title: 2022 World Snooker Championship

text: The third round of qualifying featured players seeded 17–48 against the second-round winners. Five amateur players reached this stage: Michael White, Liam Davies, David Lilley, Daniel Wells, and James Cahill. Michael White defeated Mark King 6–1. Lilley, the reigning World Seniors Champion, defeated Kurt Maflin by the same score, which meant Maflin lost his place on the tour. The other amateurs did not progress. Dale received a walkover due to Liang's suspension, while Taylor achieved a surprise 6–4 win over 2013 semi-finalist and number 17 seed Ricky Walden, who had narrowly missed qualifying automatically for the Crucible after a semi-final loss in the Gibraltar Open. Scott Donaldson reached the last qualifying round by defeating Li Hang 6–5 on the final black ball, while Ashley Hugill came from 2–5 behind to defeat Martin Gould 6–5, despite suffering from food poisoning during the match.


title: 2022 World Snooker Championship

text: Stephen Maguire, a semi-finalist in 2007 and 2012, played in the qualifiers for the first time since 2018 after falling to number 40 in the world rankings. He defeated Zhang Anda 6–3. Ding Junhui, the 2016 runner-up, played in the qualifiers after falling to 29th in the world rankings. He defeated his compatriot Tian Pengfei 6–4. David Gilbert, a 2019 semi-finalist, defeated McLeod 6–1, while Chris Wakelin defeated the European Masters champion Fan Zhengyi in a deciding frame. Kleckers lost his place on the tour after Matthew Selt beat him in a deciding frame; Michael Holt also lost his tour card following a 3–6 defeat to Tom Ford. Un-Nooh ensured that he would stay on the tour by defeating Jak Jones in a decider.


title: 2022 World Snooker Championship

text: The 2006 champion Graeme Dott made a maximum break in the sixth frame of his 6–1 victory over Pang Junxu. His second maximum in professional competition, it came 23 years after his first at the 1999 British Open. It was the fifth time a maximum had been made in World Championship qualifying. Hossain Vafaei whitewashed Simon Lichtenberg 6–0 to reach the final qualifying round for the third time, while Jamie Clarke also secured a whitewash victory over 2019 semi-finalist Gary Wilson. The 2008 and 2012 runner-up Ali Carter defeated Gao Yang 6–4, while Stevens defeated Sam Craigie 6–1. The Welsh Open champion Joe Perry lost 3–6 to Jackson Page, who had regained his tour card through Q School after losing it the previous season.


title: 2022 World Snooker Championship

text: The fourth and final round of qualifying, billed as "Judgement Day", was played on 12 and 13 April and broadcast live on the World Snooker Tour's YouTube and Facebook channels. It comprised the 32 third-round winners facing each other in best-of-19-frame matches, all played over two sessions, with the 16 victors advancing to the main draw at the Crucible. Ding trailed Lilley 4–7 but won six frames in a row to reach the Crucible for a 16th consecutive year. Maguire reached the Crucible for a 19th consecutive time, defeating Zhou Yuelong 10–7 in a match he described as "a dog fight from start to finish". Hugill secured his Crucible debut by defeating Joe O'Connor 10–7, winning the final frame of the match by the deciding black the length of the table. Michael White, who had previously reached the Crucible three times as a professional, came from 6–7 behind to defeat Jordan Brown 10–8. He became only the second amateur to qualify for the Crucible, after Cahill in 2019.


title: 2022 World Snooker Championship

text: Un-Nooh trailed Selt 4–6, but won six of the last seven frames to secure a 10–7 victory, making back-to-back clearances of 138 and 145. Jamie Jones won the first seven frames against Ford and went on to clinch the match 10–5. Donaldson defeated Taylor 10–1, while Lyu Haotian defeated Dale 10–4 to reach the main draw for the third time. Vafaei took a 4–1 lead against Lei Peifan, but Lei leveled the scores at 5–5 and the match went to a deciding frame. Vafaei made a from 61 points behind to win on the final black and become the first Iranian player to reach the final stages of a World Championship. Page also reached the Crucible for the first time with a 10–6 win over David Grace. Gilbert trailed 1–2 to Anthony Hamilton, but won seven straight frames for a 10–3 victory. Liam Highfield defeated Yuan Sijun 10–7 to reach the Crucible for a third time. Stevens lost the first four frames against Carter, but recovered to win 10–6 and reach the Crucible for an 18th time.


title: 2022 World Snooker Championship

text: Clarke established an 8–4 lead over Dott, but the 2006 champion recovered to tie the scores at 8–8. In the 18th frame, Clarke got a on the final black to clinch a 10–8 victory. Wakelin took four of the last five frames against Jimmy Robertson to secure a 10–7 win, while Saengkham won the last three frames against Gibraltar Open winner Robert Milkins for a 10–8 victory. Five of the qualifiers—Michael White, Jones, Stevens, Page, and Clarke—were Welsh players, who joined their compatriot Mark Williams in the main draw. This meant that six Welsh players reached the Crucible, the most since 1990.


title: 2022 World Snooker Championship

text: The first round was played between 16 and 21 April as the best of 19 frames. Selby, who had withdrawn from the Turkish Masters and Gibraltar Open as he struggled with mental health issues, considered not defending his world title due to depression. He had not played competitively since his first-round loss at the Welsh Open, and practised relatively little before the tournament. He took an 8–3 lead over Jones but saw his lead reduced to two frames at 9–7. Selby clinched a 10–7 victory when Jones went in frame 17. Ronnie O'Sullivan, the world number one, equalled Steve Davis's record 30 Crucible appearances, having competed in the final stages of the tournament every year since the age of 17. He lost the first three frames against Gilbert, but then won six in a row to lead 6–3 after the first session. O'Sullivan won four consecutive frames in the second session to clinch the match 10–5 and equal Hendry's record of 70 Crucible victories. He was referred to the WPBSA's disciplinary committee after appearing to make a lewd gesture when he missed a black off the spot in the 13th frame. (O'Sullivan subsequently denied the charges at a disciplinary hearing, but was fined £2,000 and ordered to pay a further £2,000 in costs relating to gestures made during televised matchplay at the tournament and at the 2021 UK Championship.)


