1980 World Snooker Championship 1980 World Snooker Championship The 1980 World Snooker Championship (also known as the 1980 Embassy World Snooker Championship for the purposes of sponsorship) was a professional ranking snooker tournament that took place between 22 April and 5 May 1980 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. Cliff Thorburn won in the final 18–16 against Alex Higgins. The tournament was sponsored by cigarette manufacturer Embassy. The breakdown of prize money for this year is shown below: Numbers in (parentheses) indicate seedings. Source: There were 11 century breaks at the championship. Kirk Stevens and Steve Davis shared the high break prize when
1998 UK Championship (snooker) and 1995, and the Grand Prix in 1996 and 1997. Ronnie O'Sullivan was the defending champion, but he pulled out due to exhaustion. His doctor had told him to rest after suffering from physical and nervous exhaustion. John Higgins won this year's title by defeating Matthew Stevens 10–6 in the final to go with the World Championship crown he won earlier in the year. This was Higgins' 10th ranking title. Defending champion Ronnie O'Sullivan was the number 1 seed with World Champion John Higgins seeded 2. The remaining places were allocated to players based on the world rankings. The breakdown