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Dennis Taylor opens up on Terry Griffiths friendship and 'sad' final meeting
Dennis Taylor has described Terry Griffiths as a "special person" and "brilliant" snooker player as he opened up on the close friendship he had with with cue legend.
Griffiths passed away peacefully on Sunday following a lengthy battle with dementia. He was 77 years of age.
Taylor got to visit Griffiths in hospital just days before he died and described his friend as a "special person".
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He opened up on his friendship with the Welshman in an interview with Betway. He said: "I did get to see him on Tuesday, his son Darren brought me to the hospital. He had been very bad for the last couple of weeks but still very sad. I know he had been poorly for a couple of years with dementia but it’s a sad loss.
"Terry Griffiths was a very special person and to come through and win the World Championship through the qualifying rounds was an unbelievable achievement and of course, I was looking forward to winning my first world title. I had been in a couple of semi-finals, and 1979 was a great year for me.
"I had beaten the great Ray Reardon and Steve Davis, so I was looking forward to playing in the final. I led Terry 15-13, and he outplayed me on the final day.
"It was so funny because back in the day, he didn’t have a car with him. So, Terry and his wife, me and my wife were heading off for a meal with the sponsors. We used to go for a meal with the sponsors before we went back into the hotel to the families and there’s the four of us in my car with the World Championship trophy in the boot of my car. All of the families mingled that night into the early hours of the morning."
Taylor says he became good friends with Griffiths and even went on a number of family holidays together.
He added: "We became very good friends because Terry had two children, Darren and Wayne, and we had three children, Doug Mountjoy had two children, and we used to go to Pontins to the big snooker festival and all of the families would be together. We even went to America, all 13 of us, over 40 years ago and went to Disney Land.
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"He was a special person and a great coach. Not many of the top players were interested in coaching but Terry was always interested and when we travelled to different countries.
"I remember us going to Thailand and Hong Kong, and Terry was always there to coach the locals. He loved the game.
"He learned a lot from Frank Callan, the coach that was the ‘Fishmonger from Blackpool’ that taught and coached a lot of the world champions including Steve Davis, Stephen Hendry, Terry Griffiths, John Parrot and I had a little session with Frank as well.
"Terry learned a lot from Frank and took it to a different level. He was a very special person and a world champion from the Valleys who will be missed."
Griffiths won the World Snooker Championship in 1979 after beating Taylor 24-16 in the final.
Taylor says his conqueror was a "wonderful all-round player" who was "very difficult to beat".
He said: "He was a brilliant player. When you talk about slow players, there were three players, Cliff Thornton, Eddie Charlton and Terry Griffiths. But in exhibitions, Terry was a very fluent player, but he learnt that if he took his time in the top professional game, he got the results, and it worked for him.
"A wonderful all-round player and a little bit along the lines of the great Ray Reardon, very difficult to beat, very knowledgeable and a wonderful break builder."
Taylor added: "To win that world championship in his first attempt from turning amateur was an incredible achievement. He was very well liked in his homeland of Wales, and everybody remembers in 1979 with that lovely Welsh accent to say, ‘I’m in the world final, you know’.
"He was liked wherever he went in the world."
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