title: 2022 World Snooker Championship

text: Zhao Xintong, who had won the first two ranking titles of his career earlier in the season, made his second Crucible appearance. Facing Clarke, he took a 7–2 lead in the first session and won all three frames played in the second session as he wrapped up his first Crucible win 10–2. He made two centuries and five more breaks over 70 in the match. Afterwards, Clarke called Zhao "just phenomenal, a sensation in our sport" and predicted that he would win the title within five years. Page led former runner-up Barry Hawkins 6–2, but Hawkins narrowed his deficit to one frame at 7–8 before Page made back-to-back total clearances of 128 and 135 to win 10–7. "I couldn't have asked for a much better debut", commented Page. The first seeded player to exit the tournament, Hawkins failed to reach the second round for the first time since 2010.


title: 2022 World Snooker Championship

text: Murphy and Maguire faced each other at the Crucible for the first time, with Maguire establishing a 6–3 lead after the first session. Murphy began the second session with a 130 break, his 100th World Championship century, and reduced Maguire's lead to 7–6 at the mid-session interval. Commentating for the BBC, Doherty described the 14th frame as "one of the craziest" he had ever witnessed. Lasting 71 minutes, it included Maguire jokingly throwing his cue on the ground after losing position, Murphy fouling the pink ball with his finger, and Murphy discussing for four minutes the referee's decision to award him a , before refusing to accept it out of sportsmanship. Murphy eventually won the frame on the black to tie the scores, and made a half-century in the 15th to lead for the first time at 8–7. However, Maguire won the last three frames to clinch a 10–8 victory. Anthony McGill, a semi-finalist in 2020, led Highfield 6–3 after the first session. Highfield reduced his deficit to one frame at 6–7, but McGill took three of the last four to win 10–7, helped by a fluke in the final frame. McGill stated that he had struggled in the match, acknowledging "a lot of mistakes and missed pots", but credited his victory to his strong safety play.


title: 2022 World Snooker Championship

text: Three-time champion Williams won the first seven frames against his compatriot Michael White, and wrapped up a 10–3 win in the second session, making four centuries in the match. "I started off like a train, put Michael under pressure and didn't really ease up", commented Williams. Mark Allen defeated Donaldson 10–6, but voiced his unhappiness with how the table had played. Neil Robertson trailed Hugill 1–3 but won eight consecutive frames on his way to a 10–5 victory, compiling four centuries in the match. Stuart Bingham, a semi-finalist the previous year, defeated Lyu 10–5 and made a 140 break in the match, the highest of the first round. Yan Bingtao, making his fourth Crucible appearance, compiled a century and seven half-centuries in his first session against Wakelin. He won five of the six frames played in the second session to clinch the match 10–6 and reach the second round for a third consecutive year. John Higgins made his 28th consecutive Crucible appearance. He trailed Un-Nooh 4–5 after the first session, but took six of the last eight frames to win 10–7 and reach the second round for an eighth consecutive time.


title: 2022 World Snooker Championship

text: Jack Lisowski led Stevens 6–2, but Stevens recovered to tie the scores at 6–6. Lisowski won the next three frames to go 9–6 ahead and eventually won the match 10–8. Lisowski stated afterwards that he had been playing fearfully at the end because he was "guarding the lead, which is the worst thing you can do". The 2020 runner-up Kyren Wilson faced the 2016 runner-up Ding. Ding led 3–0 and 7–5, but Wilson went ahead at 8–7. Ding tied the scores at 8–8 but missed a pivotal pot on the final pink in the 17th frame as he attempted a clearance from 65 points behind. Wilson went on to win 10–8 and called the performance "one of my best victories”. The match featured five centuries and 12 more breaks over 50. Before his match with Vafaei, 2019 champion Judd Trump stated that he had not been enjoying his snooker and did not have high expectations for the World Championship. The scores were tied at 3–3, but Trump won seven of the next eight frames for a 10–4 victory. Vafaei, who made a 121 break in the second session, called his Crucible debut "a very big achievement for me and my country". Luca Brecel faced Saengkham, whose wife had given birth to the couple's first child the day before the match began, three weeks earlier than expected. After winning six of the first seven frames, Saengkham went on to clinch a 10–5 victory and reach the second round for a second time. He revealed that he and his wife had named their newborn daughter Believe, stating that the name was inspired by Selby, who said "believe, believe, believe" while 4–10 down to Higgins in the 2017 final, before coming back to win the title.


title: 2022 World Snooker Championship

text: The second round of the event was played as the best of 25 frames, held over three sessions, between 21 and 25 April. Thirteen of the top sixteen seeds reached the second round, along with three qualifiers, Page, Maguire, and Saengkham. Williams faced his Welsh compatriot and practice partner Page, a player he described as "not just a friend, more like my fourth son". The players had met once previously in professional competition at the 2020 Scottish Open, with Williams winning 4–1 on that occasion. Williams won the first seven frames, and went on to complete a 13–3 victory, winning the match with a and reaching the quarter-finals for an 11th time. He compiled six centuries in the match, equalling the record for the most centuries in a best-of-25-frame match set by Selby in the 2011 event.


title: 2022 World Snooker Championship

text: Maguire faced Zhao, who played the first best-of-25-frame match of his professional career. Maguire took a 5–3 lead in the first session and extended it to 11–5 in the second session, which was briefly interrupted when a pigeon entered the arena and landed on the adjoining table where Yan was playing Selby. Maguire secured a 13–9 victory to reach the quarter-finals for a seventh time. Calling his form against Murphy "rubbish", he said that he had driven to Glasgow after his first-round match, borrowed a friend's cue, and practised with it to play Zhao. O'Sullivan faced Allen, who predicted that he would "get under the skin" of the world number one. O'Sullivan attempted a maximum break in the first frame but ran out of position after the tenth red and potted a pink, finishing on 87. O'Sullivan won five consecutive frames in the first session to lead 6–2. O'Sullivan attempted a maximum again in the second session, this time potting 11 reds and 11 blacks before losing position and missing a double on a red. He led 12–4 after the second session. The third session lasted just one frame as O'Sullivan wrapped up a 13–4 victory, setting records both for reaching a 20th quarter-final and for winning 71 matches at the Crucible.


