{"id":4774,"date":"2024-12-08T12:50:35","date_gmt":"2024-12-08T12:50:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/marriott-stats.com\/nigels-blog\/?p=4774"},"modified":"2025-12-09T16:54:25","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T16:54:25","slug":"winners-world-snooker-triple-crown-men-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marriott-stats.com\/nigels-blog\/winners-world-snooker-triple-crown-men-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"Trophy Winners #4 &#8211; The GOATs of World Snooker (Mens) &#8211; 1969 to 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/snooker\/articles\/cql53rrqe95o\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>Judd Trump<\/strong><\/span> has won the 2024 UK Championship<\/a> which is the 5th Triple Crown title of his career.\u00a0 Does that make him a <span style=\"color: #008000;\"><strong>GOAT<\/strong><\/span> (<span style=\"color: #008000;\"><strong>Greatest Of All Time<\/strong><\/span>) in men&#8217;s Snooker?\u00a0 Using the criteria I recommend in this article, Trump will become a GOAT if he wins another World Championship.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<h5><span style=\"color: #008000;\"><strong>The Triple Crown of Snooker<\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n<p>The three tournaments which make up Snooker&#8217;s <span style=\"color: #008000;\"><strong>Triple Crown<\/strong><\/span> are &#8211;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/2024_World_Snooker_Championship\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">World Championship<\/a><\/strong> &#8211; which takes place in April and early May<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/2024_Masters_(snooker)\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>The Masters<\/strong><\/a> &#8211; which takes place in January<\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/2024_UK_Championship\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">UK Championship<\/a><\/strong> &#8211; which takes place in November<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Using the Wikipedia links above, I&#8217;ve created a spreadsheet listing of all winners, runner ups and semi finalists (world championship only) since 1969 which can be downloaded here <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/marriott-stats.com\/nigels-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Snooker-Triple-Crowns-Men-2024-v1.0.xlsx\">Snooker &#8211; Triple Crowns &#8211; Men &#8211; 2024 &#8211; v1.0<\/a><\/strong><\/span>.\u00a0 It is up to date as of December 2024.\u00a0 The spreadsheet has a number of worksheets and I will briefly describe two of them now.<\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #993300;\">TRIPLECROWNS<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The listing of winners, runner-ups, etc can be found on the <strong>TRIPLECROWNS<\/strong> worksheet and reproduced below.\u00a0 The reason I start the list in 1969 is that is when the modern world championship tournament format began and it was followed by the birth of the Masters in 1975 and the UK Championship in 1977 to complete the Triple Crown set.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-5930 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/marriott-stats.com\/nigels-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Snooker-GOATs-0-Listing-3.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"741\" height=\"906\" srcset=\"https:\/\/marriott-stats.com\/nigels-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Snooker-GOATs-0-Listing-3.png 1035w, https:\/\/marriott-stats.com\/nigels-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Snooker-GOATs-0-Listing-3-245x300.png 245w, https:\/\/marriott-stats.com\/nigels-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Snooker-GOATs-0-Listing-3-838x1024.png 838w, https:\/\/marriott-stats.com\/nigels-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Snooker-GOATs-0-Listing-3-768x939.png 768w, https:\/\/marriott-stats.com\/nigels-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Snooker-GOATs-0-Listing-3-286x350.png 286w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 741px) 100vw, 741px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Each player is colour coded by nationality and a list of all <strong>57<\/strong> players shown can be found in <strong>column R<\/strong> of <strong>TRIPLECROWNS<\/strong>.\u00a0 In cell <strong>M1,<\/strong> you can select a specific player using the dropdown list who will then be highlighted in the listing in a metallic green shade.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #993300;\"><strong>RANKINGS<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Here you can sort and rank the <strong>57<\/strong> players shown in <strong>TRIPLECROWNS<\/strong>.\u00a0 You can sort for individual tournaments or by summary statistics across all Triple Crowns.\u00a0 Each tournament is denoted with a shorthand with <strong>W<\/strong> for World Championship, <strong>M<\/strong> for Masters and <strong>UK<\/strong> for UK Championship.<\/p>\n<p>There are four\u00a0summary statistics to choose from &#8211;<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><span style=\"color: #993300;\"><strong>Wins<\/strong><\/span> &#8211; Number of Triple Crowns won.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #993300;\"><strong>Finals<\/strong><\/span> &#8211; Number of Triple Crown finals played in.