Terry Griffiths achieved a level of snooker stardom only Ronnie O'Sullivan and Jimmy White can rival in modern era
By Desmond Kane
Published 02/12/2024 at 15:00 GMT
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Terry Griffiths is one of only three men to win the World Championship as a qualifier, but will be recalled alongside fellow Welsh snooker great Ray Reardon as a potting pioneer who transcended the sport. Only Ronnie O'Sullivan and Jimmy White from the modern era achieved the level of recognition that Griffiths enjoyed during the advent of professionalism and saturated terrestrial TV coverage.
Terry Griffiths and fellow snooker greats from the 1980s
Image credit: Getty Images
It has been a wretched year for Welsh snooker with the deaths of arguably its two biggest household names in former world champions Ray Reardon and Terry Griffiths.
Griffiths – a winner of the UK Championship with an epic victory over Alex 'Hurricane' Higgins in 1982 – died at the age of 77 on the same day the 48th staging of the coveted event was being won by Judd Trump with a 10-8 victory over Barry Hawkins in Sunday night's absorbing final in York.
"It is incredibly sad news, and a sad day for Welsh sport in general," said the world No. 1 in the aftermath of his second UK triumph.
It is no insult to Trump and Hawkins to suggest neither man will enjoy the level of fame in the UK that Griffiths was afforded during the sport's golden era of the 1970s and 1980s.
It is just a fact of life that snooker's landmark moment in time, for good or bad, came when modern living presented fewer distractions, attention spans seemed longer and the green baize was made for dissecting with as much fervour as political machinations.
It is often pointed out that the formidable six-time world champion Steve Davis – a constant thorn in the side of Griffiths and his cue artist contemporaries for well over a decade – spent more time on terrestrial TV in the 1980s than former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
Griffiths, with his plodding style and a deliberate but deceptively deadly gait, devouring every shot like it was his last, would not have been far behind.
Due to the evolution of the sport and the digital explosion in the way modern sport is consumed, the public are no longer locked to the little box in their living rooms.
Like Twenty/20 muscling in on the staying power of Test cricket, snooker became a victim of fashion at the outset of the 1990s and perhaps failed to move with the times in selling itself as a sport that tends not to move anywhere quickly in terms of instant results.
Yet the plot twists and its leading men were fascinating for the sporting purist, attracting a pre-social following rarely seen in rival sports.
Snooker was all the rage when Terry was on top of the world.
Born in Llanelli in 1947, the three-time Welsh professional champion emanated from a period of time when potting balls for prize money was greeted with wild fandom.
Only Jimmy 'Whirlwind' White or Ronnie O'Sullivan from today's professional ranks could rival Griffiths when it comes to a level of adulation that tends to be reserved for the very best Premier League footballers.
Griffiths was a bit like Ian Rush, the great Liverpool and Wales striker, without the rush back in the day.
"In the 1980s when there were only four channels, everybody thought they knew you. It was like you were in EastEnders," commented White, the six-time world finalist.
"Gutted to hear of the passing of my mate, Terry Griffiths. We had so many laughs over the years. Thoughts go out to his family. Rest in Peace mate," said White on Monday morning.
- Terry Griffiths obituary: The humble snooker champion who shaped a generation
- Snooker legend Griffiths dies aged 77
Despite turning professional at the age of 30 in 1978 after working as a miner, postman and bus conductor, Griffiths was just the ticket for his calling in later life, a player who embarked upon a remarkable journey in an iconic 19-year playing career among the elite before earning plaudits by helping others.
Terry performed at a time when there were only three terrestrial TV channels in the UK – four when you include the launch of Channel 4 in November 1982 – a month before Griffiths lifted the UK title before a packed house at the Guild Hall in Preston.
Like wrestling greats Big Daddy and Giant Haystacks, every man and his labrador in houses up and down the land became aware of snooker's main protagonists. Griffiths was instantly recognisable to millions.
In trying to compete with the dominance of Davis, he earned a reputation as a methodical player, an unrepentant grinder in an era where snooker fans did not mind whiling away the hours between tiffin and teatime drinks, watching men like Terry and Cliff Thorburn unapologetically claw to get under each other's skin.