title: 2022 World Snooker Championship

text: Tied 4–4 with Selby after the first session, Yan took a 9–7 lead after the second session. In the third session, the 46-minute 18th frame hinged on a safety battle over the brown. Uncertain as to whether the cue ball would pass the blue to pot the brown, Yan studied the shot for several minutes before asking the referee to clean the cue ball, which referee Rob Spencer refused to do under the circumstances. Some commentators, including Jimmy White and Alan McManus, initially called Yan's request "out of order", but Yan later explained that it was a joke. Yan successfully made the shot to pot the brown and went on to win the frame for an 11–7 lead. However, Selby won the next three frames, reducing Yan's lead to one at 11–10. The penultimate frame of the match lasted 85 minutes, setting a new record for the longest frame ever played at the Crucible; the previous record had been 79 minutes in a 2019 first-round match between Brecel and Gary Wilson. Yan won the frame on the final black, and went on to win the match 13–10. Playing Bingham, Wilson attempted a maximum break in the second session, potting 12 reds and 12 blacks before missing the 13th red. Bingham made his own maximum break attempt in the third session, but ran out of position after the 13th red. Bingham, who won the match 13–9 to reach his fourth quarter-final, said it was on his "bucket list" to make a 147 at the Crucible.


title: 2022 World Snooker Championship

text: Saengkham and Higgins were tied at 4–4 after the first session, but Higgins won seven consecutive frames in the second session to lead 11–5. In the third session, with Higgins one frame from victory at 12–6, Saengkham attempted a maximum break but missed the last red, ending on 112. "I'd have loved him to get it. You could see how fired up he was and I really thought he was going to do it", stated Higgins. Higgins won the match 13–7 to reach his 16th quarter-final, putting him ahead of Steve Davis and Jimmy White, who had both reached 15 quarter-finals, and behind only Hendry and O'Sullivan, who had reached 19 and 20 respectively. Trump led McGill 10–6 after the second session. McGill won four of the next five frames, narrowing Trump's lead to one at 11–10. Trump won the next to move one frame from victory, but McGill closed the scores to 12–11, and was 30 points ahead in frame 24 when he missed a shot on a red with the rest. Trump won 13–11 to reach his ninth quarter-final; he called the final session of the match "one of the best sessions I have been involved in".


title: 2022 World Snooker Championship

text: Lisowski led Robertson 9–7 after the first two sessions. In the 19th frame, Robertson made a maximum break, the fifth of his career and the 12th maximum in Crucible history. He became the eighth player, after Cliff Thorburn, Jimmy White, Hendry, O'Sullivan, Williams, Carter, and John Higgins, to make a maximum in the final stages of a World Championship. Robertson went 12–11 ahead and looked to be on the verge of victory when he made a 55 break in frame 24. However, Lisowski produced a frame-winning clearance of 72 to force a decider. Both players had opportunities to win, but Lisowski clinched the frame for a 13–12 victory. Lisowski said afterwards: "I have never experienced anything like that in my life. The cheer when I potted the red that got me over the line in the decider… I am completely drained, I gave that literally everything I had and it has to be the best win of my career".


title: 2022 World Snooker Championship

text: The quarter-finals of the event were played as the best of 25 frames, held over three sessions, on 26 and 27 April. Maguire was the only qualifier to reach this stage, while Yan and Lisowski both competed in the quarter-finals for the first time in their careers. The Class of '92—O'Sullivan, Higgins, and Williams—all reached the quarter-finals for the first time since 2011. "I think it's incredible that it's been 30 years and the three of us are better players than we've ever been", Higgins stated.


title: 2022 World Snooker Championship

text: Facing Maguire, O'Sullivan won six consecutive frames in the first session to lead 6–2. He won another five consecutive frames in the second session, ending it with an 11–5 lead. O'Sullivan wrapped up a 13–5 victory within 20 minutes of the final session to reach a record 13th semi-final, breaking Hendry's previous record of 12. In his first session against Yan, Williams won four frames in a row after the mid-session interval to finish 6–2 ahead. Yan won six of the eight frames played in the second session, levelling the scores at 8–8. In the final session, Yan took a 10–8 lead, but Williams tied the scores at 10–10. Yan took advantage of several flukes to go 11–10 ahead, but Williams won the last three frames to clinch the match 13–11 and reach his seventh semi-final, becoming the oldest player to reach the final four since Ray Reardon in 1985. He stated afterwards: "I am just so happy to get to the semi-finals. I am here 30 years on after turning pro and still trying my best... I am scoring as well as I have ever scored".


title: 2022 World Snooker Championship

text: Higgins led Lisowski 5–3 after the first session and 8–7 after the second. Higgins moved into an 11–9 lead in the final session, but Lisowski won three frames in a row to lead 12–11 before Higgins made a century break to force a deciding frame. Lisowski had the first chance in the decider but missed a red while on a break of 18. Higgins clinched victory with a 72 break, winning 13–12. Afterwards, Higgins said he was delighted to reach the semi-finals but did not think he deserved the win. Trump led Bingham 5–3 after the first session. Bingham won five consecutive frames in the second session to lead 8–5, before Trump recovered to tie the scores at 8–8. Trump took all five frames played in the final session to clinch a 13–8 victory. Trump noted the 14th frame as a turning point in the match: "All of sudden, out of nowhere, Stuart missed a black off its spot and it gave me some confidence. I was completely gone at 8–5. I just tried to enjoy it and give my all".


title: 2022 World Snooker Championship

text: The semi-finals of the event were played as the best of 33 frames, held over four sessions, between 28 and 30 April. For the first time at the Crucible, all four semi-finalists were former champions, with O'Sullivan having won six previous titles, Higgins four, Williams three, and Trump one. All three members of the Class of '92 reached the semi-final stage for the first time since the 1999 event.


title: 2022 World Snooker Championship

text: Trump and Williams played each other for the first time in a Triple Crown tournament, with Bulgarian referee Desislava Bozhilova officiating her first world semi-final. Williams made errors throughout the first session and struggled with his long potting, as Trump won seven of the eight frames played to lead 7–1. Both players complained about the condition of the table, which was repaired during the interval. Steve Davis noted the contrast with Williams's strong performances in earlier rounds, saying: "It is a shock that Mark Williams has gone off the boil. We expected him to continue his form". Afterwards, Williams apologised on Twitter for his poor play in the session. In the second session, Trump made back-to-back centuries to take a seven-frame lead at 9–2, but Williams responded with a 119 break to make his 13th century of the tournament, a new personal best in any tournament of his career. Both players won four frames in the session to leave Trump leading 11–5. Williams won six of the eight frames in the third session, reducing Trump's lead to 13–11 and receiving a standing ovation as he left the arena. Doherty commented: "What a performance. The match between Judd Trump and Mark Williams is back on".


