2005 World Snooker Championship

The World Snooker Championship is an annual cue sport tournament and the official world championship of the game of snooker. Founded in the late 19th century by British Army soldiers stationed in India, the sport was popular in Great Britain. In modern times it has been played worldwide, especially in East and Southeast Asian nations such as China, Hong Kong and Thailand. The event was sponsored by the cigarette company Embassy. This was the last event to be sponsored by Embassy, after cigarette advertising was banned within the United Kingdom. The following season was sponsored by 888.com. Since 1977, the event has been held at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. Ronnie O'Sullivan had won the 2004 championship by defeating Scotland's Graeme Dott in the final 18–8. This was the second time O'Sullivan had won the world championship, the first being in 2001. The event was organised by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association. The event was broadcast in the United Kingdom on the BBC. Format The 2005 World Snooker Championship took place from 16 April to 2 May 2005 in Sheffield, England. It featured a 32-player main draw that was held at the Crucible Theatre, as well as a 70-player qualifying draw that was played at the Pontin's, Prestatyn Sands, from 6 February to 24 March. This was the 29th consecutive year that the tournament had been staged at the Crucible. The top 16 players in the latest world rankings automatically qualified for the main draw as seeded players. The draw for the qualifying competition consisted of 70 players from the World Snooker Tour. • Winner: £250,000 • Runner-up: £125,000 • Semi-finalists: £51,000 • Quarter-finalists: £26,000 • Last 16: £15,850 • Last 32: £12,000 • Last 48: £8,000 • Last 64: £5,000 • Televised stage highest break: £14,000 • Televised stage maximum break: £147,000 • Total: £1,121,800 ==Summary==

First round (pictured in 2013) made his first career maximum break in a 10–1 win over Robert Milkins. The first round was played 16–21 April as best-of-19-frames matches played over two . O'Sullivan lead the match after the first session, 5–4, but in the second session Maguire won five straight frames to go one frame from victory. Trailing 7–9, O'Sullivan won the next three frames with a break of 68 in the 19th frame to win 10–9. Williams made the break in frame 11 to win the match. Hunter had recently been diagnosed with stomach cancer; the match against Holt being his first since the diagnosis. Hunter led the match at 5–4 after the first session but lost the first three frames of the second session. Hendry held a 7–2 lead after the first session, but Robertson won four frames in a row, including a break of 110. Hendry, however, won the match 10–7 but commented his "attitude wasn't great" going into the second session, as he had a five frame lead. Higgins edged the first session of the match 5–4, but won five of the next six frames to win 10–5, including breaks of 138 and 136. Stephen Lee defeated Maltese player Tony Drago 10–5 by capitalising on a 6–3 lead after the first session. Quinten Hann won only one frame in the opening session against Peter Ebdon. On the resumption of play, Ebdon won the second frame of the second session to win the match. Hann turned up to the event with a hangover and using a friend's . Murphy took a 5–4 lead after the first session and won five of the next six to win the match 10–5. World number six Matthew Stevens held a three frame lead over Andy Hicks after the first session. He increased his lead to 8–3 with a break of 105. Stevens won two additional frames to win the match 10–5. The pair were even for the remainder of the match, going to a at 9–9. McCulloch lead at 8–5, but Dott then won four frames to take the lead. McCulloch managed won the next two frames to win the match. He celebrated his victory wildly, even dancing a jig. David Gray defeated by Anthony Hamilton, Jimmy White defeated Fergal O'Brien, and Ken Doherty defeated Barry Pinches. Second round (pictured in 2011) defeated Mark Williams 13–12. The second round was played 21–25 April as best-of-25-frames matches held over three sessions. O'Sullivan led Carter 9–7 after the first two sessions, before winning all four frames of the final session to win 13–7. However, Ebdon won 10 of the next 11 frames to win the match 13–9. Steve Davis trailed debutant Michael Holt 2–6 and 8–10, but won five frames in a row to win 13–10. Seven-time winner Stephen Hendry took only two of the three available sessions to defeat world number 25 Anthony Hamilton 13–3. Hendry led 6–2 after the first session, then won seven of the eight frames in the second. Stevens won frame 18 in a 30-minute session to win 13–5. Doherty won the next two frames in session three, before McManus leveled the score at 10–10. McCulloch won six frames in the next session, including two century breaks, to lead 9–7. Quarter-finals (pictured in 2014) defeated the defending champion Ronnie O'Sullivan 13–11. The quarter-finals were played on 26 and 27 April as best-of-25-frames matches over three sessions. O'Sullivan made two century breaks in the opening session to lead 6–2, then won the first two frames of the second session to lead 8–2. Ebdon won four of the next six frames to trail 6–10 going into the final session. Ebdon's slow, deliberate play in the final session made O'Sullivan lose concentration, leaving Ebdon to win 13–11. At one point during the match, Ebdon took five and a half minutes to make a break of 12, significantly longer than O'Sullivan's maximum break in 1997. During the match, Ebdon took over three minutes on one shot, with O'Sullivan asking an audience member what time it was. Steve Davis reached his first quarter-final since 1996. He played qualifier Shaun Murphy. Murphy won seven of the first eight frames of the match, then led 12–4 after two sessions. He won the opening frame of the final session to win 13–4. After two sessions, the match was tied at 9–9, then Hendry won the next two frames before Stevens won four in a row to progress to the semi-finals. Ebdon made two century breaks in the first session to take a 6–2 lead in just 80 minutes, but Murphy levelled the match at 12–12 after three sessions. By winning, Murphy was only the fourth qualifier to reach the final. Stevens trailed 2–6 after the first session, but he leveled the match at 8–8 after the second session. The match was still tied at the end of the third session. and won the 2003 UK Championship. Before this event, Murphy had not reached a ranking event final. His best was reaching the semi-finals at the 2004 British Open, before losing 6–0 to John Higgins. Stevens led 10–6 after the second session and 12–11 at the end of the third session. However, Murphy defeated Stevens 18–16. Murphy made three century breaks during the final to Stevens' one, the highest of which was a 137. ==Main draw==

