The 1978 UK Championship (officially the 1978 Coral UK Championship) was a professional non-ranking snooker tournament that took place between 22 November and 1 December 1978 at the Guild Hall in Preston, England.
The 1978 tournament was the first of twenty UK Championship competitions to be played in Preston's Guildhall. For the first time, the event was sponsored by Coral who continued to sponsor the UK Championship until 1985.
The most dramatic match came in the qualifying rounds when Terry Griffiths, a newly turned professional, was beaten 8âÂÂ9 by Rex Williams after leading 8âÂÂ2. The main stage of the championship also provided plenty of surprises. Patsy Fagan, the defending UK champion, went out 7âÂÂ9 in the first round to David Taylor who, after a decade in the professional ranks, reached his first major final by beating Alex Higgins 9âÂÂ5 in the semi-finals. In the other half of the draw, Roy Andrewartha beat John Spencer 9âÂÂ8 and Willie Thorne beat Ray Reardon 9âÂÂ6 only to collapse 1âÂÂ9 against Graham Miles, whose 139 break set a tournament record. In the semi-finals it was Miles' turn to collapse 1âÂÂ9 to Doug Mountjoy who, keeping his best until last, clinched his final victory over Taylor with a break of 120. The BBC televised the semi-finals in two late night highlights programmes and then the final on their Grandstand programme with Ted Lowe commentating the match.
Last 24 Best of 17 frames
David Taylor 9âÂÂ2 Maurice Parkin
John Virgo 9âÂÂ4 Ray Edmonds
John Dunning 9âÂÂ3 David Greaves
Jim Meadowcroft 9âÂÂ5 Jackie Rea
Doug Mountjoy 9âÂÂ5 John Barrie
Roy Andrewartha 9âÂÂ3 Pat Houlihan
Rex Williams 9âÂÂ8 Terry Griffiths
Willie Thorne 9âÂÂ4 Bernard Bennett