title: 2022 World Snooker Championship

text: In the final session, Williams levelled the scores at 13–13 and 15–15. His 138 break in the 30th frame was his 16th century of the tournament, equalling Hendry's 2002 record for the highest number of centuries in a single year at the Crucible. Williams went ahead for the first time at 16–15, but Trump took the match to a deciding frame, before which the players received a standing ovation. Both players had chances to win, but Trump potted two of the last three reds with cross doubles and then took the final red with a black to leave Williams requiring three snookers, which he was unable to obtain. Trump commented that the win was "once in a lifetime", and that playing Williams was akin to playing a video game on "hard mode". The media praised the drama and quality of the match, calling it a "thrilling Crucible clash" and "one of the great matches in Crucible history".


title: 2022 World Snooker Championship

text: O'Sullivan and Higgins met at the Crucible for a sixth time, with German referee Marcel Eckardt officiating the match. Prior to the semi-final, O'Sullivan led their head-to-head 36–33, but Higgins had won five of their last six encounters. They had last met at the Crucible in the quarter-finals of the 2011 event, when Higgins won 13–10 en route to his fourth title. Both players struggled to find fluency at the outset, with O'Sullivan's average shot time over 29 seconds in the first two frames. Higgins won the first three frames, but O'Sullivan leveled the scores at 4–4 after the first session. The scores were level again at 6–6 in the second session, but O'Sullivan then moved 9–6 ahead. In the final frame of the session, O’Sullivan was 51 points behind with 51 remaining on the table. After potting a red and black, he made a 43 clearance to force a re-spotted black, which he potted to take a 10–6 lead.


title: 2022 World Snooker Championship

text: O'Sullivan won five of the eight frames played in the third session, ending with a total clearance of 134, to extend his lead to 15–9. Higgins, whose 103 in the 21st frame was his only break over 70 in the match, slammed the butt of his cue on the floor in frustration after missing a red in the 23rd frame. The final session lasted four frames as O'Sullivan wrapped up a 17–11 win. Higgins stated afterwards that he was disappointed with how he had played, but praised his opponent: "Ronnie was far too good for me. He was lethal. I don’t think he missed one ball when he was in among them, he might have run out of position a few times, but other than that he was unbelievable".


title: 2022 World Snooker Championship

text: The final of the event was played on 1 and 2 May 2022 as a best-of-35-frames match, held over four sessions, between O'Sullivan and Trump. Belgian referee Olivier Marteel took charge of his second World Championship final, having previously refereed the 2015 final between Bingham and Murphy. O'Sullivan was contesting his eighth World Championship final, having won six and lost one previously, while Trump was competing in his third final, having won one and lost one previously. The finalists had met once before at the Crucible, in the semi-finals of the 2013 event, when O'Sullivan defeated Trump 17–11. Trump stated before the match: "It's always been a dream of mine to play Ronnie in the final".


title: 2022 World Snooker Championship

text: After Trump won the opening frame, O'Sullivan won the second with a 120 break, his 200th World Championship century and his 13th of the tournament, equalling his previous personal best at the Crucible. In the fourth frame, O'Sullivan engaged in a three-minute discussion with the referee about the correct replacement of the cue ball after a miss had been called. O'Sullivan came from behind in the frame to force a re-spotted black, which he potted with a double off three cushions to lead 3–1. O'Sullivan went on to lead 5–1, making another century in the sixth frame. However, Trump won the last two frames of the session, reducing O'Sullivan's lead to 5–3. O'Sullivan and referee Marteel had several heated exchanges during the session and did not shake hands afterwards. Marteel issued a formal warning over a gesture O'Sullivan made near the end of the eighth frame after failing to escape from a snooker, but O'Sullivan denied any wrongdoing, later accusing the referee of "looking for trouble". World Snooker Tour officials subsequently stated that no further action would be taken. Trump won the first frame of the second session, but O'Sullivan took seven of the next eight, capitalising on safety errors and missed pots by Trump to end 12–5 ahead, his largest overnight lead in any of the world finals he had played. O'Sullivan's 118 break in the 11th frame was his 15th century of the tournament, a new personal best in a single year at the Crucible. Speaking critically for the BBC, Murphy stated that Trump had "made far too many mistakes" and had "a horrific night in front of him" after the first day's play.


title: 2022 World Snooker Championship

text: Trump began the third session with his first century of the match, and went on to win six of the eight frames played, reducing O'Sullivan's lead to three at 14–11. It was the only session O'Sullivan lost in the tournament. In the final session, O'Sullivan won three of the first four frames with breaks of 82, 88, and 75 to go 17–12 ahead at the mid-session interval. Trump made a century to win the 30th frame, but O'Sullivan made an 85 in the 31st to win the match 18–13 and equal Hendry's record of seven world titles. Calling it "probably the best result I've ever had," O'Sullivan said the final had been "a titanic battle against a strong competitor who is young and hungry". Trump said he had "made a fight of it against the best player of all time" and called O'Sullivan's seventh world title "an amazing achievement for him and for snooker". The victory gave O'Sullivan his 39th ranking title and 21st Triple Crown title. Aged 46 years and 148 days, he became the oldest world champion in snooker history, surpassing Reardon, who was 45 years and 203 days old when he won his final title in 1978. O'Sullivan also set a new record for the most matches won at the Crucible, with 74, and ended the season as world number one. Trump's century in the final session brought the total number of Crucible centuries to 109, breaking the record of 108 achieved the previous year.


title: 2022 World Snooker Championship

text: The last session of the final attracted a peak audience of 4.5 million viewers on BBC Two, the highest figure since 2014 and a 17 percent increase over the previous year. Overall, the event attracted a 30 percent greater share of the BBC's viewing audience than the previous year. The event was Eurosport's best tournament on record in the UK, in terms of both average audience and market share. Eurosport also achieved record viewership figures in Italy, Poland, Spain, Germany, and France for the event.


