1976 World Snooker Championship

Embassy World Snooker Championship

Tournament information
Dates	7–23 April 1976 (1976-04-07 – 1976-04-23)
Venue	Middlesbrough Town Hall Wythenshaw Forum
City	Middlesbrough Manchester
Country	England
Organisation	WPBSA
Format	Ranking event
Total prize fund	£15,300
Winner's share	£6,000[1]
Highest break	John Spencer (ENG) (138)
Final
Champion	Ray Reardon (WAL)
Runner-up	Alex Higgins (NIR)
Score	27–16
← 1975 1977 →

The 1976 World Snooker Championship (also known as the 1976 Embassy World Snooker Championship for sponsorship purposes) was a professional ranking snooker tournament that took place at two venues.^[2] This was the first world championship to be sponsored by Embassy; their sponsorship lasted for the next 30 years.^[1] Ray Reardon won in the final 27–16 against Alex Higgins.

There were seven century breaks in the championship.

Tournament detail[]

The leading 14 players in the Order of Merit received automatic entry to the final stages and were joined by two winners from the qualifying competition. The leading 8 in the Order of Merit were seeded.

The Middlesbrough Town Hall in Middlesbrough staged the top half of the draw and the Wythenshawe Forum, Manchester, staged the bottom half and the final. The final was held over 4 days from 20 to 23 April.

Champion Ray Reardon won 15–7 against John Dunning including breaks of 106, 81 and 71; Dennis Taylor 15–2 with a break of 115 in the last frame and then his semifinal against Perrie Mans by 20–10 with a top break of 133 plus runs of 85 and 70.

The final, where Reardon had travelled to where Higgins had been playing, was a fractious affair with complaints from Reardon over the quality of the table and the TV lighting. Eventually, the referee was replaced after further complaints from the champion. Higgins had the better of the earlier exchanges, leading 4-2 and 10-9 before Reardon started to dictate both the pace and tactics. The Welshman eventually won, very comfortably, 27–16 to secure his fifth title.

The highest break of the tournament was 138 made by John Spencer in his match against David Taylor.^[3] Earlier in the week Eddie Charlton had compiled a break of 137; however, it did not count as a record because the table was not up to standard.^[4]

Main draw[]

Numbers in (parentheses) indicate seeding.

Sources:^[2][5][6][7]

	Last 16 Best of 29 frames				Quarter-finals Best of 29 frames				Semi-finals Best of 39 frames				Final Best of 53 frames
	Ray Reardon (1)	15
	John Dunning	7
					Ray Reardon (1)	15
					Dennis Taylor	2
	Gary Owen (8)	9
	Dennis Taylor	15
									Ray Reardon (1)	20
									Perrie Mans	10
	Graham Miles (5)	10
	Perrie Mans	15
					Perrie Mans	15
					Jim Meadowcroft	8
	Rex Williams (4)	7
	Jim Meadowcroft	15
													Ray Reardon (1)	27
													Alex Higgins (3)	16
	Alex Higgins (3)	15
	Cliff Thorburn	14
					Alex Higgins (3)	15
					John Spencer (6)	14
	John Spencer (6)	15
	David Taylor	5
									Alex Higgins (3)	20
									Eddie Charlton (2)	18
	Fred Davis (7)	15
	Bill Werbeniuk	12
					Fred Davis (7)	13
					Eddie Charlton (2)	15
	Eddie Charlton (2)	15
	John Pulman	9

Qualifying[]

^[2]

Round 1 (Best of 15 frames) Jim Meadowcroft 8–1 Ron Gross 8–5 Maurice Parkin 8–6 Marcus Owen David Greaves 8–5 Jackie Rea 8–5 Ian Anderson

Round 2 (Best of 15 frames) Jim Meadowcroft 8–4 Ron Gross Willie Thorne 8–3 David Taylor 8–1 David Greaves Jackie Rea 8–5 Bernard Bennett Round 3 (Best of 15 frames)[8] Jim Meadowcroft 8–5 Willie Thorne David Taylor 8–7 Jackie Rea

References[]