1977–78 snooker world rankings

The World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association, the governing body for professional snooker, first published official world rankings for players on the main tour for the 1976–77 season. Before this, the defending champion was seeded first, and the previous year's runner-up second, for each tournament.[1][2][3]

For the 1977–78 season, players' performances in the previous three World Snooker Championships (1975, 1976, and 1977) contributed to their points total. For each of the three years, the World Champion was awarded five points, the runner-up received four, losing semi-finalists got three, players eliminated in the quarter-finals gained two, and losers in the last-16 round received a single point.[3][4] If players were level on points, then those gained in the most recent event determined positioning. If this was still equal, then the losing margin on frames was taken into account.[1]

Ray Reardon retained top place in the rankings from the 1976/1977 listing, with 12 points. John Spencer, the 1977 World Champion, was second, six places higher than in the previous season's list, on 9 points. Doug Mountjoy, at 14th, was the highest-ranked one-season professional.[5] The eight highest-ranked players were placed directly into the last-16 round of the 1978 World Snooker Championship, whilst all other entrants were required to participate in a qualifying competition to produce the eight players to play the exempted seeds. As defending champion, Spencer was seeded first for the 1978 tournament,[4] with the other seeds based on the rankings.[6]

Rankings

No. 1: Ray Reardon
Born(1932-10-08)8 October 1932
Died20 July 2024(2024-07-20) (aged 91)
Sport country Wales
Professional1967–1992
Highest ranking1
No. 2: John Spencer
BornSeptember 18, 1935
DiedJuly 11, 2006(2006-07-11) (aged 70)
Sport country England
Professional1968–1991
Highest ranking2
No. 3: Eddie Charlton
BornOctober 31, 1929
DiedNovember 7, 2004(2004-11-07) (aged 75)
Sport country Australia
Professional1963–1995
Highest ranking3

The professional world rankings for the snooker players on the main tour in the 1977–78 season are listed below. Points gained in each of the three World Snooker Championships are shown, with the total number of points given in the last column. A "–" symbol indicates that the player did not participate in that year's championship.[2][3][4] Some sources show Mans as placed 9th and Davis 10th, and Thorne 18th with Virgo 20th.[7][8] It is unclear why three players with 0 points were included in the rankings.

Snooker world rankings 1977/1978
Ranking Name Country 1975 1976 1977 Total Points
1 Ray Reardon  Wales 5 5 2 12
2 John Spencer  England 2 2 5 9
3 Eddie Charlton  Australia 4 3 2 9
4 Dennis Taylor  Northern Ireland 3 2 3 8
5 Alex Higgins  Northern Ireland 3 4 1 8
6 Cliff Thorburn  Canada 2 1 4 7
7 John Pulman  England 1 1 3 5
8 Graham Miles  England 1 1 2 4
9 Fred Davis  England 1 2 1 4
10 Perrie Mans  South Africa 0 3 1 4
11 Rex Williams  England 2 1 1 4
12 David Taylor  England 1 1 1 3
13 Gary Owen  Wales 2 1 – 3
14 Doug Mountjoy  Wales – – 2 2
15 Jim Meadowcroft  England 0 2 0 2
16 John Dunning  England 1 1 0 2
17 Bill Werbeniuk  Canada 1 1 – 2
18 John Virgo  England – – 1 1
19 Patsy Fagan  Ireland – – 1 1
20 Willie Thorne  England – 0 1 1
21 Ian Anderson  Australia 1 0 – 1
22 Warren Simpson  Australia 1 0 – 1
23 Marcus Owen  Wales 0 0 – 0
24 Bernard Bennett  England 0 0 0 0
25 Paddy Morgan  Australia 0 0 – 0
Preceded by
1976/1977 		1977/1978 Succeeded by
1978/1979

References

  1. ^ a b "Official rankings". Snooker Scene. August 1976. p. 10.
  2. ^ a b Turner, Chris. "Historical World Rankings 1975/76 to 1989/90". cajt.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk. Chris Turner's Snooker Archive. Archived from the original on 8 June 2012. Retrieved 26 February 2011.
  3. ^ a b c Turner, Chris (September 2000). "World Rankings – History and Development". Global Snooker Centre. Archived from the original on 3 August 2004. Retrieved 24 June 2013.
  4. ^ a b c "New professional rankings". Snooker Scene. Everton's News Agency. July 1977. p. 17.
  5. ^ Morrison, Ian (1989). Snooker: records, facts and champions. Enfield: Guinness Superlatives Ltd. p. 121. ISBN 978-0-85112-364-6.
  6. ^ "Correction". Snooker Scene. Everton's News Agency. August 1977. p. 21.
  7. ^ Hayton, Eric (2004). The CueSport Book of Professional Snooker. Lowestoft: Rose Villa Publications. pp. 119–123. ISBN 0-9548549-0-X.
  8. ^ Kobylecky, John (2019). The Complete International Directory of Snooker Players – 1927 to 2018. Kobyhadrian Books. pp. 46, 149. ISBN 978-0-9931433-1-1.