Shown below are the results for each round. The numbers in parentheses beside some of the players are their seeding ranks, while players in bold denote match winners. ==Qualifying==

The qualifying tournament featured 70 participants and was played from 23 February to 24 March 2005. The qualifiers consisted of five rounds, which were played at Pontin's, Prestatyn Sands, Wales. while the final round was played 23–24 March 2005. Of the 70 participants, 16 players qualified for the main draw, with players seeded by their world rankings. losing to Fergal O'Brien 8–10 in the final qualifying round. Round 1 10–8 10–9 10–6 10–6 10–5 10–9 Rounds 2–5 ==Century breaks==

There were 63 centuries in the 2005 World Snooker Championship. The highest was a maximum break made by Williams in the 11th frame in his first round win over Robert Milkins. • 147, 133, 102 Mark Williams • 138, 114, 108, 103 Stephen Hendry • 138, 136, 106 John Higgins • 138, 137, 132, 129, 125, 123, 121, 111, 108, 107, 100 Shaun Murphy • 137, 125, 115, 101 Ronnie O'Sullivan • 135 Mark Selby • 129, 124, 121, 106, 105 Matthew Stevens • 128 Drew Henry • 127, 124, 122, 111, 108, 108, 100 Ian McCulloch • 126, 108, 103 Stephen Lee • 124 Chris Small • 120 Graeme Dott • 120, 115 Paul Hunter • 118, 114, 110 Steve Davis • 115, 105 Peter Ebdon • 114, 103 Michael Holt • 110 Neil Robertson • 109, 101 Ken Doherty • 107, 104, 103 Alan McManus • 105 Andy Hicks • 102 Stephen Maguire • 102 Barry Pinches • 101 Anthony Hamilton ==References==