‘A great man, a great player’: Stephen Hendry leads tributes to Terry Griffiths

Hendry was among many coached by 1979 world champion

Terry Griffiths  at the table during the Embassy World Professional Snooker Championship at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, in 1997. Picture: Anton Want /Allsport

The seven-time world snooker champion Stephen Hendry has led the tributes to Terry Griffiths, who has died aged 77, calling him “a great man and a great player”.

Griffiths worked as a miner, postal worker and bus conductor before turning professional in 1978 and winning the world snooker title at his first attempt aged 31, beating Dennis Taylor in the 1979 final. The Welshman then became one of the most identifiable players in the 1980s snooker boom alongside Steve “Interesting” Davis, Alex “Hurricane” Higgins and “the Whirlwind”, Jimmy White, reaching No 3 in the world.