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Former snooker world champion Terry Griffiths dies aged 77 after dementia battle

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3 weeks ago

December 2, 2024

Former snooker world champion Terry Griffiths dies aged 77 after dementia battle

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Former world snooker champion Terry Griffiths has died on the age of 77 after an extended battle with dementia, his household has confirmed.

Griffiths got here by the qualifying rounds to win the 1979 Crucible title, and likewise received the Masters and the UK Championship to finish the game’s illustrious “triple crown”.

In later years, Griffiths turned an achieved coach, inspiring the likes of Stephen Hendry, Mark Williams and Mark Allen.

Three-time world champion Williams was among the many first to pay tribute on social media, describing Griffiths as a “mentor, coach, buddy, legend”.

Allen added: “What a legend of a person who helped form my profession and life each on and off the desk. Completely heartbroken. He wasn’t only a coach, he was household.”

Griffiths’s son Wayne wrote on Fb: “To our buddies and snooker followers basically, we’re deeply saddened to share the information of our loss.

Griffiths received his world crown on the Crucible in 1979 (PA Archive)

“Terry Griffiths OBE handed away peacefully on 1st December, after a prolonged battle with dementia. He was surrounded by his household in his beloved home-town in South Wales.

“A proud Welshman, Terry was born in Llanelli, introduced pleasure to Llanelli and now he has discovered peace in Llanelli. He wouldn’t have had it some other method.”

Griffiths was a fixture on the high finish of the game in the course of the Eighties and early Nineteen Nineties, reaching a minimum of the quarter-finals of the World Snooker Championship for 9 straight years, and reaching the ultimate once more in 1988.

He retired from taking part in after a first-round defeat to Williams on the 1997 championship.

World No 1 Judd Trump, who received the UK Championship on Sunday night, was quoted by the Day by day Mail as saying: “It’s extremely unhappy information. He’s a legend of the sport.

“Terry was a really witty man. At any time when I used to be on the Welsh Open, he would come over and make a joke. I had a very good reference to him.

Griffiths with fellow former world snooker champion Alex Higgins, who died in 2010 (PA)

“It’s onerous to attach with among the older technology however he was somebody I felt I might get together with. It’s a unhappy day for Welsh sport.”

Former world champion Shaun Murphy stated on X: “Simply listening to the information that Terry Griffiths has handed away. My deepest condolences to his household and family members.”

World Snooker posted a press release describing Griffiths as an “all-time snooker nice”, including: “Our honest condolences to Terry’s household and plenty of buddies. He was cherished and revered by everybody within the sport.”

The Welsh Billiards and Snooker Affiliation stated: “We’re deeply saddened to announce the passing of WBSA President Terry Griffiths OBE. We ship our deepest condolences to Terry’s household.”