then won all three in the final session, taking the last two of them on the black. The matches between Fagan and Reardon, and between Fred Davis and John Pulman, were the first to be held at the Crucible Theatre, which as of 2022 had remained as the venue for the World Snooker Championship for 45 years. At the UK Championship in 1977, which at the time was a non-ranking event open only to UK passport holders, Fagan beat Jackie Rea 5–1 in the first round, and Fred Davis 5–0 in the second round. He won in the deciding frame in each of the next two rounds, 5–4 against Jim Meadowcroft in the quarter-finals and 9–8 against John Virgo in the semi-finals, to reach the final against another player in his first year as a professional, Doug Mountjoy. The two finalists shared the first four frames but Fagan won the next four to take a 6–2 lead, after which Mountjoy also won four frames in a row to level the match at 6–6. Fagan then took the next two frames to lead 8–6, eventually winning the match 12–9. Before the UK championship, Fagan had been announced as one of the four invited contenders for the 1977 Dry Blackthorn Cup, along with world championship winners Alex Higgins, John Spencer and Reardon. He beat Spencer in the semi-final then Higgins 4–2 in the final to win the tournament. He received £2,000 prize money for his Dry Blackthorn Cup win, the same amount he had received for his UK championship victory a couple of weeks earlier. Later professional career Fagan failed to make an impact at the 1978 Masters, losing 2–4 to John Pulman in the first round. At the 1978 World Snooker Championship he beat John Dunning 9–5 and then Alex Higgins 13–12. In the match against Higgins, Fagan was 10–12 behind but won two frames on the black and the last on the pink. He lost 10–13 to Fred Davis in the quarter-finals. In the 1970s and until 1982, the Irish Professional Championship was played on a challenge basis, and in April 1978 Fagan played defending champion Alex Higgins for the title. Fagan was a frame ahead after the first day of the match, at 5–4. At the start of the next day's play he extended his lead to 8–5 before Higgins drew level at 8–8 and then won seven of