The 1991 World Snooker Championship (also referred to as the 1991 Embassy World Snooker Championship for the purposes of sponsorship) was a professional rankingsnooker tournament that took place between 20 April and 6 May 1991 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England.
Stephen Hendry was the defending champion, but he lost in the quarter-finals to Steve James and thus fell to the Crucible curse, becoming another champion who was unable to defend his first world title.
John Parrott won his only World Championship title by defeating Jimmy White 18–11 in the final. It was the third time that White had lost in the final after 1984 and 1990.[1][2] The tournament was sponsored by cigarette manufacturer Embassy.
The highest break of the tournament was 140, made by Jimmy White.
Tournament summary
Future champion Ken Doherty made his Crucible debut, losing to Steve Davis 8–10;[3] former champion Joe Johnson qualified for the last time, losing to Dennis Taylor 6–10.[4] Both of these were first-round matches.
Future three-time semi-finalist Alan McManus also made his debut this year. He came through five rounds of qualifying and reached the second round at the Crucible, where he narrowly lost 12–13 to Terry Griffiths.
Ray Reardon the six time world champion announced his retirement from the game after losing his second round qualifying match 10–5 to Jason Prince. Reardon was a professional since 1967.
Cliff Thorburn failed to qualify for the first time, after playing in every championship since 1973.[5]
In the 4th frame of his first round match against Doug Mountjoy, Gary Wilkinson potted 15 reds and 15 blacks to make a break of 120. With all 6 colours on their spots, Wilkinson had a golden chance of clinching a 147 maximum break and a £100,000 prize, but Wilkinson then missed the yellow, which wobbled in the jaws of the pocket. Wilkinson went on to lead 7–0 and eventually beat the fifth seeded Mountjoy 10–2. In his second round match, Wilkinson took a 7–1 lead against Martin Clark. Clark then mounted a recovery from 1–7 to 8–10, before Wilkinson won three of the next four frames to win 13–9.
The 14th frame of the second round match between Steve Davis and Tony Meo took 70 minutes, including a 33-minute spell on just the final yellow and green. Meo won the frame by the bizarre score of 87–72, which included many foul points. Undeterred, Davis then won the next five frames to win 13–6.
One of the matches of the tournament was the second round match between Jimmy White and Neal Foulds. White took early leads of 3–0 and 4–2, but then fell 4–6 behind. In the 13th frame, when 5–7 behind, White made the highest break of the tournament, a 140. Foulds kept a one or two frame lead until he pulled three frames clear at 11–8. White then responded by winning five of the last six frames, including the final two frames, to win 13–12.
As Jimmy White barely survived against Neal Foulds in the second round, the quarter final match between White and the in form Gary Wilkinson was expected to be a close affair, but White won 11 frames in a row to go from 0–1 behind to 11–1 in front. White went on to beat Wilkinson 13–3.
Defending champion Stephen Hendry lost to Steve James 11–13 in the quarter-finals, despite Hendry having led 11–9. Hendry would not suffer another defeat at the Crucible until the 1997 final against Ken Doherty.[6]
Steve Davis made his ninth semi-final in a row, a record that still stands,[7][8] but lost 10–16 against John Parrott. In the other semi final between Jimmy White and Steve James, the first day of which was played on their 29th and 30th birthdays respectively, White won 16–9.
John Parrott took a 7–0 lead against Jimmy White in the final with near flawless snooker in the first session, and although White reduced his arrears to 8–12 at one stage, Parrott eventually won 18–11, again with a seven frame advantage.
Prize fund
The breakdown of prize money for this year is shown below:[9][10]
Shown below are the results for each round. The numbers in parentheses beside some of the players are their seeding ranks (each championship has 16 seeds and 16 qualifiers).[9][11][12][13]
