Crucible curse

The "Crucible curse" (also known as "The curse of the Crucible") refers to the fact that no first-time snooker world champion has retained his title the following year since the tournament moved to the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield in 1977.^[1][2][3][4]

The last player to successfully defend his first world title was John Pulman in 1964, when the championship was still decided by challenge matches,^[5] and the tournament had not yet moved to the Crucible Theatre. Since 1977, 17 world champions have experienced the curse, the most recent being Stuart Bingham at the 2016 World Snooker Championship.

The curse

The following first-time champions did not retain their title the following year. Of the seventeen players to have won their first championship at the Crucible Theatre, six lost in their first match as defending champion (Terry Griffiths in 1980, Steve Davis in 1982, Dennis Taylor in 1986, Graeme Dott in 2007, Neil Robertson in 2011 and Stuart Bingham in 2016) and only two went on to reach the final: Joe Johnson in 1987 and Ken Doherty in 1998.

Year[5][6]	Defending champion[5][6]	Progress	Result	Opponent	Ref
1980	Terry Griffiths	Second round[N 1]	10–13	Steve Davis	[7]
1981	Cliff Thorburn	Semi-finals	10–16	Steve Davis	[8]
1982	Steve Davis	First round	1–10	Tony Knowles	[9]
1986	Dennis Taylor	First round	6–10	Mike Hallett	[10]
1987	Joe Johnson	Final	14–18	Steve Davis	[11]
1991	Stephen Hendry	Quarter-finals	11–13	Steve James	[12]
1992	John Parrott	Quarter-finals	12–13	Alan McManus	[13]
1998	Ken Doherty	Final	12–18	John Higgins	[14]
1999	John Higgins	Semi-finals	10–17	Mark Williams	[15]
2001	Mark Williams	Second round	12–13	Joe Swail	[16]
2002	Ronnie O'Sullivan	Semi-finals	13–17	Stephen Hendry	[17]
2003	Peter Ebdon	Quarter-finals	12–13	Paul Hunter	[18]
2006	Shaun Murphy	Quarter-finals	7–13	Peter Ebdon	[19]
2007	Graeme Dott	First round	7–10	Ian McCulloch	[20]
2011	Neil Robertson	First round	8–10	Judd Trump	[21]
2015	Mark Selby	Second round	9–13	Anthony McGill	[22]
2016	Stuart Bingham	First round	9–10	Ali Carter

In years not listed above, the title was won by players who had already been world champions, and thus the "curse" did not apply. Four players have won consecutive titles at the Crucible: Steve Davis (1983–1984 and 1987–1989), Stephen Hendry (1992–1996), Ronnie O'Sullivan (2012–2013) and Mark Selby (2016-2017), but only after they experienced the "curse".^[5][23]

Pre-Crucible

Even before the World Championship was staged at the Crucible, no player in the modern game successfully defended his first world title. Of all first-time world champions, only three retained their title at the next World Championship: Joe Davis in 1928, his brother Fred Davis in 1949 and John Pulman at his first challenge match in 1964.

Additionally, Ray Reardon, Alex Higgins and John Spencer won the World Championship before the event was moved to the Crucible in 1977 (and failed to retain it the year after their first title); they all also failed to retain the title after winning it for the first time at the Crucible.

Year[5][6]	Defending champion[5][6]	Progress	Result	Opponent	Ref
Defending FIRST WORLD TITLE
1970	John Spencer	Semi-finals	33–37	Ray Reardon	[24]
1971	Ray Reardon	Semi-finals	15–34	John Spencer	[25]
1973	Alex Higgins	Semi-finals	9–23	Eddie Charlton	[26]
Defending FIRST WORLD TITLE at CRUCIBLE THEATRE
1978	John Spencer	Last 16	8–13	Perrie Mans	[27]
1979	Ray Reardon	Quarter-finals	8–13	Dennis Taylor	[28]
1983	Alex Higgins	Semi-finals	5–16	Steve Davis	[29]

Notes

References