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #993300;\"><strong>PointsAll<\/strong><\/span> &#8211; Number of Triple Crown points won.\u00a0 The points values for each outcome can be entered in the <strong>yellow cells<\/strong> in <strong>row 1<\/strong> of <strong>RANKINGS<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #993300;\"><strong>PointsEra<\/strong> <\/span>&#8211; Number of points won within a certain time period.\u00a0 The start and end years of this period can be entered in cells <strong>P1<\/strong> &amp; <strong>Q1<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>The example ranking shown below is for the top <strong>20<\/strong> players based on the <strong>PointsAll<\/strong> column using the points values shown in the yellow cells.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-5910 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/marriott-stats.com\/nigels-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Snooker-GOATs-0-Top-20.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"652\" height=\"443\" srcset=\"https:\/\/marriott-stats.com\/nigels-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Snooker-GOATs-0-Top-20.png 1374w, https:\/\/marriott-stats.com\/nigels-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Snooker-GOATs-0-Top-20-300x204.png 300w, https:\/\/marriott-stats.com\/nigels-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Snooker-GOATs-0-Top-20-1024x695.png 1024w, https:\/\/marriott-stats.com\/nigels-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Snooker-GOATs-0-Top-20-768x522.png 768w, https:\/\/marriott-stats.com\/nigels-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Snooker-GOATs-0-Top-20-450x306.png 450w, https:\/\/marriott-stats.com\/nigels-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Snooker-GOATs-0-Top-20-1320x896.png 1320w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 652px) 100vw, 652px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h5><span style=\"color: #008000;\"><strong>What makes a GOAT?<\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n<p>Four names should immediately leap to the mind of any snooker fan; <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>Ray Reardon<\/strong><\/span> who dominated the 70s, <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>Steve Davis<\/strong><\/span> who dominated the 80s, <strong><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Stephen Hendry<\/span><\/strong> who dominated the 90s and <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>Ronnie O&#8217;Sullivan<\/strong><\/span> who has dominated the 21st century so far.\u00a0 Each has <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-5911 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/marriott-stats.com\/nigels-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Snooker-GOATs-1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"209\" height=\"210\" srcset=\"https:\/\/marriott-stats.com\/nigels-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Snooker-GOATs-1.png 235w, https:\/\/marriott-stats.com\/nigels-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Snooker-GOATs-1-150x150.png 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 209px) 100vw, 209px\" \/>won at least <strong>6<\/strong> world championships but who comes after them?<\/p>\n<p><strong>23<\/strong> players have won the World Championship in its modern format since 1969.\u00a0 Of these, only <strong>9<\/strong> have won it at least twice as shown in the table here.\u00a0 I take the view that GOATs should be winning the World Championship multiple times so these <strong>9<\/strong> are our first contenders for GOAThood.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-5912 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/marriott-stats.com\/nigels-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Snooker-GOATs-2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"242\" height=\"222\" \/>The World Championship is the summit of snooker but GOATs should be winning the other triple crowns as well.\u00a0 <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>Judd Trump<\/strong><\/span> has just won his <strong>5th<\/strong> Triple Crown making him the <strong>10th<\/strong> player of all time to reach this milestone.\u00a0 <strong>8<\/strong> of his predecessors\u00a0also appear in the World Championship table above with <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>John Spencer<\/strong><\/span> the only one not making the leap.\u00a0 The one player not in the World Championship list but is in the Triple Crown list is <strong><span style=\"color: #ff9900;\">Neil Robertson<\/span><\/strong> who has won <strong>6<\/strong> Triple Crowns.<\/p>\n<p>Are there other players who reach finals but struggle to win tournaments?\u00a0 The next table lists <strong>9<\/strong> players who have played in at least <strong>10<\/strong> Triple Crown <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-5913 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/marriott-stats.com\/nigels-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Snooker-GOATs-3.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"231\" height=\"173\" srcset=\"https:\/\/marriott-stats.com\/nigels-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Snooker-GOATs-3.png 315w, https:\/\/marriott-stats.com\/nigels-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Snooker-GOATs-3-300x225.