Much like the Short post I previously wrote looking at five players that perhaps should have won a World Championship (scroll to the bottom to read that), this time I’m going to look at some of the individuals across the 1980s and 90s that got close on certain occasions but weren’t able to strike gold.

Just to clarify, this isn’t to retract from any of the successes that these players were able to achieve in the sport. It’s more to observe which players could have won big if it weren’t for the usual suspects in the 1980s and 90s. In the current era where competition is extremely high, making it challenging to predict a World Championship (or Triple Crown) victor, it can be quite informative to look at these previous decades and see what could have happened.

Doug Mountjoy

UK and Masters Winner, Welsh-native Doug Mountjoy only lacked the WSC to complete his Triple Crown. There was over a decade between his UK and Masters titles but he was close to the mountaintop in 1981 when he reached his only WSC final. Unfortunately for Mountjoy, he was up against a young Steve Davis who was in the infancy of his prosperous career. Mountjoy wasn’t able to reach the later stages of the Worlds following this defeat; only reaching one quarter-final in 1984.

Tony Knowles

Twice a ranking event winner, Tony Knowles had some considerable success at The Crucible during the first half of the 1980s despite not being able to go all the way. He reached the semi-finals on three occasions including 1985 and 86, where he would lose out to the eventual winners of the championship. Although, arguably his most notable accomplishment that is mentioned whenever you hear about Knowles is his hammering of defending champion Davis (10-1) in the first round of the 1982 WSC.

Neal Foulds

Former World No. 3, now commentator, Neal Foulds reached the semi-finals of the Masters on three occasions and the finals of the UK Championship once. His furthest voyage in the WSC came in 1987 where he was stopped by Joe Johnson. Foulds was able to reach the quarter-finals a few times but kept finding himself in sightlines of other champions. Given his deep Triple Crown ventures, it is unfortunate Foulds wasn’t able to etch his name in the trophies.

James Wattana

He’s still an active professional however, James Wattana’s acclaim is primarily associated with his performance in the 1990s. Before O’Sullivan entered, Wattana held the record for the fastest maximum break, at 7 minutes 9 seconds in 1991. Wattana reached The Crucible semi-finals twice, losing to rivals White and Hendry each time. He was able to scrap with the best of them as displayed by his £1 million+ prize winnings and was one of the driving forces in popularising snooker in the eastern hemisphere.

Matthew Stevens

I know this is on the borderline as to whether we can classify Matthew Stevens in this list, but he was reaching Triple Crown finals in the late 1990s and was a professional for years before that. Stevens is one of the players that could fairly hold a little resentment towards the Class of ’92 considering how many Triple Crowns they cost him. The easiest thing is for me to do is show you is Stevens’ record for his first 8 Crucible appearances from 1998-05: 1) quarter-final, 2) quarter-final, 3) final, 4) semi-final, 5) semi-final, 6) round 2 (ignore that), 7) semi-final and 8) final. A personal favourite of mine and I still hold out hope that he’ll complete the Triple Crown!

What do you think of my list? What other players across the 1980s and 90s do you think should be included?

Like this Short? Click here to read: Five Players who should have won the World Championship

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