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Terence Martin Griffiths OBE (born 16 October 1947) is a Welsh retired professional snooker player and current snooker coach and pundit. In his second professional tournament, he became world champion when he won the 1979 World Snooker Championship. He was the second qualifier to win the title after Alex Higgins achieved the feat in 1972; only Shaun Murphy has done it since, winning the title in 2005. Griffiths defeated Dennis Taylor by 24 frames to 16 in the final. Nine years later, in 1988, Griffiths reached the final of the competition again. He was tied with Steve Davis at 8–8, but lost the match 11–18. Griffiths reached at least the quarter-finals of the World Championship for nine consecutive years from 1984 to 1992. He also won the Masters in 1980 and the UK Championship in 1982, making him one of the players to have completed snooker's Triple Crown. He was runner-up at the Masters three times, and reached the final of the 1989 European Open where he lost the deciding frame to John Parrott. Although he also won several other tournaments, Griffiths' determination to match his rival Davis led to him making changes in his playing technique that commentators have claimed meant that he lost his natural flair for playing. He announced his retirement from professional snooker in 1996 to become the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association's director of coaching, and developed a coaching career that has included working with leading players including Stephen Hendry, Mark Williams and Ding Junhui.
