Canadian snooker player

Cliff Thorburn

Clifford Charles Devlin Thorburn is a Canadian retired professional snooker player. Nicknamed "The Grinder" because of his slow, determined style of play, he won the World Snooker Championship in 1980, defeating Alex Higgins 18–16 in the final. He is generally recognised as the sport's first world champion from outside the United Kingdom—since Australian Horace Lindrum's 1952 title is usually disregarded—and he remains the only world champion from the Americas. He was runner-up in two other world championships, losing 21–25 to John Spencer in the 1977 final and 6–18 to Steve Davis in the 1983 final.

Born

1948

January 16

Died

Living

Era

1940s

Country

About

Cliff, in brief

Clifford Charles Devlin Thorburn is a Canadian retired professional snooker player. Nicknamed "The Grinder" because of his slow, determined style of play, he won the World Snooker Championship in 1980, defeating Alex Higgins 18–16 in the final. He is generally recognised as the sport's first world champion from outside the United Kingdom—since Australian Horace Lindrum's 1952 title is usually disregarded—and he remains the only world champion from the Americas. He was runner-up in two other world championships, losing 21–25 to John Spencer in the 1977 final and 6–18 to Steve Davis in the 1983 final.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Life timeline

Key dates

  1. 1948 Born

Also on January 16

What else happened on this day, through history

See all of January 16 →

The world in 1948

When Cliff arrived

Read the year 1948 →

Same-day contemporaries

Also born on January 16

See everything on January 16 →

Same-year contemporaries

Also born in 1948

Read about the year 1948 →

Keep going

More to explore