Proud Welshman who drew every drop from his talent

Terry Griffiths was the first qualifier to lift the world crown

- PHIL BLANCHE

For a man renowned for his slow and methodical play, it was fitting that the career of Terry Griffiths as a snooker player and coach did not burn out and stayed lit for over four decades. Griffiths may have been the tortoise to the hare of green baize rivals like Alex “Hurricane” Higgins and Jimmy “Whirlwind” White and did not court controversy away from the table.

But the Welshman, who has died at the age of 77, drew every last drop from his talent and his role in helping to usher in snooker’s new era in the late 1970s and 1980s was no less important than more flamboyant contemporaries. “People still come to me for a photograph and an autograph and I finished playing 21 years ago,” Griffiths said in a 2019 BBC interview.

His place in snooker’s pantheon was secured by winning the world championship at the first attempt in 1979 – the first qualifier to do so. A year earlier, he had been selling insurance for a living. Griffiths turned professional in June 1978 and the following April embarked on a run at Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre that would change his life for good.

He had 13-8 and 13-12 wins over Perrie Mans and Higgins respectively before beating Eddie Charlton 19-17 in a semi-final which finished at 1.40am – the latest finish of any match at the time.