Cliff Thorburn

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Cliff Thorburn

Born	January 16, 1948 (1948-01-16) (age 60), Victoria, British Columbia
Nationality	Canadian
Nickname(s)	The Grinder
Professional	1972–1996
Highest ranking	#1 (1981/82)
Career winnings	C$2,500,000 [1]
Highest break	147 (twice)^[clarify]
Tournament wins
Ranking	2
Non-ranking	4
World Champion	1980

Clifford (Cliff) Charles Devlin Thorburn, CM (born January 16, 1948 in Victoria, British Columbia) is a retired professional Canadian snooker player. A former world number one (one of only 7 players to hold that spot), he reached three world finals and won one of them making him the only player outside the British isles to win the world title in the modern era. His slow, determined style of play earned him the nickname "The Grinder".

1 Career
2 Tournament wins
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Career

Thorburn first went to England to play snooker professionally in the early 70s. He had met John Spencer in Canada, who had advised him to go to the UK to improve his game. ^[1] He was runner up in the world championship in 1977, and was soon considered a contender for tournaments. Thorburn's finest moment came in the 1980 World Championship. He met Alex Higgins in the final, a personality that could hardly be more different from his own. Thorburn won the match 18-16 to take the championship, and rose to number two in the world rankings. The BBC's coverage of the final had been interrupted by the broadcast of live footage of the SAS storming the Iranian Embassy. The following season Thorburn reached the number one spot. He also lost two World finals, to John Spencer in 1977 and Steve Davis in 1983. On the latter occasion his wife had miscarried shortly before the match, and this may partly explain his very heavy defeat by Davis, although Thorburn has also cited that he was shouldering a fatigue handicap after his 13-12 win over Kirk Stevens in the quarter finals and a gruelling 16-15 victory in his semi-final against Tony Knowles, which finished at 2:30am and left him physically exhausted in the final the next day.

In 1983, Thorburn became the first player to make a maximum 147 break at the World Championships. He compiled the break in the fourth frame of his second round match against Terry Griffiths (a match he went on to win 13-12). Whilst completing the break, play stopped on the tournament's second table because Thorburn's friend and fellow Canadian Bill Werbeniuk wanted to watch him complete the break.

In 1983 Thorburn was made a Member of the Order of Canada.

Thorburn was three times the Benson and Hedges Masters Champion, the most prestigious non-ranking event on the snooker calendar for many years. The event was held at the Wembley Conference Centre near London, England, which is where Thorburn lifted the title on three occasions winning in 1983 beating Ray Reardon 9-7 in the final, 1985 beating Doug Mountjoy 9-6 and in 1986 beating Jimmy White 9-5. At that time Thorburn was the first player to retain the Masters title.

Thorburn enjoyed success in the 1985 and 1986 Langs Scottish Masters, an invitational event which opened the snooker season. Thorburn defeated Willie Thorne 9-7 in 1985 final and Alex Higgins 9-8 the following year.

Thorburn won the opening ranking event in the 1985-1986 snooker calendar, the Goya Matchroon Trophy. Thorburn beat Jimmy White in the final 12-10 having trailed 0-7 and 4-8 and was runner-up in the same event the following two seasons.

He last qualified for the World Championship in 1994, where he faced Nigel Bond in the first round. Thorburn led by 9-2 but lost 10-9.

During the 2006 World Championships, Thorburn flew to Sheffield to unveil a lifesize painting of his break, by the artist Michael Myers. It is on display at the Macdonald St. Paul's Hotel in Sheffield. [2]

Along with the highs there were a few lows. His manager Darryl McKerrow was killed in a hunting accident during the mid 80’s and he was fined £10,000 and banned for two ranking tournaments in 1988 after failing a drugs test.

He is the father of two boys, Jamie and Andrew. Thorburn won around C$2.5 million in prize money during his 25 year career but also received a considerable income from inter alia billiards equipment endorsments, exhibition games, a snooker instruction book and an autobiography.