By Elliott West
Introduction
The Champion of Champions is a snooker tournament that features the winners of World Snooker events from the last twelve months, topped up if necessary with some of the players from the current world rankings. Usually held in November, this tournament has always provided a serving of high-quality snooker and quickly routes out the best of the best, providing a worthy champion at the end of play.
History
This tournament was first held in 1978, the brainchild of boxing promoter Mike Barrett. It was played at the Wembley Conference Centre, played over two days and contested by four players with the semi-final and final played on the second day. Made up Ray Reardon (1978 World Championship winner), Patsy Fagan (1977 UK Championship winner), Alex Higgins (1978 Masters winner) and Doug Mountjoy (1978 Pot Black winner). The event was non-ranking and sponsored by the Daily Mirror.
The final that year was contested between Alex Higgins and Ray Reardon. Higgins had defeated Doug Mountjoy 6-3 in the semifinals while Ray Reardon had beaten Patsy Fagan 6-1. In a tournament that wasn’t televised live with only brief highlights of the final shown on World of Sport, the following day, Ray Reardon managed to get the better of Alex Higgins in what would be one of their many professional meetings, beating his opponent 11-9 in the final. Ray walked away with a cheque for £4,000 and Alex with one for £2,000. The highest break was 94, made by Alex Higgins.
After a one year absence, the Champion of Champions returned in 1980, moving to a new venue, the New London Theatre in Drury Lane. The event took a different format with ten players taking part in the tournament and split up into two groups (a Round-Robin stage) with the winners of the groups advancing to the final. The final was between Doug Mountjoy and John Virgo with the Welshman overcoming his opponent 10-8 and winning £5,000 for his efforts. However, due to poor audience numbers and being financially unsuccessful, the tournament was scrapped from the snooker calendar.
It wasn’t until 2013 that the Champion of Champions returned to the snooker tour. Used as a replacement to Sky Sports Premier League, the event was moved to ITV4 and first held at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry. Ronnie O’Sullivan would be victorious this year, defeating Stuart Bingham 10-8 in the final and would be the first of three wins in this event, the others being in 2014 and 2018. There would also be future wins for Neil Robertson in 2015 and 2019, John Higgins in 2016, Shaun Murphy in 2017, where he defeated Ronnie O’Sullivan 10-8 and the current holder Mark Allen in 2020, played under Covid restrictions at the Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes, where Allen beat Neil Robertson 10-6.
This year, the event moves to Bolton with the tournament being held in November at the University of Bolton Stadium. A winner’s prize of £150,000 and £60,000 to the runner-up is being made available and this snooker gem will be reinvigorated by the welcome return of an audience that can now reach capacity. A true treat for snooker fans in the run-up to Christmas. There will also be an added gift of Ronnie O’Sullivan being able to take part in this year’s event, thanks to Mark Williams winning the British Open and therefore booking Ronnie’s place.
