The 1976 World Snooker Championship was held at two venues, the Middlesbrough Town Hall and the Wythenshawe Forum in Manchester. It wasn’t an ideal arrangement for players, fans or the sport, so snooker promoter and former professional Mike Watterson set off to find a new home for the tournament.

The story goes that his wife, Carol, visited the Crucible theatre in early 1977 to watch a play and was so taken by the place that she told her husband to move the nomadic tournament to Sheffield. The championship had flitted from London to Sydney to Birmingham to Manchester to Melbourne in the 1970s and needed to lay down some roots. Watterson rented the venue for a couple of weeks, sorted out a deal with the snooker association and, on 18 April 1977, Ray Reardon began his defence of the 1976 title in Sheffield. The World Snooker Championship has been there ever since.

The theatre has played hosted to some golden times: Steve Davis’s run of success in the 1980s, Stephen Hendry’s victories (and Jimmy White’s near-misses) in the 1990s, and Ronnie O’Sullivan’s emergence as the man to beat in the 20th century.

What do you remember from the last four decades of whispered commentary and polite applause at the Crucible: the classic final of 1985, Joe Johnson winning as a 150-1 outsider in 1986, O’Sullivan’s 320-second maximum in 1997, or Peter Ebdon lining up his shots for what felt like hours on end? Share your photos and memories in the comments below or via GuardianWitness and we will post a post a galley of the best images over the next few weeks. Enjoy the 40th championship at the Crucible.