Snooker mourns one of its great characters today after the announcement that Terry Griffiths died at the age of 77 on Sunday.
The affable Welshman suffered with dementia but passed away peacefully and surrounded by his family on December 1st, the day of the UK Championship final.
That tournament was among the big three that Terry Griffiths won during a successful snooker career as both a player and a coach.
Here, we’ll take a short time to reflect on some of his greatest achievements on the baize.
“I’m in the final now, you know!”
After winning back-to-back English Amateur Championships, Griffiths turned professional in 1978 and was an almost-immediate force on the main tour.
He had to qualify for his first World Championship in 1979, but after emerging from the preliminaries he proceeded to mount a challenge for the title itself.
An initial victory over Perrie Mans, the previous year’s runner-up in Sheffield, took him to a quarter-final meeting with Alex Higgins that he edged 13-12.
Another epic encounter followed in the semi-finals, where he won the last three frames to deny Australian Eddie Charlton.
Interviewed afterwards inside the Crucible Theatre, Griffiths famously quipped, “I’m in the final now, you know!”
He completed the remarkable run with a 24-16 success over Dennis Taylor in the final, becoming the first qualifier to win a World Championship crown.
A Master of his Craft
Several months after winning the world title at his first attempt, Griffiths almost added a UK Championship trophy but just missed out in a dramatic final to John Virgo in a deciding frame.
Not long after, Griffiths participated in the prestigious Masters in London for the first time in his career.
After ousting Cliff Thorburn and John Spencer, who he thrashed 5-0, in the early rounds, Griffiths faced Alex Higgins for glory.
The latter had the majority of the support and at one point led 4-3, but Griffiths dominated the second half of the showdown and compiled a tremendous 131 century break to win 9-5.
Delivering a Triple Crown
Despite his inexperience at the professional level compared to many others on the tour at the time, the Llanelli lad became a constant presence at the business end of events.
A postman before dedicating his life to snooker, Terry Griffiths made it a habit of delivering his best snooker on the calendar’s biggest tournaments.
In fact, between the 1979 World Championship and the 1982 UK Championship, the Griff contested seven out of 11 finals in what would later become more commonly known as the Triple Crown series.
Disappointing defeats transpired at the 1981 Masters final, where Higgins gained revenge for the year before, and again in 1982 when he was stopped by Steve Davis.
Griffiths had also lost to Davis in the 1981 UK Championship final where he was humbled 16-3 by the game’s newest force.
But a third crack at UK glory manifested in 1982 and again it was Higgins on the opposite side of the table.
A ding-dong battle in Preston ebbed one way and then the other before Griffiths strung together the last three frames to seal a dramatic 16-15 triumph.
Victory ensured that he became only the second player in history after Davis to claim the career Triple Crown.
Other notable titles
Following his Triple Crown achievement, Griffiths became a less frequent presence in finals as he struggled to keep up with the emerging talent of the 1980s.
The former world number three reached the finals of the 1984 Masters and the 1988 World Championship but was denied by Jimmy White and Steve Davis respectively.
Davis, indeed, became a particular thorn in his side and prevented him from enjoying a more plentiful career in terms of titles won.
Griffiths lost seven times to Davis at the Crucible Theatre, but he did record some notable victories over the decade’s runaway world number one.
He beat the Nugget to win a third Irish Masters title on the trot in 1982 shortly after also eclipsing the Englishman to land The Classic in Oldham.
Forever a proud Welshman, Griffiths was additionally a member of the Welsh team which won the inaugural World Cup in 1979.
Griffiths retired from the game as a professional in 1997 after a 10-9 defeat to countryman Mark Williams in the first round of that year’s World Snooker Championship.
A world-renowned coach
Williams, fittingly, would become one of the notable players who Terry Griffiths would go on to coach.
Griffiths quickly became one of the leading coaches in the game with Mark Allen, Barry Hawkins, Marco Fu, Ding Junhui, and Ali Carter among the other big-name players who acquired his services.
Several players, including many of the players who came under his wing, expressed their sadness at their former mentor’s passing on Sunday night.
“[Terry Griffiths] looked after me since playing in his club every Sunday since I was 12,” three-time world champion Williams wrote on X before adding that he was a “mentor, coach, friend, legend.”
Allen said that he was “forever grateful”, a message he accompanied with three broken-heart symbols.
“What a legend of a man who helped shape my career and life both on and off the table,” the Northern Irishman added.
“[I’m] absolutely heartbroken. He wasn’t just a coach, he was family.”
Judd Trump, who was crowned the 2024 UK champion on the day of his death, said: “It is very, very sad news. It is tough for the family and they have such a history in snooker.”
“It is incredibly sad news and a sad day for Welsh sport in general.”
Featured photo credit: WST
RIP Terry Griffiths, the last of the 70’s champions. Just a few months after his sporting compatriot Ray Reardon. The last post for the postman. A year of losses for snooker.
Sad to hear this news
RIP Terry
Watched his win in 1979 followed snooker ever since thankyou for the memories
Sad to hear about Terry Griffiths, great player and entertainer. Spent a great weekend at his home in the early days of coaching. Never forget the words he said to me in that wonderful Welsh accent, “You give it quite a dig, don’t you” R I P Terry.
Hi. You’ve coached a number of pros, right?
Terry Griffiths is one of the most consequential snooker figures in history.
His playing record was formidable. 18 individual career titles was comparable with anyone of his era with the exception of Steve Davis. DC has outlined the most significant titles and when he was at his most prolific. Another aspect of his record was the consistency he displayed at the Crucible. The Griff reached at least the second round every year between 1983 and 1996. Just two opening round losses from 19 Crucible appearances.
His impact as a coach stretched far and wide, encompassing success with a number of leading players but also with youngsters trying to learn the game and potentially become professional.
His commentary for the BBC was always considered and insightful. The coaching he was undertaking at the same time helped him offer nuggets of insight into how players deal with the intense mental aspects of the game.
Griffiths made 86 career centuries, with a tournament high of 140. He was the BBC Cymru 1979 Sports Personality of the Year.