The World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association, the governing body for professional snooker, first published official world rankings for players on the main tour for the 1976–77 season. Before this, the defending champion was seeded first, and the previous year's runner-up second, for each tournament.[1][2][3]

For the 1976–77 snooker season, players' performances in the previous three World Snooker Championships (1974, 1975, and 1976) contributed to their ranking points total. For each of the three years, the World Champion was awarded five points, the runner-up received four, losing semi-finalists got three, players eliminated in the quarter-finals gained two, and losers in the last-16 round received a single point.[3] If players were level on points, then those gained in the most recent event determined positioning. If this was still equal, then the losing margin on frames was taken into account.[1]

Ray Reardon, having won the championship in each of the three years considered, was ranked first, with the maximum possible 15 points, followed by Alex Higgins, the 1976 runner-up, on nine points.[1] The eight-highest ranked players were placed directly into the last-16 round of the 1977 World Snooker Championship,[4] whilst all other entrants were placed in a qualifying competition to produce the eight players to play the exempted seeds.[5]

The same points system, based on results from 1973, 1974 and 1975, had been used to calculate the eight top seeds for the 1976 World Championship. Reardon had topped that list with 15 points, followed by Eddie Charlton on nine, and Higgins with eight.[6]

Rankings

No. 1: Ray Reardon
Born (1932-10-08) 8 October 1932
Sport countryWales
Professional1967–1991
Highest ranking1
No. 2: Alex Higgins
Alex Higgins sitting at a table reading a newspaper
Alex Higgins in 2008
Born(1949-03-18)18 March 1949
Died24 July 2010(2010-07-24) (aged 61)
Sport countryNorthern Ireland
Professional1971–1997
Highest ranking2
No. 3: Eddie Charlton
Born31 October 1929
Died8 November 2004(2004-11-08) (aged 75)
Sport countryAustralia
Professional1963–1995
Highest ranking3

The professional world rankings for the snooker players on the main tour in the 1976–77 season are listed below. Points gained in each of the three World Snooker Championships are shown, with the total number of points given in the last column. A "–" symbol indicates that the player did not participate in that year's championship.[1][7]

Snooker world rankings 1976/1977
Ranking Name Country 1974 1975 1976 Total Points
1 Ray Reardon  Wales55515
2 Alex Higgins  Northern Ireland2349
3 Eddie Charlton  Australia1438
4 Fred Davis  England3126
5 Graham Miles  England4116
6 Rex Williams  England3216
7 Perrie Mans  South Africa2035
8 John Spencer  England1225
9 Dennis Taylor  Northern Ireland0325
10 Gary Owen  Wales1214
11 John Dunning  England2114
12 Jim Meadowcroft  England1023
13 Cliff Thorburn  Canada0213
14 Bill Werbeniuk  Canada1113
15 John Pulman  England1113
16 David Taylor  England0112
17 Marcus Owen  Wales202
18 Bernard Bennett  England1001
19 Ian Anderson  Australia0101
20 Warren Simpson  Australia011
21 Paddy Morgan  Australia101
Preceded by
1976/1977 Succeeded by
1977/1978

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Official rankings". Snooker Scene. August 1976. p. 10.
  2. Turner, Chris. "Historical World Rankings 1975/76 to 1989/90". cajt.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk. Chris Turner's Snooker Archive. Archived from the original on 8 June 2012. Retrieved 26 February 2011.
  3. 1 2 "World Rankings – History and Development". Global Snooker Centre. Archived from the original on 3 August 2004. Retrieved 24 June 2013.
  4. "Reardon trying for fifth consecutive title". The Times. No. 59917. 26 January 1977. p. 11.
  5. "New qualifying system". Snooker Scene. Everton's News Agency. February 1977. p. 18.
  6. "New seeding system for professional championship". Snooker Scene. Everton's News Agency. August 1975. pp. 6–7.
  7. Hayton, Eric (2004). The CueSport Book of Professional Snooker. Lowestoft, Suffolk: Rose Villa Publications. pp. 119–123. ISBN 0-9548549-0-X.
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