Former snooker world champion Terry Griffiths dies aged 77 after dementia battle

FORMER world snooker champion Terry Griffiths has died aged 77 after a long battle with dementia, his family have confirmed.

Griffiths came through the qualifying rounds to win the 1979 Crucible title as a qualifier and also won the Masters and the UK Championship to complete the sport’s famous ‘triple crown’.

Terry Griffiths after winning the 1979 Embassy World Snooker Championship at the Sheffield Crucible Credit: Alamy

Griffiths in 1988

Griffiths with Dennis Taylor Credit: Alamy

Griffiths at the table during the Embassy World Professional Snooker Championship in Sheffield in 1997. Credit: Getty

In later years Griffiths became a successful coach, inspiring Stephen Hendry, Mark Williams and Mark Allen.

Three-time world champion Williams was among the first to pay tribute on social media, describing Griffiths as a “mentor, coach, friend, legend”.

Allen added: “What a legend about a man who helped shape my career and life, both at the table and off it.

“Absolutely heartbroken. He wasn’t just a coach, he was family.”

Griffiths’ son Wayne wrote on Facebook: “To our friends and snooker followers in general, we are deeply saddened to share the news of our loss.

“Terry Griffiths OBE passed away peacefully on 1st December, after a long battle with dementia.

“He was surrounded by his family in his beloved home town in South Wales.

“A proud Welshman, Terry was born in Llanelli, brought pride to Llanelli and has now found peace in Llanelli.

“I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Griffiths was a fixture at the top of the sport throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, reaching at least the quarter-finals of the World Cup nine years in a row, and reaching the final again in 1988.

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He retired after losing in the first round to Williams at the 1997 World Championships.

Griffiths was married to Annette and had two sons, Wayne, a snooker coach, and Darren, a PGA golf professional.

THE HEROISM OF UNATIO

For a man known for his slow and methodical game, it was fitting that Griffiths’ career as a snooker player and coach did not burn out and stayed on for more than four decades.

Griffiths may have been a real turtle to green rivals like Alex ‘Hurricane’ Higgins and Jimmy ‘Whirlwind’ White and he didn’t shy away from controversy.

But Griffiths drained every last drop of his talent and his role in helping usher in a new era of snooker in the late 1970s and 1980s was no less important than that of his flashier contemporaries.

“People still come up to me for a photo and an autograph and I stopped playing 21 years ago,” Griffiths said in a 2019 BBC interview.

Griffiths’ place in snooker’s pantheon was secured by winning the world championship at his first attempt in 1979 – the first qualifier to do so.

A year earlier, he was making money selling insurance.

People still come to me for photos and autographs, and I stopped playing 21 years ago

Interview by Terry Griffiths for BBC 2019

The Welshman turned professional in June 1978 and the following April began a run at the Crucible Theater in Sheffield that would change his life forever.

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

He then beat eventual champion Dennis Taylor 24-16 in the final to collect a £10,000 winner’s cheque.

“Dennis and I were good friends and we had to go to the reception but I didn’t have a car,” said Griffiths, who became an overnight sensation at the age of 31.

So I asked him if I could put the trophy in his boot and he said ‘yes of course’.

“But afterwards he said ‘I can’t believe you asked me to put the trophy in the trunk’. I was just asking him for a favor!”

The public enjoyed Griffiths’ underdog story as the sport made its way from smoky snooker halls to prime-time TV and big business.

Griffiths’ jovial personality won hearts and his stylish coiffed look was immortalized in Chas & Dave’s ‘Snooker Loopy’ when he sang ‘I’ll buy another four hairbushes for me barnet’.

When Judd Trump’s haircut was the talk of social media nearly 40 years later, the 2019 world champion said: “I want to be like Terry Griffiths. I hope one day I can play slow like him.”

Griffiths, who was born in the rugby town of Llanelli on October 16, 1947, started playing snooker at the age of 13 and became a top Welsh amateur.

I want to be like Terry Griffiths. I hope one day I can play as slow as him

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Away from the desk, he was a miner at 15 and also worked as a bus conductor and postman before becoming an insurance agent.

Inspired by fellow Welshman Ray Reardon, who won six world titles between 1970 and 1978, Griffiths turned pro and ushered in an era in which snooker’s best would become Britain’s most recognizable sportsmen.

Although he was not a successful tournament winner, Griffiths won the Masters in 1980 and the UK Championship in 1982, making him one of only 11 players to win snooker’s Triple Crown.

Griffiths reached at least the quarter-finals of the World Championships for nine consecutive years between 1984 and 1992, reaching a second final in 1988 when he lost 18–11 to Steve Davis.

His best days were long behind him when he retired from the professional game in 1997, although Griffiths’ elegant style has stood the test of time.

But Griffiths, who received an OBE in 2009, has remained in snooker as a successful commentator, while building a reputation as one of the best coaches in the game.

World champions Hendry and Williams, Ali Carter, Stephen Maguire and Ding Junhui were among the players he coached, and he was director of the South West Snooker Academy.