The Crucible – “Home of the World Snooker Championship”

The Crucible Theatre was built in 1971 and will be found in the centre of Sheffield, England. As well as being a home to a large variety of theatrical performances, The Crucible is home to the most significant professional snooker tournament, the World Snooker Championship.

Known as the “Home of the World Snooker Championship” the tournament has been played annually at the Crucible for over thirty years, the first one being played in 1977. In the same year the BBC provided television coverage and has ever since. Other indoor sports are also hosted here with squash and table tennis tournaments also proving popular.

Generally seen as the climax of the snooker season the World Championship is definitely the most important snooker event on the tour with more prize money, prestige and world ranking points available than anywhere else. The Crucible is well known for its inimitable environment for the fans watching live and for the ones at home watching on television. Seating less than a thousand fans the auditorium can have an eerily, electric atmosphere even when they are just a few feet away from the players, silent and transfixed on a match. This is what makes the place so special, with a large proportion of players admitting it’s the best place to play in the world.

The two most successful players at the Crucible are Steve Davis winning the title 6 times in the 1980’s and Stephen Hendry who won the title seven times during the 1990’s. In recent years the standard of snooker has risen and it has become tougher to win so many in a row, with 6 different players winning the World Championship in the last 7 years. The most well known final occurred in 1985 when Dennis Taylor beat Steve Davis 18-17 in a final frame shootout, this infamous battle was one of the closest matches of all time also finishing at 00:19 in the morning!

I’ve been to the Crucible for the last few years and after the first time there I was hooked the city of Sheffield is a great place to visit and live and recently finding a property to rent in Sheffield was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. As well as the 980 seat auditorium the Crucible also contains a 400 seat studio theatre. Known as a Grade II listed building it was awarded the Barclays Theatre of the year award in 2001. Currently undergoing a £15 million refurbishment not planned to finish until late 2009, only open in 2008/2009 for the World Snooker Championships.

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