Player: Cliff Thorburn
Opponent: Terry Griffiths
Tournament: 1983 World Championships
Venue: The Crucible, Sheffield
Match situation: Last 16, best of 25, Griffiths led 2-1.
Canadian heartthrob Cliff Thorburn usually comes up in the first 2 or 3 names when talking about maximums in snooker. Some think it is the first one, or the first televised one, but in truth it is neither. It is, however, one of the most sartorially elegant ones. The plain tie and the modest flare to the trouser surely gifted the British Colombian break-builder greater aerodynamics that preserved his stamina deep into the maximum. The referee wears claret.
We're in the second round of the big one, crammed into half of the snooker hall-cum-sardine tin known as The Crucible. Brown carpets. Go faster stripes and a big papier mache statue of a pack of reds. The understated class of it all seeps out of the screen. Audience members wear their Sunday best.
Griffiths' break shot here is legendary, almost perfect, theoretically impregnable. Thorburn, known as the 'Grinder', wisely plays back to baulk. Not for nothing did this match finish at 4am.
