Cliff Thorburn

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Cliff Thorburn
Born	January 16, 1948 Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Nationality	Canadian
Nickname(s)	The Grinder
Professional	1972–1996
Highest ranking	#1 (1981/82)
Highest break	147 (x2)
Tournament wins
Ranking events	2
Non-ranking events	4
World Champion	1980

Clifford Charles Devlin (Cliff) Thorburn (born January 16, 1948 in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada) is a retired professional snooker player. His slow, determined style of play earned him the nickname The Grinder.

Thorburn's finest moment came in the 1980 World Championship. He met Alex Higgins in the final, a personality that could hardly be more different from his own. Thorburn won the match 18-16 to take the championship, and rose to number two in the world rankings. The BBC's coverage of the final had been interrupted by the broadcast of live footage of the SAS storming the Iranian Embassy. The following season Thorburn reached the number one spot. He also lost two World finals, to John Spencer in 1977 and Steve Davis in 1983. On the latter occasion his wife had miscarried shortly before the match, and this may partly explain his very heavy defeat by Davis.

In 1983, Thorburn became the first player to make a maximum 147 break at the World Championships. The achievement took place in a match against Terry Griffiths, and was made more notable by the fact that it stopped the match going on at the tournament's second table: Thorburn's friend and fellow Canadian Bill Werbeniuk wanted to watch the break instead of playing his own match; and joined in the celebrations with Thorburn and Griffiths when the break was completed. That same year, he was made a Member of the Order of Canada. During the 2006 World Championships, Thorburn flew to Sheffield to unveil a lifesize painting of his break, by the artist Michael Myers. It is on display at the Macdonald St. Paul's Hotel in Sheffield. [1]

Thorburn was fined by World Snooker for using cocaine in 1989 and retired from professional snooker in 1996, but still plays the game. He enters competitions held in Canada.

He is the father of two boys, Jamie and Andrew.