World Snooker Championship 2014

The World Snooker Championship 2014 will see snooker reach a hugely significant milestone.

Fifty years ago, the sport was at a crossroads. The popularity of snooker was on the wane and the World Snooker Championship – founded in 1927 – had not been held for seven consecutive years. Then, English snooker legend Rex Williams made the momentous decision to revive the tournament, and the first World Snooker Championship of the modern era was held later that year. The competition has since gone from strength to strength and is now established as one of Britain’s premier sporting events. In 2014, fans will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the revitalised World Snooker Championship.

Potential contenders at the World Snooker Championship

The quality of play in the modern game is higher than it has ever been. A host of former world champions will pit their wits against a new generation of players with bags of potential. Young stars such as Judd Trump, Ding Junhui and Mark Allen have all shown themselves to be capable of mixing with the very best in the sport, and some snooker betting insiders are predicting that they will go all the way in 2014.

Snooker returns to the Crucible

Once again, the Crucible Theatre will play host to the 2014 World Snooker Championship. The Sheffield-based venue is widely recognised as the home of snooker in spite of – or perhaps because of – its compact size. Seating less than a thousand people at a time, the Crucible is a claustrophobic arena that nevertheless gives spectators a remarkably good view of the action.

This intimate setting also adds immeasurably to the atmosphere and tension during big matches. Plenty of seasoned campaigners have been overcome by nerves at the world championship, paving the way for underdogs to upset the odds in spectacular fashion – such as qualifier Shaun Murphy when he won the title in 2005.

Schedule of the World Snooker Championship 2014

The World Snooker Championship 2014 gets underway in mid-April with a match involving the defending champion. Although the first round matches are usually wrapped up quite rapidly, the quarters and semis can run across multiple days as the frame count increases.

The tournament finishes in style with a nerve-racking best-of-35-frame final. Whichever player manages to reach 18 frames first will then be crowned the 2014 world champion of snooker.