title: 2022 World Snooker Championship

text: The numbers given in brackets after the players' names show their 2022 World Championship seedings. The sole amateur player in the championship is indicated with (a). The match winners are denoted in bold text


title: 2022 World Snooker Championship

text: The results from qualifying are shown below. Numbers given before players' names show World Championship seedings, while "a" indicates the amateur players at the time of the draw. The match winners are denoted in bold text. The WPBSA selected 16 amateur players to participate in the qualifying rounds together with the 106 professionals outside the top 16 of the world rankings and the top six from the 2021 Q School Order of Merit.


title: 2022 World Snooker Championship

text: A total of 109 century breaks were made during the main stage of the tournament, surpassing the record set during the previous year's championship by one century. The highest was a maximum break by Robertson.


title: 2022 World Snooker Championship

text: A total of 89 century breaks were made during the qualifying rounds. The highest was a maximum break by Dott.


title: Amblyopia

text: Amblyopia, also called lazy eye, is a disorder of sight in which the brain fails to fully process input from one eye and over time favors the other eye. It results in decreased vision in an eye that typically appears normal in other aspects. Amblyopia is the most common cause of decreased vision in a single eye among children and younger adults.


title: Amblyopia

text: The cause of amblyopia can be any condition that interferes with focusing during early childhood. This can occur from poor alignment of the eyes (strabismic), an eye being irregularly shaped such that focusing is difficult, one eye being more nearsighted or farsighted than the other (refractive), or clouding of the lens of an eye (deprivational). After the underlying cause is addressed, vision is not restored right away, as the mechanism also involves the brain. Amblyopia can be difficult to detect, so vision testing is recommended for all children around the ages of four to five.


title: Amblyopia

text: Early detection improves treatment success. Glasses may be all the treatment needed for some children. If this is not sufficient, treatments which encourage or force the child to use the weaker eye are used. This is done by either using a patch or putting atropine in the stronger eye. Without treatment, amblyopia typically persists. Treatment in adulthood is usually much less effective.


title: Amblyopia

text: Amblyopia begins by the age of five. In adults, the disorder is estimated to affect 1–5% of the population. While treatment improves vision, it does not typically restore it to normal in the affected eye. Amblyopia was first described in the 1600s. The condition may make people ineligible to be pilots or police officers. The word "amblyopia" is from Greek ἀμβλύς "amblys", meaning "blunt", and ὤψ "ōps", meaning "sight".


title: Amblyopia

text: Many people with amblyopia, especially those who only have a mild form, are not aware they have the condition until tested at older ages, since the vision in their stronger eye is normal. People with amblyopia typically have poor stereo vision, since it requires both eyes. They further may have, on the affected eye, poor pattern recognition, poor visual acuity, and low sensitivity to contrast and motion.


title: Amblyopia

text: Amblyopia is characterized by several functional abnormalities in spatial vision, including reductions in visual acuity, contrast sensitivity function, and vernier acuity, as well as spatial distortion, abnormal spatial interactions, and impaired contour detection. In addition, individuals with amblyopia have binocular abnormalities such as impaired stereoacuity (stereoscopic acuity) and abnormal binocular summation. Also, central vision in amblyopes is more crowded than central vision in normal observers.


title: Amblyopia

text: These deficits are usually specific to the amblyopic eye. Subclinical deficits of the "better" eye have also been demonstrated.


title: Amblyopia

text: People with amblyopia also have problems of binocular vision such as limited stereoscopic depth perception and usually have difficulty seeing the three-dimensional images in hidden stereoscopic displays such as autostereograms. Perception of depth, from monocular cues such as size, perspective, and motion parallax remains normal.


title: Amblyopia

text: Strabismus, sometimes also incorrectly called lazy eye, is a condition in which the eyes are misaligned. Strabismus usually results in normal vision in the preferred sighting (or "fellow") eye (the eye that the person prefers to use), but may cause abnormal vision in the deviating or strabismic eye due to the difference between the images projecting to the brain from the two eyes.


title: Amblyopia

text: Adult-onset strabismus usually causes double vision (diplopia), since the two eyes are not fixed on the same object.


title: Amblyopia

text: Children's brains are more neuroplastic, so can more easily adapt by suppressing images from one of the eyes, eliminating the double vision. This plastic response of the brain interrupts the brain's normal development, resulting in the amblyopia. Recent evidence points to a cause of infantile strabismus lying with the input to the visual cortex.


title: Amblyopia

text: Those with strabismic amblyopia tend to show ocular motion deficits when reading, even when they use the nonamblyopic eye. In particular, they tend to make more saccades per line than persons with normal stereo vision, and to have a reduced reading speed, especially when reading a text with small font size.


title: Amblyopia

text: Strabismic amblyopia is treated by clarifying the visual image with glasses, or encouraging use of the amblyopic eye with an eyepatch over the dominant eye or pharmacologic penalization of the better eye. Penalization usually consists of applying atropine drops to temporarily paralyze the accommodation reflex, leading to the blurring of vision in the good eye. It also dilates the pupil. This helps to prevent the bullying and teasing associated with wearing a patch, although sometimes application of the eye drops is challenging. The ocular alignment itself may be treated with surgical or nonsurgical methods, depending on the type and severity of the strabismus.


title: Amblyopia

text: Refractive amblyopia may result from anisometropia (unequal refractive error between the two eyes). Anisometropia exists when there is a difference in the power between the two eyes. The eye which provides the brain with a clearer image typically becomes the dominant eye. The image in the other eye is blurred, which results in abnormal development of one half of the visual system. Refractive amblyopia is usually less severe than strabismic amblyopia and is commonly missed by primary care physicians because of its less dramatic appearance and lack of obvious physical manifestation, such as with strabismus. Given that the refractive correction of anisometropia by means of spectacles typically leads to different image magnification for the two eyes, which may in turn prevent binocular vision, a refractive correction using contact lenses is to be considered. Also pediatric refractive surgery is a treatment option, in particular if conventional approaches have failed due to aniseikonia or lack of compliance or both.


title: Amblyopia

text: Frequently, amblyopia is associated with a combination of anisometropia and strabismus. In some cases, the vision between the eyes can differ to the point where one eye has twice average vision while the other eye is completely blind.


