1972 Pot Black

The 1972 Pot Black was a professional invitational snooker tournament, which was broadcast in 1972. The tournament was held between 29 December 1971 and 1 January 1972 in the Pebble Mill Studios in Birmingham, and featured six professional players.^[1] All matches were one-frame shoot-outs.

1972 Pot Black

Tournament information
Dates	29 December 1971 – 1 January 1972 (1971-12-29 – 1972-01-01) (broadcast 12 April – 26 July 1972 (1972-04-12 – 1972-07-26))
Venue	Pebble Mill Studios
City	Birmingham
Country	England
Format	Non-ranking event
Highest break	John Spencer (66)
Final
Champion	Eddie Charlton
Runner-up	Ray Reardon
Score	75–43
← 1971 1973 →

Broadcasts were on BBC2 and started at 21:00 on Wednesday 12 April 1972^[2] The tournament this year was reduced to 6 players. There was a qualifying stage in which each competitor played three matches. The leading four then played in a round-robin group with the top two players qualifying for the final. Alan Weeks presented the programme with Ted Lowe as commentator and Sydney Lee as referee.

The tournament featured its first overseas player making his TV debut, Australia's Eddie Charlton who went on to win the tournament beating Ray Reardon 88–27 in the final broadcast on 26 July.^[3][4]

Main draw

Qualifying Group

Player 1	Score	Player 2	Broadcast Date
John Spencer	0–1	Eddie Charlton	12 April 1972
Ray Reardon	1–0	John Pulman	19 April 1972
Fred Davis	0–1	Rex Williams	26 April 1972
John Spencer	0–1	Ray Reardon	3 May 1972
Eddie Charlton	1–0	Fred Davis	10 May 1972
John Pulman	0–1	Rex Williams	17 May 1972
John Spencer	1–0	Fred Davis	24 May 1972
Ray Reardon	1–0	Rex Williams	31 May 1972
Eddie Charlton	0–1	John Pulman	7 June 1972

Round-Robin

Player 1	Score	Player 2	Broadcast Date
Rex Williams	1–0	John Spencer	14 June 1972
Eddie Charlton	0–1	Ray Reardon	21 June 1972
Rex Williams	0–1	Ray Reardon	28 June 1972
Eddie Charlton	1–0	John Spencer	5 July 1972
John Spencer	1–0	Ray Reardon	12 July 1972
Eddie Charlton	1–0	Rex Williams	19 July 1972

Final

	26 July 1972
	Ray Reardon		0
	Eddie Charlton		1

References

1. "Charlton in Pot Black". Sports Argus. Birmingham. 25 September 1971. p. 3.
2. "BBC Television – 12 April 1972 – Pot Black". BBC Genome Project. BBC. Retrieved 23 February 2017.
3. "BBC Television – 26 July 1972 – Pot Black: BBC2 Knockout Snooker Competition". BBC Genome Project. BBC. Retrieved 23 February 2017.
4. "CueTracker - 1972 Pot Black - Snooker Results & Statistics Database".