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 231px) 100vw, 231px\" \/>finals.\u00a0 By now, you should notice the same <strong>8<\/strong> players who appear in all three tables shown so far.\u00a0 The <strong>9th<\/strong> player in the Finals list is the unfortunate <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>Jimmy White<\/strong><\/span> who played and lost <strong>4<\/strong> World Championship finals to <span style=\"color: #000080;\"><strong>Stephen Hendry<\/strong><\/span> in the 1990s.\u00a0 <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>Judd Trump<\/strong><\/span> and <strong><span style=\"color: #ff9900;\">Neil Robertson<\/span><\/strong> do not appear in the Finals list and neither does <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>John Spencer<\/strong><\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>The last table I show below lists the <strong>12<\/strong> players who have earned at least <strong>25<\/strong> Triple Crown points in their career.\u00a0 This table captures all <strong>12<\/strong> players mentioned in the other three tables above.\u00a0 The points values I&#8217;ve used here are the ones shown earlier when I explained the <strong>RANKINGS<\/strong> worksheet i.e. <strong>3<\/strong> points for winning a triple crown, <strong>1<\/strong> point for being runner up, <strong>double points<\/strong> for World Championship i.e. <strong>6<\/strong> and <strong>2,<\/strong> where I also give <strong>1<\/strong> point for reaching the semi final.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-5914 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/marriott-stats.com\/nigels-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Snooker-GOATs-4.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"393\" height=\"258\" srcset=\"https:\/\/marriott-stats.com\/nigels-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Snooker-GOATs-4.png 455w, https:\/\/marriott-stats.com\/nigels-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Snooker-GOATs-4-300x197.png 300w, https:\/\/marriott-stats.com\/nigels-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Snooker-GOATs-4-450x296.png 450w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 393px) 100vw, 393px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h5><span style=\"color: #008000;\"><strong>The 8 GOATS of men&#8217;s Snooker<\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n<p>To me, the definition of a GOAT can be built using intuitive round numbers as below &#8211;<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>2<\/strong> or more World Championship Titles<\/li>\n<li><strong>5<\/strong> or more Triple Crown Titles<\/li>\n<li><strong>10<\/strong> or more appearances in Triple Crown Finals<\/li>\n<li><strong>30<\/strong> or more Triple Crown Points using the points values I&#8217;ve shown so far.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Since 1969, <strong>8<\/strong> players have met all four criteria.\u00a0 I doubt there will be any dispute these <strong>8<\/strong> are genuine GOATS of men&#8217;s Snooker.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-5915 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/marriott-stats.com\/nigels-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Snooker-GOATs-5.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"396\" height=\"222\" srcset=\"https:\/\/marriott-stats.com\/nigels-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Snooker-GOATs-5.png 428w, https:\/\/marriott-stats.com\/nigels-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Snooker-GOATs-5-300x168.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 396px) 100vw, 396px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>At the beginning, I listed <strong><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">Reardon<\/span>, <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">Davis<\/span>, <span style=\"color: #000080;\">Hendry<\/span><\/strong> and <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>O&#8217;Sullivan<\/strong><\/span> as obvious GOATs due to their dominance of the World Championship.\u00a0 However, when sorted by points, <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>Reardon<\/strong><\/span> ends up in 6th place instead of the top 4.\u00a0 This is because <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>Ray Reardon<\/strong><\/span>, <strong><span style=\"color: #993300;\">Alex Higgins<\/span><\/strong> and <strong><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">John Spencer<\/span><\/strong> all played in the 70s, a decade which began with only one Triple Crown tournament.\u00a0 Naturally this limits the opportunity for these three to earn Triple Crown Points.\u00a0 It does not stop <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>Reardon<\/strong><\/span> and <span style=\"color: #993300;\"><strong>Alex Higgins<\/strong><\/span> from exceeding the GOAT threshold but <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>Spencer<\/strong><\/span> misses out, a point I will return to in the next section.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h5><span style=\"color: #008000;\"><strong>Who will be the next GOAT?<\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n<p>Of the players still playing, I see <strong>3<\/strong> candidates for future GOAThood.