title: Amblyopia

text: Deprivation amblyopia (amblyopia ex anopsia) results when the ocular media become opaque, such as is the case with congenital cataract or corneal haziness. These opacities prevent adequate visual input from reaching the eye, and disrupt development. If not treated in a timely fashion, amblyopia may persist even after the cause of the opacity is removed. Sometimes, drooping of the eyelid (ptosis) or some other problem causes the upper eyelid to physically occlude a child's vision, which may cause amblyopia quickly. Occlusion amblyopia may be a complication of a hemangioma that blocks some or all of the eye. Other possible causes of deprivation and occlusion amblyopia include obstruction in the vitreous and aphakia. Deprivation amblyopia accounts for less than 3% of all individuals affected by amblyopia.


title: Amblyopia

text: Amblyopia is a developmental problem in the brain, not any intrinsic, organic neurological problem in the eyeball (although organic problems can lead to amblyopia which can continue to exist after the organic problem has resolved by medical intervention).


title: Amblyopia

text: The part of the brain receiving images from the affected eye is not stimulated properly and does not develop to its full visual potential. This has been confirmed by direct brain examination. David H. Hubel and Torsten Wiesel won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1981 for their work in showing the extent of the damage to ocular dominance columns produced in kittens by sufficient visual deprivation during the so-called "critical period". The maximum "critical period" in humans is from birth to two years old.


title: Amblyopia

text: Amblyopia is diagnosed by identifying low visual acuity in one or both eyes, out of proportion to the structural abnormality of the eye and excluding other visual disorders as causes for the lowered visual acuity. It can be defined as an interocular difference of two lines or more in acuity (e.g. on Snellen chart) when the eye optics are maximally corrected. In young children, visual acuity is difficult to measure and can be estimated by observing the reactions of the patient when one eye is covered, including observing the patient's ability to follow objects with one eye.


title: Amblyopia

text: Stereotests like the Lang stereotest are not reliable exclusion tests for amblyopia. A person who passes the Lang stereotest test is unlikely to have strabismic amblyopia, but could nonetheless have refractive or deprivational amblyopia. Binocular retinal birefringence scanning may be able to identify, already in very young children, amblyopia that is associated with strabismus, microstrabismus, or reduced fixation accuracy. Diagnosis and treatment of amblyopia as early as possible is necessary to keep the vision loss to a minimum. Screening for amblyopia is recommended in all people between three and five years of age.


title: Amblyopia

text: Treatment of strabismic or anisometropic amblyopia consists of correcting the optical deficit (wearing the necessary spectacle prescription) and often forcing use of the amblyopic eye, by patching the good eye, or instilling topical atropine in the good eye, or both. Atropine appears to result in similar outcomes to patching. If there is overpatching or overpenalizing the good eye when treating amblyopia, "reverse amblyopia" can result. Eye patching is usually done on a part-time schedule of about 4–6 hours a day. Treatment is continued as long as vision improves. It is not worthwhile continuing to patch for more than 6 months if no improvement continues.


title: Amblyopia

text: Deprivation amblyopia is treated by removing the opacity as soon as possible followed by patching or penalizing the good eye to encourage the use of the amblyopic eye. The earlier the treatment is initiated, the easier and faster the treatment is and the less psychologically damaging. Also, the chance of achieving 20/20 vision is greater if treatment is initiated early.


title: Amblyopia

text: One of the German public health insurance providers, Barmer, has changed its policy to cover, as of 1 April 2014, the cost of software for amblyopic children whose condition did not improve through patching. The app offers dedicated eye exercises that the patient performs while wearing an eyepatch.


title: Amblyopia

text: Treatment of individuals age 9 through to adulthood is possible through applied perceptual learning. Tentative evidence shows that perceptual training may be beneficial in adults.


title: Amblyopia

text: Amblyopia occurs in between 2 and 5% of the population in Western countries. In the UK, 90% of visual health appointments in the child concern amblyopia.


title: Amblyopia

text: A 2009 study, widely reported in the popular press, has suggested that repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation may temporarily improve contrast sensitivity and spatial resolution in the affected eye of adults with amblyopia. This approach is still under development, and the results await verification by other researchers. Comparable results may be achieved using different types of brain stimulation, such as anodal transcranial direct current stimulation and theta burst rTMS.


title: Amblyopia

text: A 2013 study concluded that converging evidence indicates decorrelated binocular experience plays a pivotal role in the genesis of amblyopia and the associated residual deficits. Another study of 2013 suggests that playing a version of the popular game Tetris that is modified such that each eye sees separate components of the game may also help to treat this condition in adults. Furthermore, the effects of this kind of therapy may be further enhanced by noninvasive brain stimulation as shown by a recent study using anodal tDCS.


title: Amblyopia

text: A 2014 Cochrane review sought to determine the effectiveness of occlusion treatment on patients with sensory deprivation amblyopia, but no trials were found eligible to be included in the review. However, good outcomes from occlusion treatment for sensory deprivation amblyopia likely rely on compliance with the treatment.


title: Dear Comrade

text: Dear Comrade is a 2019 Indian Telugu-language romantic action drama film written and directed by Bharat Kamma. It is produced by Mythri Movie Makers and Big Ben Cinemas. The film stars Vijay Deverakonda, Rashmika Mandanna, and Shruti Ramachandran. Principal photography of the film commenced in August 2018. The film was theatrically released on 26 July 2019 in Telugu and along with dubbed versions in Tamil, Malayalam, and Kannada.


title: Dear Comrade

text: The movie begins with Chaitanya Krishna, aka Bobby, heavily drunk, dejected, and angry. He is unable to come to terms with the fact that his girlfriend Lilly doesn't want him in her life anymore.


