The Grinder

Well today is a very special day as we welcome our second celebrity guest World Champion Snooker Player Cliff Thorburn

Patrick and Martin have a great informal chat to Cliff who now lives back in Canada.

Clifford Charles Devlin Thorburn  (born 16 January 1948) is a Canadian retired professional Snooker player,  Nicknamed "The Grinder" because of his slow, determined style of play.

Cliff won the World Snooker Championship in 1980 defeating Alex Higgins 18–16 in the final.

He is generally recognised as the sport's first world champion from outside the United Kingdom and he remains the only world champion from the Americas.  He was runner-up in two other world championships, losing 21–25 to John Spencer in the 1977 final and 6–18 to Steve Davis in the 1983 final.

At the 1983 tournament, Thorburn became the first player to make a maximum break of 147 in a World Championship match, achieving the feat in his second-round encounter with Terry Griffiths.

Ranked World Number one during the 1981 - 1982 season, Thorburn was the first non-British player to top the snooker world rankings. He won the Invitational Masters in 1983, 1985, and 1986, making him the first player to win the tournament three times and the first to retain the title.

Chris retired from the main professional tour in 1996. Inducted into Canada's Sporting Hall of Fame in 2001 and the Snooker Hall of Fame in 2014, he competed later in his career in Snooker Legends events and on the World Series tour, winning the 2018 Seniors Masters at the Crucible Theatre at age 70. He retired from competitive snooker after the 2022 seniors.

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Check out our new website at www.whostomanddick.

Check out our new website at www.whostomanddick.com

Check out our new website at www.whostomanddick.com

Martin & Patrick xx