Reardon in the final (18-15). His emotional celebration after this win - with his young daughter in his arms - still remains an iconic snooker moment.

Well, 1985, what else needs to be said other than, Steve Davis, Dennis Taylor and the "black ball final"? Dennis Taylor, the genial Northern Irishman, was a significant underdog heading into the 1985 final against the machine-like Steve Davis. Whole documentaries have been made about this match but suffice to say it goes down to the final black ball of the 35th and final frame (they'd won 17 frames each).

Taylor pots the black and the rest is history. It would be Taylor's only ever World Snooker Championship win but when your victory comes off the back of what is widely regarded as the best final of all time, who needs a second win! At least that is what I would tell myself!

In come the 1990s, a decade dominated by Stephen Hendry. When he beat England's Jimmy White (18-12) in the 1990 final at the Crucible, he became the first Scottish player since Walter Donaldson in 1950 to be crowned winner of the World Snooker Championship. This was the first of seven - yes, seven - championship victories at the Crucible for Hendry in the 1990s. Rather astonishingly, he was ranked the number one player in the world for eight uninterrupted years (1990-1998).
His seven titles: 1990, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996 & 1999.

John Higgins, known also by the nickname of "The Wizard of Wishaw" (after the town in Scotland), won his first World Snooker Championship title in 1998 where he beat Ireland's Ken Docherty in the final. It was around a decade later, however, when Higgins accelerated from being a one-time champion (a great achievement in and of itself) to a four-time champion (after wins in 2007, 2009 and 2011).

Mark Williams followed in the footsteps of other great Welsh players such as Ray Reardon and Terry Griffiths by winning the World Snooker Championship. In 2000 he beat compatriot Matthew Stevens (18-16) in the final of the event. He followed this up with a second championship victory in 2003 after another close fought 18-16 final, this time against Ireland's Ken Docherty (himself a winner in 1997).

Very few players have won more than one World Snooker Championship and so winning two was already a great achievement. Surprising everyone, however, fifteen years later, Williams made it to the final at the Crucible in 2018. After being on the right side of yet another 18-16 match (his opponent on this occasion being John Higgins), Mark Williams won his third World Championship and became one of the greatest players in the game's history.

"The Rocket", Ronnie O'Sullivan, is one of the most naturally gifted players the game of snooker has seen. Whilst he will of course be remembered for many achievements, including becoming only the second player in the Crucible era to win seven World Snooker Championship titles (Stephen Hendry being the first), it is his maximum (147) clearance in just five minutes and eight seconds during a first round match at the Crucible in 1997 that will perhaps stick in the memory the most.

Ronnie O'Sullivan's first World Snooker Championship title was won in 2001, beating John Higgins in the final by eighteen frames to fourteen. His seven titles: 2001, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2013,2020 & 2022).

Mark Selby, "The Jester from Leicester", has drawn a fair bit of criticism over the years for his comparatively slow play; by taking a long time considering shots and frequently entering into protracted safety exchanges, Selby could - and often would - mentally grind an opponent down. This criticism is perhaps partly justified but it would do one of the world's best ever snooker players a great disservice to place his success down to his tactical play alone.

Mark Selby won his first World Snooker Championship in 2014 (he defeated Ronnie O'Sullivan 18-14) and by 2021 he had become a member of an elite club of players to have won four championship titles (2014, 2016, 2017 & 2021).

For a long time it was thought that Ding Junhui was the most likely candidate to be the first Chinese player to win the World Snooker Championship, after all he reached the final in 2016 (losing out to Mark Selby, 18-14). This prediction did not prove to be correct; the first Chinese champion was crowned in 2025 and it was Zhao Xintong of Shenzhen. Xintong defeated Mark Williams (who was very surprised to find himself in the final at the age of 50) by a fairly comfortable six frame margin (18-12).