title: Dear Comrade

text: The story now goes into flashback mode, where Bobby is a leftist student union leader at a college in Kakinada that deals with severe anger management issues. He's a rebel without a cause, like his grandfather Comrade Suryam. He fights with a local politician, Bulliah's brother, due to whom a girl from his college attempts suicide on repeated torture from him to reciprocate his love. He even spends a night in the lock-up with his friends over this. While returning, he runs into Lilly, aka Aparna Devi, who causes him a minor accident, and as compensation, Bobby takes away all her money to fix his bike. He returns home and gets to know that Lilly was, in fact, his childhood friend, (cousin of his neighbour's daughter Jaya) who has come to attend Jaya's wedding. Lilly keeps heartily teasing Bobby over his earlier infatuation with Jaya. During a local cricket match, Bobby discovers that Lilly is, in fact, a state-level cricket player. He gets thoroughly impressed by her and slowly starts to fall for her. During a small party held in the union office to celebrate their team's victory, Lilly sees Bobby getting into a heated argument with a student political leader, and despite her requests to walk away from it, Bobby engages in a fistfight. Lilly realises that Bobby has anger management issues and tries to tell him to handle and resolve conflicts internally rather than enter into fights with others. She also reveals that she had a brother who had lost his life a few years back in a college campus clash and that Bobby's campus fights brought back those painful memories.


title: Dear Comrade

text: During Jaya's marriage, Bobby confesses his love for Lilly. But she tells him that the two of them have different life paths to journey and that he'll probably forget her as soon as she goes away. Bobby isn't able to handle this rejection, and Lilly leaves without bidding goodbye to him. After she leaves, Bobby can't stop thinking about her and rides all night to Hyderabad to meet her and tell her that he wants to be her comrade in her life's journey. Confessing that she, too, has been thinking a lot about him, she reciprocates his feelings. But Lilly tells Bobby how she is scared of him due to his excessive aggression, but he calls it a minor issue and agrees to rectify it for her. Their love affair progresses passionately until one fateful day when Bobby is drawn into a fight with Bulliah's brother's gang yet again and unknowingly causes the accident of Bulliah's brother, who slips into Coma. Bulliah gets angered and tells his men to kill Bobby, and he gets seriously injured during the encounter with Bulliah's men inside his college campus, with Lilly witnessing everything and forced to go through the trauma of losing a loved one once again. When he wakes up in the hospital, Lilly starts advising and entreating him to give up his violent tendencies for the peace of mind of his loved ones. She gives him an ultimatum to choose immediately to either control his anger and continue to be with her or leave her forever. Bobby loses his temper at this demand since he feels nobody is willing to listen to his side of things and, in a fit of rage, pushes Lilly out of the hospital and tells her to get lost in front of family and friends.


title: Dear Comrade

text: Bobby later realises his mistake and tries to reach out to Lilly, but she asks him not to disturb her anymore and let her move on for good and focus on her career. He gets heart-broken and, on the advice of his grandfather, leaves home to travel and find his inner peace and true comrade self. He eventually joins a group of people who are working on a project on Sound healing. Three years after he had left home, Bobby and the team go to Hyderabad to meet a doctor to showcase their work, and while in the waiting hall, he sees Jaya and her husband. They ask him whether he came to visit Lilly in the hospital. That's when Bobby gets to know that Lilly had met with an accident during the day of National Selection and is sad and agitated upon seeing her condition in the psychiatric ward. He sneaks her out of the hospital and takes her on a road trip to Kerala to heal her both physically and emotionally. Her leg heals, and she slowly appears to return to her former cheerful self. He drops her back at her house and runs into the doctor who had been treating her. The doctor warns him that she may appear to be happy outside, but she has hidden pain inside. Bobby dismisses this, and as he leaves Lilly, he gives her his Digital voice recorder to listen to if at all she feels that she is in pain. Bobby and Lilly are then invited to their common friends’ marriage, where Lilly is visibly impressed by Bobby's newfound maturity enabling him to effortlessly forgive and party with Bulliah's brother and his gang. She asks Bobby to marry her since she's eager to start a life with him. But Bobby states that there is no urgency for their marriage and instead asks her to focus on her career goals now that she's physically fit. To his surprise, Lilly reveals that she has left cricket for good. She is angry at Bobby for persistently forcing her to go back to her cricketing life and walks away. Lilly increasingly feels that Bobby has forgotten the passionate love he once had for her. At the same time, Bobby starts to wonder why Lilly has suddenly lost all passion for cricket.


title: Dear Comrade

text: One day, Bobby spots Lilly's former teammate and friend Rubina, who now works in a tailoring shop. She tells Bobby the whole truth of what transpired in Lilly's life after he had left. During a high-profile tournament, Lilly's team won the cup, and she was also named the “best player”. The chief-guest and presenter of the awards, Ramesh Rao, who is a south-zone selector for BCCI, lusts for Lilly. He meets with Lilly in his office the next day and demands her to sleep with him to get selected for the national team. Lilly is visibly shaken and reduced to tears by this demand. Still, she refuses to lodge any complaint due to fear of confrontation, despite entreaties from her good friend Rubina in whom she had confided. But Rubina complains on Lilly's behalf anyway, and getting wind of this, Ramesh Rao barges into their change-room and physically assaults both Lilly and Rubina. Lilly, who gets even more shaken and distressed due to this incident, meets with an accident shortly afterwards while crossing the road in a daze. Due to her fractured leg and the sexual assault of Ramesh Rao, Lilly was now severely scarred mentally and slipped into psychological breakdown and depression. On finally coming to know of all this through Rubina, Bobby gets furious and beats Ramesh Rao black and blue with his comrade friends. He then comes to Lilly and breaks down in front of her apologising for ever having left her. Lilly is unaware of the reason for this sudden confession but is heartened by the fact that some of his old passion for her has returned. But Bobby then takes Lilly to the police station where his friends were waiting, lodging an official police complaint against Ramesh Rao on the sexual harassment incident. Lilly, suddenly realising the reason for Bobby's emotional turnaround, refuses to co-operate with his plans for taking strong punitive action against Ramesh Rao. She instead complains that everybody has only ever tried to force their own will on her while nobody has ever bothered to ask her what she really wants. Her own father had also discouraged her earlier when she told him about the incident, as he believed it would ruin the family's reputation. Her agitated father, who is now with her in the Police Station, escorts her back home away from a frustrated Bobby whose vigorous requests to her to stay back and fight for her rights like true comrades goes unheeded.


