Cliff Thorburn
Canadian snooker player · Canada · On the map · Writers · Born 1948 · age 78
Clifford Charles Devlin Thorburn is a Canadian retired professional snooker player. Nicknamed "The Grinder" because of his slow, determined style of play, he won the World Snooker Championship in 1980, defeating Alex Higgins 18-16 in the final.
Cliff Thorburn is read about 89 times a day, in 25 languages.
A typical day, 30 days to 6 November 2026
The middle day of the days counted, so one week of news cannot move it. The line under it is the last 104 days, one point a day.
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He is generally recognised as the sport's first world champion from outside the United Kingdom - since Australian Horace Lindrum's 1952 title is usually disregarded - 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 in a World Championship match, achieving the feat in his second-round encounter with Terry Griffiths.
