19 Facts About Terry Griffiths

Terence Martin Griffiths was born on 16 October 1947 and is a Welsh retired professional snooker player and current snooker coach and pundit.

Terry Griffiths was the second qualifier to win the title after Alex Higgins achieved the feat in 1972; only Shaun Murphy has done it since, winning the title in 2005.

Terry Griffiths defeated Dennis Taylor by 24 to 16 in the final.

Nine years later, in 1988, Terry Griffiths reached the final of the competition again.

Terry Griffiths reached at least the quarter-finals of the World Championship for nine consecutive years from 1984 to 1992.

Terry Griffiths won the Masters in 1980 and the UK Championship in 1982, making him one of the players to have completed snooker's Triple Crown.

Terry Griffiths was runner-up at the Masters three times, and reached the final of the 1989 European Open where he lost the to John Parrott.

Terry Griffiths announced his retirement from professional snooker in 1996 to become the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association's director of coaching, and developed a coaching career that has included working with leading players including Stephen Hendry, Mark Williams and Ding Junhui.

Terence Martin Terry Griffiths was born in Llanelli on 16 October 1947.

Terry Griffiths won the West Wales snooker championship, and having changed his employment to become a bus conductor, had more time available to practise snooker.

Terry Griffiths later worked as a postman, and as an insurance salesman.

Terry Griffiths compiled his first century break when he was 24, the same year that he first entered the Welsh Amateur Championship, finishing as runner up.

Terry Griffiths played in the amateur home internationals fourteen times, winning twelve of his matches, and after winning the Welsh Amateur Championship in 1975, gained a place at the 1976 World Amateur Snooker Championship where he reached the quarter-finals.

Terry Griffiths won the English Amateur Championship in 1977 and 1978 before turning professional on 1 June 1978, having been accepted as a member by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association at its meeting during the 1978 World Snooker Championship.

Terry Griffiths was only the second player to win the championship after playing in qualifying, after Higgins in 1972, and the first to win it at the Crucible as a qualifier.

Terry Griffiths was the subject of This Is Your Life in 1980.

Terry Griffiths took the Pot Black title in 1984 and won the Welsh Professional Championship again in 1986 and 1988.

Terry Griffiths retired whilst 23rd in the rankings, the first year since his debut season that he had not been in the elite top 16.

In 2007, Terry Griffiths was awarded an OBE for "services to snooker".