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World Professional Championship History
Man
He was a friend of Joe Davis who had been playing snooker in his family billiard hall for many years. Together Bill and Joe put forward their proposals for a professional snooker championship to the BA & CC and the idea was accepted. The first event would end with a final at Camkin’s club in Birmingham in 1927.
Ten players took part and the first match began in November 1926 between Melbourne Inman and Tom Newman. Joe beat Tom Dennis in the final 20-11 and collected the prize of £6.10s and a trophy which he bought himself. In the following year, the event was played as a challenge with Joe, as champion, exempt until the other contenders had played an elimination tournament to find a challenger.
Entries dropped until only two took part in 1931 but then a few overseas players joined in including Horace Lindrum, nephew of the great billiards champion, Walter who was just about the only player who could give Joe a reasonable challenge. Nevertheless Joe remained unbeaten up to the suspension of the event due to the war, in 1940.
The closest match he had was when his younger brother, Fred met him in the final in 1940 for the only time and it went to a decider with Joe squeezing home 37-36.
The BA & CC meanwhile went ahead with a meaningless ‘official’ championship between Lindrum and Clark McConachie, both by now well past their best. Fred won all the Matchplay championships until he pulled out in 1957 when John Pulman took the title but there was by then little interest in the game and the championship was suspended for seven years.
With the
agreement of the BA & CC, Rex Williams revived the championship on a
challenge basis in 1964. Pulman survived seven challenges and then, in
1969, by which time several new professionals had come into the game, with
sponsorship from Players No. 6, the championship was played on a knockout
basis. Unlike today however the matches were spread over the who
The ‘1971’ event, actually played in November 1970 in Australia, used a round robin format but other that that it has remained as a knockout ever since. Australia hosted the final again in 1975 but back home in 1976 began the long run of Embassy sponsorship and the following year the championship found a new home at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield.
Things
have changed very little since then other than the number of players in
the final stage
The biggest changes have come in the standard of break building.
Centuries were still quite rare in the 1970s but in 2002 there were no less than 68 at the Crucible alone.
Six maximums have been seen at the Crucible and a seventh in the qualifying round, and it is now unlikely than a break of less than 140 will stand a chance of the high break prize.
Over the years there have been many special moments and Ray Reardon, Steve Davis and Stephen Hendry have each dominated one of the last three decades.
N
Jimmy White will always have a special place in people’s hearts for the dignity with which he bore six final defeats, five of them in succession, as will Fred Davis who reached the semi-final in 1978 at the age of 64.
The will be many more such moments I am sure.
The curtain came down on thirty years of Embassy sponsorship in 2005 when Shaun Murphy, the world number 48, became the lowest ranked player ever to win the title.
888.com took over sponsorship in 2006 as the event went from red to green, and after a dramatic tournament, unsung hero from Scotland, Graeme Dott, ended the hopes of Peter Ebdon, with a gritty 18-14 win just after 1am.
2007 sees 888.com continuing their sponsorship, while the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, celebrates 30 years of staging the World Professional Championship. One of the most eagerly anticipated first round matches in the history of the events see Ronnie O'Sullivan matched up against China's rising star Ding Junhui.
Defending champion Graeme Dott, will be attempting to be the first man to overcome the Crucible Curse, which has haunted first time winners, of whom, none have successfully defended their title. Dott opens the 2007 Championship with a tough first round match against Ian McCulloch, a previous semi-finalist.
2007 witnessed an amazing
Championship with amazing swings in fame and fortune. Former
200y will also be remembered for debuts by Judd Trump and Mark Allen and David Gilbert, three "young guns", of which we will no doubt hear a lot more in the future. Antrim's Mark Allen, in particular, impressed, holding his form and nerve to beat Ken Doherty in the first round. Matthew Stevens proved to be too stiff a test for the former World Amateur Champion in round two, but he'll be back without a doubt; as will 17 year old Judd Trump, who was only the third 17 year old, after O'Sullivan and Hendry, to appear at the Crucible. He lost to Shaun Murphy this year but sounded out a warning that he's one of the bright, new brigade of talent coming quickly through the ranks. One staggering stat was that the final became the latest finish in Crucible history at 1am, even eclipsing 2006. Not because of slow play but because of the sheer brilliance of the safety and tactical exchanges between John Higgins and Mark Selby during the final. The pair were also major contributors to the 68 centuries made, which equalled the record made in 2002.
Chris Turner/Janie Watkins - May 2007
Roll of Honour
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Although
snooker had been around since at least the 1870s, the rules were not
officially set down until 1919 by the Billiards Association and Control
Council Club—later Council (BA & CC). Billiards was the dominant cue game
and it was not until the early 1920s that regional professional
tournaments began to be promoted. 
y
players of the day could see potential in the game and urged the BA & CC
to organise an open event. In the end it was Bill Camkin, a Birmingham
billiard hall proprietor, who was instrumental in getting the idea off the
ground. 
Joe
made the first championship century, 110, in 1935 and raised the record to
136 in the 1946 final in whi
ch
he neat Lindrum over no less than 145 frames. He then decided to retire
from the event after fifteen straight wins. Fred and Scotland’s Walter
Donaldson shared the next few titles before a dispute with the governing
body led to all the top players setting up their own event, the
Professional Matchplay championship, in 1952 which was regarded by most as
the world title. 
le season
and the final itself over some 70 frames took many days.
s going up from 16 to 24 and then to 32 as it is today and
in 1980 the final was reduced to the best of 35 frames.
o one will
forget Dennis Taylor beating Steve Davis on the final black well after
midnight or the tears as Alex Higgins won his second title in 1982. 
champions such as Steve Davis, Ken Doherty Stephen Hendry, Mark
Williams, all bowed out tamely, while the new young lads made their
mark. Mark being the word, as Leicester's Mark Selby scythed his way
through the field with a mixture of brilliant snooker and remarkable
resilience. Despite recovering from 12-4 to 13-12 down to John Higgins
in the final, he couldn't, in the end, stop the surge to the title by
the brilliant Scot, who, in the process, regain his status as World No.
1 in the rankings.