Editing Cliff Thorburn (section)

{{Short description|Canadian snooker player (born 1948)}}
{{Featured article}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2025}}
{{Use Canadian English|date=January 2023}}
{{Infobox snooker player
|name                = Cliff Thorburn
|honorific_suffix    = {{post-nominals|size=100|country=CAN|CM}}
|image               = Cliff-Thorburn-2010 (cropped 2).jpg
|caption             = Thorburn in 2010
|alt                 = Photograph of a smiling Thorburn
|image_size          =
|birth_date          = {{birth date and age|1948|01|16|df=y}}
|birth_place         = [[Victoria, British Columbia]], Canada
|Sport country       = {{CAN}}
|Professional        = 1972–1996
|High ranking        = '''[[List of world number one snooker players|1]]''' ([[Snooker world rankings 1981/1982|1981/82]])
|Official maximums = 2
|Ranking wins      = 2
|World champ       = [[World Snooker Championship 1980|1980]]
}}

'''Clifford Charles Devlin Thorburn''' (born 16 January 1948) is a Canadian retired professional [[snooker]] player. Nicknamed "The Grinder" because of his slow, determined style of play, he won the [[1980 World Snooker Championship|World Snooker Championship in 1980]], defeating [[Alex Higgins]] 18–16 in the final. He is generally recognised as the sport's first world champion from outside the United Kingdom—since Australian [[Horace Lindrum]]'s [[1952 World Snooker Championship|1952]] title is usually disregarded—and he remains the only world champion from the [[Americas]]. He was runner-up in two other world championships, losing 21–25 to [[John Spencer (snooker player)|John Spencer]] in the [[1977 World Snooker Championship|1977 final]] and 6–18 to [[Steve Davis]] in the [[1983 World Snooker Championship|1983 final]]. At the 1983 tournament, Thorburn became the first player to make a [[maximum break]] in a World Championship match, achieving the feat in his second-round encounter with [[Terry Griffiths]].

Ranked [[List of world number one snooker players|world number one]] during the [[1981–82 snooker season|1981–82 season]], Thorburn was the first non-British player to top the [[snooker world rankings]]. He won the invitational [[Masters (snooker)|Masters]] in [[1983 Masters (snooker)|1983]], [[1985 Masters (snooker)|1985]], and [[1986 Masters (snooker)|1986]], making him the first player to win the tournament three times and the first to retain the title. He retired from the main professional tour in 1996. Inducted into [[Canada's Sports Hall of Fame]] in 2001 and the Snooker Hall of Fame in 2014, he competed later in his career in [[Snooker Legends]] events and on the [[World Seniors Tour]], winning the [[2018 Seniors Masters]] at the [[Crucible Theatre]] at age 70. He retired from competitive snooker after the [[2022 UK Seniors Championship]].