thirty-five. Cliff Thorburn met Alex Higgins in the final. The match was level at 9–9 after the first day and again at 13–13 after the afternoon session on the second day. During the evening session, the score was tied once again at 16–16, before Thorburn made a 119 clearance in frame thirty-three and a break of fifty-one in frame thirty-four to win the championship. Steve Davis years (1981–1989) Despite being the number thirteen seed, Steve Davis was the favourite for the 1981 championship. He won a close match 10–8 against Jimmy White in the first round and defeated three past world champions to meet fourteenth seed Doug Mountjoy in the final. Davis won the first six frames but was only leading 10–8 at the end of the first day. He led 14–12 at the start of the final evening session and won the next four frames to win the match 18–12. At 23 years old, Davis was the second-youngest champion. Mountjoy set a new championship record with a highest break of 145 during his semi-final match against Ray Reardon. The 1982 championship was extended to thirty-two players with sixteen seeded players and sixteen qualifiers. There was a surprise in the first round when Tony Knowles beat defending champion Steve Davis 10–1. In the semi-finals Jimmy White was ahead 15–14, and led 59–0 in the thirtieth frame, but missed an easy red with the rest. His opponent Alex Higgins then made a sixty-nine clearance and won the deciding frame and the match 16–15. Higgins met Ray Reardon in the final. The score was 15–15 before Higgins won three frames in a row to win the championship, finishing with a clearance of 135, denying Reardon the chance to win a seventh world title. Cliff Thorburn made the first maximum break of the World Championship in 1983 during his second-round match against Terry Griffiths. The importance of this achievement at the time is demonstrated by the fact that play was stopped on the other table. This was the break that gave the World Championship one of its most iconic words of commentary, "oh, good luck mate" on the final black, courtesy of Jack Karnehm. Thorburn beat Griffiths in a final-frame decider, a match that finished at 03:51, the latest-ever finish for a match at the Crucible. Thorburn then also won his quarter-final and semi-final matches in the deciding frame; exhausted, and deflated by