Featured Article Summary #106

The 1986 World Snooker Championship, also known as the Embassy World Snooker Championship because of sponsorship, was a professional snooker tournament held from 19 April to 5 May 1986 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. It was the last ranking event of the 1985–86 season and the 1986 edition of the World Snooker Championship, which began in 1927. The total prize fund was £350,000, with £70,000 going to the winner, and the event was sponsored by cigarette company Embassy. The previous champion Dennis Taylor lost his title defense in the first round, falling 6–10 to qualifier Mike Hallett. Joe Johnson, ranked number 16, won the tournament by beating Steve Davis 18–12 in the final, despite bookmakers giving him 150/1 odds. There were 20 century breaks in the event, including the highest break of 134 by Davis in the first frame of his quarter-final match. The World Snooker Championship is an annual professional snooker tournament run by the WPBSA. It began in the late 1800s and grew in popularity in the British Isles, and since the modern knockout format returned in 1969, it has become especially popular worldwide, including in parts of East and Southeast Asia. The first championship was won by Joe Davis in 1927, and since 1977 the event has been held at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield. In 1986, 32 players competed in a single-elimination tournament, chosen from world rankings and a pre-tournament qualification stage, with the top 16 gaining automatic entry and the other 16 coming through qualifiers. The 1986 World Snooker Championship had a total prize fund of £350,000, with £70,000 going to the winner. An additional £80,000 bonus was set aside for the first player to make a maximum break, and the rest of the prize money was allocated among players as shown in the table. In the 1986 World Snooker Championship, the winner received £70,000, while the runner-up got £42,000. Prize money also went down through the rounds: semi-finalists (£21,000), quarter-finalists (£10,500), last 16 (£5,250), and last 32 (£2,953.12). The highest break earned £7,000, and a maximum break was worth £80,000. In the qualifying rounds, the amounts paid were £1,203.12 for the third round and £2,296.87 for the fourth round. The competition also recorded a highest break worth £1,750.