1977 UK Snooker Championship

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The 1977 Super Crystalate UK Championship took place at the Blackpool Tower Circus, Blackpool in November/December 1977.

After his success with the World Snooker Championship at the Crucible Theatre, Mike Watterson instituted this new championship with sponsorship from manufactureres of Super Crystalate balls. The venue Blackpool Tower Circus, had a strong snooker tradition from the April world finals of the 1950s but Blackpool in this competition was a different story and crowds were poor. Partly because matches were short, there were a number of upsets, Ray Reardon going out 5-4 to Jim Meadowcroft in his first match. Only one established player, Alex Higgins, reached the semi-finals and the winner went to Patsy Fagan, a London-based Dubliner, a professional for less than a year. The final was televised and shown on BBC1's Grandstand. Joe Davis presented Fagan with the trophy.

As mentioned above, Blackpool had poor crowds for this championship and the following year, The Preston Guildhall would host the championship and stayed on for the next 20 years.