From today's featured article

Cliff 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, becoming the first world champion in snooker's modern era from outside the
United Kingdom. He remains the sport's only world champion from the Americas. Ranked world
number one during the 1981–82 season, he was the first non-British player to top the world rankings.
In 1983, Thorburn became the first player to make a maximum break in a World Championship. He
is the first player to win the Masters three times (in 1983, 1985, and 1986) 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 in Snooker Legends events and
on the World Seniors Tour, winning the 2018 Seniors Masters. He retired from competitive snooker
after the 2022 UK Seniors Championship