The 1974 Pot Black was a professional invitational snooker tournament, which took place between 29 December 1973 and 1 January 1974 in the Pebble Mill Studios in Birmingham, and featured eight professional players. All matches were one-frame shoot-outs.
Broadcasts were on BBC2 and started at 21:00 on Tuesday 5 February 1974 Alan Weeks presented the programme with Ted Lowe as commentator and Sydney Lee as referee.
The tournament was contested by 8 players in two round-robin groups of 4 with the top two players from each group qualifying for the semi-finals. This year's tournament featured the debuts of Cliff Thorburn and Graham Miles who went on to win the Pot Black title at the first attempt beating John Spencer in the final. For the first time the final was decided on aggregate score over two frames, shown on 14 and 21 May, Miles won both frames, 77–37 and 70–49, winning by a score of 147–86.
Main draw League 1
Player 1ScorePlayer 2Broadcast Date Eddie Charlton1–0 Ray Reardon5 February 1974 John Spencer0–1 Rex Williams19 February 1974 Ray Reardon0–1 John Spencer5 March 1974 Eddie Charlton1–0 Rex Williams19 March 1974 Ray Reardon1–0 Rex Williams2 April 1974 Eddie Charlton0–1 John Spencer16 April 1974
League 2
Player 1ScorePlayer 2Broadcast Date Cliff Thorburn0–1 John Pulman12 February 1974 Jackie Rea1–0 Graham Miles26 February 1974 Cliff Thorburn0–1 Graham Miles12 March 1974 John Pulman1–0 Jackie Rea26 March 1974 Cliff Thorburn1–0 Jackie Rea9 April 1974 John Pulman0–1 Graham Miles23 April 1974
Knockout stage
References