World Snooker Championship 1973
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The 1973 Park Drive World Snooker Championship competition took place at the City Exhibition Hall, Deansgate, Manchester between 16th and 28th April 1973.
The competition was scheduled to take a fortnight, rather than the months it had taken to complete previous championships. There was also a new sponsor, Park Drive, makers of Gallaher cigarettes.
Well-known players Cliff Thorburn and Dennis Taylor made their debuts this year, both later champions. They played each other in the first round and Thorburn won 9-8.
Defending champion Alex Higgins beat Fred Davis in a memorable quarter-final 16-14 which is perhaps best remembered for a rain interruption. Granada television sent a camera along to cover this unusual occurrence, and this brought referee John Williams fame.
Ray Reardon staged a remarkable recovery when, having trailed John Spencer 12-19, he won their semi-final 23-22. Reardon lost the first session of the final against Eddie Charlton 0-7, but went on to win 38-32. For the first time some frames of the final were televised, by the BBC.
[edit] Prizes
Winner £1,500
Total £8,000
[edit] Results
First Round Best of 17 frames
David Greaves 9-8 Bernard Bennett
Perrie Mans 9-2 Ron Gross
Graham Miles 9-5 Geoff Thompson
Cliff Thorburn 9-8 Dennis Taylor 
Warren Simpson 9-3 Maurice Parkin
Jim Meadowcroft wo Kingsley Kennerley
| Round of 16 | Quarter-finals | Semi-finals | Final | |||||||||||
| Best of 31 frames | ||||||||||||||
| Alex Higgins |
16 | |||||||||||||
| Best of 31 frames | ||||||||||||||
| Pat Houlihan |
3 | |||||||||||||
| Alex Higgins |
16 | |||||||||||||
| Fred Davis |
14 | |||||||||||||
| Fred Davis |
16 | |||||||||||||
| Best of 45 frames | ||||||||||||||
| David Greaves |
1 | |||||||||||||
| Alex Higgins |
9 | |||||||||||||
| Eddie Charlton |
23 | |||||||||||||
| Eddie Charlton |
16 | |||||||||||||
| Perrie Mans |
8 | |||||||||||||
| Eddie Charlton |
16 | |||||||||||||
| Graham Miles |
6 | |||||||||||||
| John Pulman |
10 | |||||||||||||
| Best of 75 frames | ||||||||||||||
| Graham Miles |
16 | |||||||||||||
| Eddie Charlton |
32 | |||||||||||||
 Ray Reardon |
38 | |||||||||||||
| Rex Williams |
16 | |||||||||||||
| Cliff Thorburn |
15 | |||||||||||||
| Rex Williams |
7 | |||||||||||||
| John Spencer |
16 | |||||||||||||
| John Spencer |
16 | |||||||||||||
| David Taylor |
5 | |||||||||||||
| John Spencer |
22 | |||||||||||||
| Ray Reardon |
23 | |||||||||||||
| Gary Owen |
16 | |||||||||||||
| Warren Simpson |
14 | |||||||||||||
| Gary Owen |
6
|
|||||||||||||
| Ray Reardon |
16 | |||||||||||||
| Ray Reardon |
16 | |||||||||||||
| Jim Meadowcroft |
10 | |||||||||||||
| World Snooker Championship |
|---|
| The early years |
| 1927 | 1928 | 1929 | 1930 | 1931 | 1932 | 1933 | 1934 | 1935 | 1936 | 1937 | 1938 | 1939 | 1940 |
| Post-War to decline |
| 1946 | 1947 | 1948 | 1949 | 1950 | 1951 | 1952 |
| Challenge Matches |
| 1964 | 1965 | 1966 | 1968 |
| The modern era pre-Crucible |
| 1969 | 1970 | 1971 | 1972 | 1973 | 1974 | 1975 | 1976 |
| The Crucible Theatre |
| 1977 | 1978 | 1979 | 1980 | 1981 | 1982 | 1983 | 1984 | 1985 | 1986 | 1987 | 1988 | 1989 | 1990 | 1991 | 1992 | 1993 | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 |
| Winners and statistics |
| List of winners from 1927 to present |
