Don't shorten World Championship: Why unique pressures of snooker's longer formats make it ultimate challenge

Let’s go back 30 years to May 4th, 1992. It’s a sunny bank holiday Monday afternoon in Sheffield and Jimmy White is leading Stephen Hendry 12-6 in the World Championship final. White is outplaying Hendry.

He looks around a packed Crucible theatre and starts to think of who he should thank – and who he should leave out – in his victory speech later that night. Ad/> Darkness falls in more ways than one. Six hours later, Hendry has won 18-14.

White has lost the last 10 frames. To this day, he has never held snooker’s most prized trophy aloft. World ChampionshipWorld Championship 2022: How to watch as Selby looks to defend titleAN HOUR AGO The Whirlwind would surely have been world champion had the final been played over one day, as some current players now advocate.

We’re told constantly people don’t want to watch a best of 35, that their attention spans can’t take it, that they have other things to do. But the glory of long matches comes from the investment required, from players and spectators alike. We will see this at the Crucible next month, and first at the Cazoo Tour Championship, which starts in Llandudno today and where every match is best of 19 frames.

In the early days of professional snooker, the world final was played over several weeks and could be best of as many as 149 frames. There was no supporting circuit then and no television coverage. Ticket sales was the only source of revenue so matches were dragged out for as long as possible.