As well as having been a miner,he had a spell as a copper before joining the influx into professional snooker at the tail end of the 60s as it revived and embraced the nascent age of colour television.
And John Spencer was the reigning champion going into this one,having won it the first year it was held at the Crucible. RIP Perrie Mans - not known for being a super-smooth breakbuilder like Spencer,but a great single ball potter.
Why is Reardon sitting on the right hand seat, considering he won 5 world titles in short space of time before those world championships and was the man of that decade? Davis and Hendry when they were the man of their respective decades always sat on the left hand seat.
The format we all know and recognise today,with a 35-frame (first to 18) final,began in 1980 and has remained almost entirely unchanged ever since. The only tweak made (from 1997 onwards) has been to change the semi-finals from a maximum of 31 frames (first to 16) up to 33 frames (first to 17).
