Cliff ‘The Grinder’ Thorburn

World Champion. Snooker icon.
Coach. Canadian legend.

“There are lots of good memories here.”
Cliff Thorburn, back at the Crucible, 2018

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Cliff Thorburn in waistcoat and tie, arms folded, cue in hand

World Champion1980

First Crucible 1471983

Masters Champion1983 · 85 · 86

Snooker Hall of Fame2014

A remarkable career

A lasting legacy

Known the world over as The Grinder, a tribute to his patient determination to wear opponents down, Cliff Thorburn learned the game in the pool halls of Canada and took it all the way to the Crucible. He is generally recognised as the first world champion from outside the United Kingdom, and he is still the only one from the Americas.

Explore his story

Cliff Thorburn raises the World Championship trophy at the Crucible, 1980

World Championship final · 1980

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Higgins16

Alex Higgins led, and Cliff kept grinding. By the end he had turned the final around to become champion of the world.

Cliff Thorburn in a pinstripe waistcoat, arms raised in celebration

Crucible Theatre · 1983

The perfect game

In the second round of the 1983 World Championship, against Terry Griffiths, Cliff did something nobody had ever done at snooker’s biggest event: fifteen reds, fifteen blacks, all six colours. A maximum 147. The players on the other table stopped their match to watch.

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The journey