When Thorburn began the first 147 in World Championship history in 16 minutes and four seconds with a fluked red during the fourth frame of a gruelling 13-12 win over Griffiths in the second round in 1983, both men were infamously armed with a packet of cigarettes during Embassy's sponsorship, unthinkable in this day and age.
Thorburn was forced to drag himself away from his packet of snouts while Terry puffed away studying the maximum in a match that saw a marathon concluding session end at 3:51am, the latest finish in Crucible history.
When the smoke cleared, he was a player lauded for his outstanding technical qualities as a world champion, and later a lauded coach to Stephen Hendry, Mark Williams, Mark Allen, Joe Perry and Ding Junhui, sporting a formidable coiffure that only seemed to enhance his stylish legend with a snooker cue.
When the country went into lockdown in 2020, and nobody could get hold of a barber, Trump's barnet during the Championship League competition was lovingly compared to peak Griffiths.
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Terry Griffiths and Judd Trump.
Image credit: Getty Images
"I want to be like Terry Griffiths," said Trump. "Hopefully, I can play as slow as him one day as well. I'll keep slowing down as I get older, and morph into some of the older players."
With the sport's self-styled 'Triple Crown' only invented in the past decade, Griffiths would not have been aware of his place in the pantheon of greats during his playing career as one of only 11 men to lift the world, UK and Masters crowns in the history of the sport.
He came from 15-13 behind to edge out Higgins 16-15 in the 1982 UK final in Preston, earning ÂŁ11,000 for his victory after defeating Higgins 9-5 two years earlier to claim his solitary Masters title before a record crowd of over 2,300 fans at the old Wembley Conference Centre in London.
But his 1979 success in carrying off the World Championship, the sport's ultimate event, enshrined his place in the sport's folklore alongside fellow Crucible champions of his generation in Davis, Higgins, Thorburn, Dennis Taylor and Joe Johnson.
He became only the second qualifier in history to win the world title, emulating the achievement of Higgins in 1972, when he defeated Taylor 24-16 in Sheffield.
"From being a miner at 15 years of age in Pontarddulais, then I was a bus conductor and a postman and then went on to work in insurance," said Griffiths in 2019.
"Next thing, I was champion of the world. It was a great thing for me, the pinnacle of my career."
Only Shaun Murphy, with an 18-16 win over Matthew Stevens in 2005, has emulated the feat over the past 45 years, with Griffiths also coaching Ding during his run to the final as a qualifier in 2016 when he lost 18-14 to Mark Selby.
In the same year he became world champion, he combined with fellow Welsh icons Reardon and Doug Mountjoy, the celebrated 1988 UK champion, to claim snooker's inaugural team World Cup with victory over England's John Spencer, Fred Davis and Graham Miles.
Griffiths was named BBC Sports Personality of the Year in rugby union-mad Wales in 1979 for his outstanding body of work.
No mean feat, but snooker was so popular that cockney pop duo Chas & Dave invited Griffiths to join Davis, Taylor, Willie Thorne and Tony Meo in recording Snooker Loopy in May 1986. The song reached No. 6 in the UK singles chart.
He went three places better himself, peaking at the lofty rank of world No. 3 in 1981.
His part of the song came with the lyrics: "'If I win,' he says with a grin. It can only help me, can't it? I'll celebrate, I'll buy another eight hairbrushes for me barnet."
A self-deprecating sense of humour, approachable and likeable, but a great champion with a ferocious will to win who seemed to embody the mantra in professional sport that slow and steady wins the race.
He could have arguably won more, losing the 1988 world final 18-11 to Davis, three Masters finals to Higgins, Davis and White, and twice in the UK final to John Virgo and Davis.
"People still come to me for a photograph and an autograph, and I finished playing 21 years ago," he said.
"I just love the place and love the Crucible Theatre and all the excitement it brings in snooker.
"I just love it, but I won't again now because I've finished going to venues and coaching back home only now. I'll miss it."
Snooker will miss Griffiths, a figure who was well ahead of his time as a social influencer and potting pioneer during the advent of professionalism.
Like Higgins and White, a unique talent who transcended the sport which made him.
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