Snooker world rankings 1976/1977
| Preceded by — |
1976/1977 | Succeeded by 1977/1978 |
The Snooker world rankings 1976/1977 were the world rankings for the professional snooker players on the main tour in the 1976–77 season, the inaugural season of the world rankings.
Background[]
This was the first time that the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association published an official ranking list. Before this, the defending champion was seeded first and the previous year's runner-up was seeded second.[1][2][3]
For the 1976-77 snooker season, players' performances in the previous three World Snooker Championships (1974, 1975, and 1976) 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.[3] If players were level on points, points gained in the most recent event determined positioning. If this was still equal, then the losing margin on frames was taken into account.[1]
Ray Reardon, having won the championship in each of the three years considered, was ranked first, with the maximum possible 15 points, followed by Alex Higgins, the 1976 runner-up, on nine points.[1]
The same points system, using results from 1973, 1974 and 1975 had been used to calculate the eight top seeds for the 1976 World Championship. Reardon had topped that list with 15 points, followed by Eddie Charlton on nine, and Higgins with eight.[4]
Rankings[]
| Born | October 8, 1932 |
|---|---|
| Sport country | Wales |
| Professional | 1967–1992 |
| Highest ranking | 1 |
 Alex Higgins in 2008 | |
| Born | March 18, 1949 |
|---|---|
| Died | July 24, 2010 (aged 61) |
| Sport country | Northern Ireland |
| Professional | 1971–1997 |
| Highest ranking | 2 |
| Born | October 31, 1929 |
|---|---|
| Died | November 7, 2004 (aged 75) |
| Sport country | Australia |
| Professional | 1963–1995 |
| Highest ranking | 3 |
The professional world rankings for the snooker players on the main tour in the 1976–77 season are listed below. Points gained in each of the three World Snooker Championships are shown, with the total number of point given in the last column.[1][5]
| Ranking | Name | 1974 | 1975 | 1976 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Ray Reardon (WAL) |
5 | 5 | 5 | 15 |
| 2 |  Alex Higgins (NIR) |
2 | 3 | 4 | 9 |
| 3 |  Eddie Charlton (AUS) |
1 | 4 | 3 | 8 |
| 4 |  Fred Davis (ENG) |
3 | 1 | 2 | 6 |
| 5 | Graham Miles (ENG) |
4 | 1 | 1 | 6 |
| 6 | Rex Williams (ENG) |
3 | 2 | 1 | 6 |
| 7 |  Perrie Mans (RSA) |
2 | 0 | 3 | 5 |
| 8 | John Spencer (ENG) |
1 | 2 | 2 | 5 |
| 9 | Dennis Taylor (NIR) |
0 | 3 | 2 | 5 |
| 10 | Gary Owen (WAL) |
1 | 2 | 1 | 4 |
| 11 | John Dunning (ENG) |
2 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| 12 | Jim Meadowcroft (ENG) |
1 | 0 | 2 | 3 |
| 13 |  Cliff Thorburn (CAN) |
0 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| 14 | Bill Werbeniuk (CAN) |
1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| 15 | John Pulman (ENG) |
1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| 16 | David Taylor (ENG) |
0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 17 | Marcus Owen (WAL) |
2 | – | 0 | 2 |
| 18 | Bernard Bennett (ENG) |
1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 19 | Ian Anderson (AUS) |
0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 20 | Warren Simpson (AUS) |
0 | 1 | – | 1 |
| 21 | Paddy Morgan (AUS) |
1 | 0 | – | 1 |
References[]
- ^ a b c d "Official rankings". Snooker Scene. August 1976. p. 10.
- ^ Turner, Chris. "Historical World Rankings 1975/76 to 1989/90". cajt.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk. Chris Turner's Snooker Archive. Archived from the original on 8 June 2012. Retrieved 26 February 2011.
- ^ a b "World Rankings – History and Development". Global Snooker Centre. Archived from the original on 3 August 2004. Retrieved 24 June 2013.
- ^ "New seeding system for professional championship". Snooker Scene. August 1976. pp. 6–7.
- ^ Hayton, Eric (2004). The CueSport Book of Professional Snooker. Lowestoft: Rose Villa Publications. pp. 119–123. ISBN 0-9548549-0-X.
- Snooker world rankings
- 1976 in snooker
- 1977 in snooker