\u00a0 <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>Judd Trump<\/strong><\/span> and <strong><span style=\"color: #ff9900;\">Neil Robertson<\/span><\/strong> have already been mentioned and the third somewhat long shot candidate is <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>Shaun Murphy<\/strong><\/span>.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-5916 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/marriott-stats.com\/nigels-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Snooker-GOATs-6.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"333\" height=\"133\" srcset=\"https:\/\/marriott-stats.com\/nigels-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Snooker-GOATs-6.png 391w, https:\/\/marriott-stats.com\/nigels-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Snooker-GOATs-6-300x120.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 333px) 100vw, 333px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>All three have won a World Championship but differ in what they need to do next to reach my definition of a GOAT.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>Judd Trump<\/strong><\/span> just(!) needs to win another World Championship which would automatically give him <strong>10<\/strong> finals and <strong>30+<\/strong> points in addition to the <strong>5<\/strong> Triple Crowns he already has.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><strong>Neil Robertson<\/strong><\/span> needs to win another World Championship and reach another Triple Crown final.\u00a0 He already has <strong>6<\/strong> Triple Crowns to his name.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>Shaun Murphy<\/strong><\/span> needs to win <strong>2<\/strong> more Triple Crowns, one of which needs to be the World Championship.\u00a0 Given it&#8217;s been <strong>10<\/strong> years since he last won a Triple Crown, I suspect this is not going to happen.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>What about <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>John Spencer<\/strong><\/span>?\u00a0 His <strong>3<\/strong> World titles clearly means he has the pedigree of a GOAT but as noted earlier, being a star in the 70s limited his opportunities for the other Triple Crowns.\u00a0 The question is what would he have achieved had all <strong>3<\/strong> triple crowns been played for the full decade?\u00a0 Would he have played in <strong>5<\/strong> more finals and won at least one of them?\u00a0 I think a case can be made he would have done this which is why I ask if he should be regarded as an honorary GOAT of men&#8217;s snooker.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h5><strong><span style=\"color: #993300;\">&#8212; Would you like to comment on this article? &#8212;-<\/span><\/strong><\/h5>\n<p>Please do leave your comments on this <span style=\"color: #008000;\"><strong>X\/Twitter<\/strong><\/span> thread.<\/p>\n<h5><strong><span style=\"color: #993300;\">&#8212; Subscribe to my newsletter to receive more articles like this one! &#8212;-<\/span><\/strong><\/h5>\n<p>If you would like to receive notifications from me of news, articles and offers relating to sport, please <span style=\"color: #008000;\"><strong><a style=\"color: #008000;\" href=\"https:\/\/marriott-stats.com\/nigels-blog\/subscribe-to-our-newsletter\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">click here to go to my Newsletter Subscription page<\/a><\/strong><\/span> and tick the Sport category and other categories that may be of interest to you.\u00a0 You will be able to unsubscribe at anytime.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Judd Trump has won the 2024 UK Championship which is the 5th Triple Crown title of his career.\u00a0 Does that make him a GOAT (Greatest Of All Time) in men&#8217;s Snooker?\u00a0 Using the criteria I recommend in this article, Trump will become a GOAT if he wins another World Championship.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5915,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[90],"tags":[56,288,13,289,290,126],"class_list":{"0":"post-4774","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-archive","8":"tag-goat","9":"tag-men","10":"tag-rankings","11":"tag-snooker","12":"tag-triple-crown","13":"tag-winners","14":"entry","15":"override"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marriott-stats.com\/nigels-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marriott-stats.com\/nigels-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marriott-stats.com\/nigels-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marriott-stats.com\/nigels-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marriott-stats.com\/nigels-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4774"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/marriott-stats.com\/nigels-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4774\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6702,"href":"https:\/\/marriott-stats.com\/nigels-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4774\/revisions\/6702"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marriott-stats.com\/nigels-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marriott-stats.com\/nigels-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marriott-stats.com\/nigels-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marriott-stats.com\/nigels-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}