SNOOKER’S MEMORABLE MOMENTS COUNTDOWN: No. 15 – No. 11

15. Tony Knowles Creates Greatest Crucible Shock (1982)

Steve Davis won his first World Championship the previous year and looked invincible and destined for dominance. He started to become the poster boy of snooker, especially with a number of non-ranking trophies in his cabinet. All of this made him the favourite to defending his World Championship title.

No one expected Tony Knowles to lead 4-0 before the first interval. No one expected Tony Knowles to lead 8-1 to finish the first session. But to thrash Steve Davis 10-1 in the first round? But that’s exactly what happened and Davis couldn’t muster even a single 50+ break throughout the entire match.

It is still regarded as the biggest Crucible shock because nobody saw this coming. To see a first-time defending champion destined for greatness getting thumped so badly was unheard of. It was a reality check for Davis that it wasn’t all going to be plain sailing. The loss was humiliating enough to knock him down a peg or two.

Davis’s loss started the “Crucible Curse” – the coincidence that first-time champions failed to defend their World Championship title in Sheffield. No-one has been able to break the curse. Joe Johnson (1986) and Ken Doherty (1987) had the closest crack to do this, both reaching the final the year after winning their first crown. Could Judd Trump break it in 2020?

14. The Sportsmanship Between Ronnie O’Sullivan and Ding Junhui (2007)

Snooker prides itself in regularly showing remarkable sportsmanship. This is probably one of the greatest moments of it.

Ding Junhui was becoming an Asian superstar, breaking every record in his way. He won three ranking titles in very quick succession. After winning the 2005 China Open, he became the first non-British and Irish person to win the UK Championship. His performances caught the eye of many and Ding was given a wildcard to enter the 2007 Masters.

During the course of that Masters, Ding Junhui became the youngest ever player to score a maximum 147 break on live television. In the final, Ding was leading 2-0 against Ronnie O’Sullivan. After that, the Rocket was unstoppable and relentless. O’Sullivan smashed nine half-centuries, including four centuries. Ding became visibly upset under the noise from the boisterous partisan crowd.

At 9-3 down, a tearful Ding shook Ronnie’s hand. Ronnie responded by walking out of the area with his arm over Ding’s shoulder to give him a private conversation. After realising the final was a BO19, Ding returned to rapturous applause. After O’Sullivan won the match. he had a word with the photographers to not overwhelm Ding. He paid tribute to the Chinese superstar, predicting that he will be a multi-World Champion.

This is amazing because of how compassionate Ronnie was. Even after losing, a few members of the audience offered to shake Ding’s hand. This was lead to a long bromance between the two. Even in the 2019 Masters, Ronnie planted a kiss on Ding, called him a ‘brother’.

13. Neil Robertson’s 100th Century of the Season (2014)

Everyone loves centuries. Many players enhanced their reputations on them. Ronnie O’Sullivan, Stephen Hendry, John Higgins and Judd Trump scored at least 700 century breaks in their careers. But no-one has ever compiled a century of centuries in a single season, until 2014.

Neil Robertson started his work during the 2013/2014 season. The huge number of tournaments certainly helped. He scored 8 centuries on his way to winning the 2013 UK Championship, 10 in the International Championship and 22 during his Championship League campaign. Going into the World Championship, he was on 93 centuries.

When he thrashed Robbie Williams 10-2 in the first round, he made four more. In the next tie against Mark Allen, he made two more, but failed to make the 100th break during his 13-7 win. In the quarter-final match against Trump, he made a 101 break that was his 100th century when he was 11-10 behind, which he leapt with delight. He went on to win the match too. Robertson said, according to World Snooker:

“In the first session I was getting very frustrated. My focus was on the centuries and not the match. I wasn’t even thinking about the century until there were only a few balls left and the frame was finished – then I really went for it. I would rather make the century of centuries here than a 147. I’ve made a couple of 147s and it’s nowhere near the same achievement. For me to be the first player to achieve 100 centuries in a single season is a great honour.”

12. The Welsh Potting Machine Winning His Third World Championship Title In Style (2018)

It was a result not many expected, yet everyone was glad that it happened.

Appearing in the spotlight as one of the members of the ‘Class of ’92,’ Williams achieved everything in the game. He won the Triple Crown, even becoming the third person in history to win all three events in one season. He was No. 1 for three seasons! But since 2011, he slipped out of the Top 16 and failed to qualify for the Masters and the World Championship twice. He admitted several times of retiring altogether.

However, the 2017/2018 season was the start of a remarkable turnaround, with the help of newfound confidence and a new coach in Steve Feeney with the backing of SightRight. Before the 2018 World Championships, he won two ranking and one non-ranking event. In the World Championship, he pushed past tricky opponents in Jimmy Robertson, Robert Milkins and two-time finalist Ali Carter. After bring put through the ringer by Barry Hawkins, he reached the final by defeating The Hawk 17-15.

After defeating John Higgins in one of the greatest classics 18-16, Williams won his third World Championship title, fifteen years after his second. Throughout the event, fans he loved his down-to-earth personality, eating Minstrels during matches and claiming he will strip naked in the press room if he wins it at all. To his credit, he kept his promise shortly after winning the 2018 World Championship, wearing just a towel on the conference room.

After that, he went on a summer-long binge enjoying his winnings and successes. Who could blame him? Williams then promised that if he was to win the World Championship next season, he would “cartwheel round here naked”. Thankfully, after he lost the next year, we never got to see that!

11. O’Sullivan Winning The World Championship A Year Out Of The Sport (2013)

When Ronnie O’Sullivan won the 2012 World Championship, he announced he would take an extended break from snooker. Of course, this prompted retirement fears and worries that O’Sullivan became disillusioned with the sport, especially when Barry Hearn took the helm and introduced more demands and commitments.

For more detail of what he did during his sabbatical, you’d be best reading on of the Rocket’s autobiographies, Running. In short, he was doing a lot of running, focusing on his mental health and working on a pig farm. He announced his intention to return. Everyone welcomed him back with open arms.

Great to see Ronnie back to defend his world title, would have been weird not to have the defending champion there.
— Neil Robertson (@nr147) February 26, 2013

Despite playing just one competitive match all season, he played sublimely. Ronnie pushed aside Marcus Campbell and nemesis Ali Carter and thrashed Stuart Bingham. Judd Trump challenged Ronnie in the semi-finals but the Rocket managed to go through as the 17-11 victor. In the final, he faced a tough opponent in first-time finalist Barry Hawkins. But Ronnie O’Sullivan came out as the tournament winner at 18-12 to lift the World Snooker Championship crown for the fourth time and defended his 2012 crown.

He broke Hendry’s record of 127 career Crucible centuries, finishing the tournament with 131. He also became the first player to make six century breaks in a World Championship final. Ronnie barely had any match practice, yet he beat the entire field of players who had plenty. More importantly, he arrived in a much better place. Only geniuses can do that.