title: Dear Comrade

text: Seeing the old aggressive streak in Bobby again, Lilly is now convinced that Bobby's temperament had never really changed and that he only pities her present state rather than loving and respecting her. Despite Jaya's advice, she decides to meet up with a groom her family has arranged for her. Bobby comes into her house in the middle of this and tries to convince her one last time entreating her not to run away from her life and promising to Not to let her collapse like the comrade soviet union. But Lilly blames him for not being around when she really needed him years ago and that she now sees a future with the new groom. Much to Bobby's dismay, she tells him that she would completely forget him in a few years, just like he had done to her. A tearful Bobby leaves her place, flashing back to his life over the past few years in Ladakh, where he had attempted to find peace in life and heal his broken heart, but in vain. Lilly's memories had been with him every breath of the way. Ignorant of all this, Lilly gets confirmation of her marriage to be scheduled within the month and is suddenly consumed by the painful prospect of losing Bobby forever. She desperately reaches out for Bobby's old voice recorder that he had left for her as a hearing aid. But the recordings in it were all Bobby's own personal messages to her over their years of separation that revealed his passionate and undying love for Lilly. She is ecstatic, but it is soon cut short by the news that the video footage of Bobby assaulting Ramesh Rao has gone viral, and the media has now made it a national issue. Lilly and her family are now firmly thrust into the media's limelight. The Board of Control for Cricket in India appoints a four-member committee to investigate the allegations against Ramesh Rao.


title: Dear Comrade

text: The police officer in-charge of the sexual assault investigation, who is a friend of Ramesh Rao, arrests Bobby and incarcerates him. Bobby refuses to let the hook off Ramesh Rao despite being thrashed and threatened in custody. The officer also visits Lilly's family and tries to coerce Lilly to lie in exchange for the safe release of Bobby. So in her deposition before the BCCI committee, she reluctantly states that she wasn't sexually harassed and assaulted by Ramesh Rao, despite Bobby being present there and continuously urging her to take that one last step towards justice. Bobby is severely disillusioned by Lilly's defeatist stance and gives up the fight for justice. He apologises for all the trouble he has caused to everyone. He lies that he did all this out of some personal vengeance against Ramesh due to his anger management issues and that he only knew Lilly as a neighbour's distant relative and had seen her just a few times. This hurts Lilly badly, and she tries to hold onto Bobby while he was being escorted back by the police. But he tearfully pushes her away, stating that their journeys are so different that they can never meet. Ramesh Rao then goes on to insult both Bobby and Lilly in the court and demands an apology from Lilly for false allegations and defaming him and says that this was all just a cheap publicity stunt used by a mediocre player like her. Lilly, enraged by this and already hurt by Bobby's crestfallen lies, attacks Ramesh Rao in front of the committee and angrily confesses that he had indeed sexually harassed and assaulted her, abusing his position as a selector. She swears to Ramesh Rao that she would not only break into the national team but also captain it one day. Bobby gets to watch all this from the sidelines unseen by Lilly and is delighted to see the return of the passionate cricketer in her. Later, when questioned by the media outside, Lilly faces them fearlessly and says that every woman should have a Comrade who supports her in her journey and instills courage in her to fight for her rights. She then desperately seeks out Bobby and tells him that she finally overcame her fears to nail Ramesh Rao and even beat him up in front of everyone. Bobby smilingly reveals that he did witness Aparna Devi coming to her own. Lilly then forces Bobby to take back his earlier hurtful statements as to their journeys being different. A beaming Bobby does so, and the two lovers reunite, having finally embraced their true selves. During the credits roll, Bobby drops Lilly at the National Cricket Academy and gives her a fist-bump reaffirming that she is his true comrade.


title: Dear Comrade

text: In May 2018, it was reported that Vijay Deverakonda will join with debutant director Bharat Kamma for a new film. The first look poster of the film was unveiled on Devarakonda's birthday, 9 May 2018, with the title "Dear Comrade", also being announced. While sources claimed that the film will be a remake of Malayalam movie "Comrade in America" (2017) starring Dulquer Salmaan as the protagonist, the director and actor denied its connection with the movie. Rashmika Mandanna, was selected to play the female lead, collaborating with Deverakonda for the second time, after "Geetha Govindam" (2018). Vijay Devarakonda plays the lead role of a student leader, while Rashmika essayed the role of a female cricketer. After completing the pre-production work by its month end, the team planned to kickstart the film's shoot in June 2018, but was delayed further, in order to complete the shooting commitments, of the other lead actors, while the team used to finalise, other principal cast and crew. In July 2019, it was reported that Sai Pallavi was earlier chosen for the film's female lead. However, she rejected the script due to the lip-lock scenes between the lead actors.


title: Dear Comrade

text: The film's pooja ceremony was launched on 2 July 2018. Apart from the film's cast and crew, M. M. Keeravani provided the first clap for the film while Chandra Sekhar Yeleti switched on the camera. Bharat handed the script to directors Sukumar and Koratala Siva. Principal photography began very soon after the launch. However, production further delayed, due to the actor's involvement in other projects. The film's second schedule took place in Kakinada in December 2018, after the completion of the first schedule. The shoot came to a halt, after Vijay faced an injury while boarding a running train, as a part of the film's scene. The actor also suffered from fever and exhaustion, while shooting the film, which led him to be hospitalised, which further delayed the film. Filming was completed on 28 April 2019.


title: Dear Comrade

text: The film was originally scheduled to release on 31 May 2019, was postponed in order to avoid clash with Suriya's NGK. On 9 May 2019, Deverakonda announced that the film will be released on 26 July 2019 in Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam languages.


title: Dear Comrade

text: The film was also dubbed and released in Hindi on YouTube by Goldmines Telefilms on 19 January 2020. The Hindi dubbed version crossed more than 307 million views on YouTube.


title: Dear Comrade

text: The official teaser of the film was released on 17 March 2019, landed in controversy, after both the lead actors being trolled over the kissing scene featured in the clip. Rashmika stated in response to the controversy, that since the particular scene in the film demanded a lip lock scene, it is a responsibility for an actor to do justice for the role. She further added, "No movie should be judged solely on the basis of a lip-lock scene. It should be seen as a whole."


title: Dear Comrade

text: A promotional event titled "Dear Comrade Music Festival", took place across Bengaluru, Cochin, Chennai and Hyderabad, for the film's marketing purposes. The film's marketing team announced its collaboration with Airtel India, as their sponsor.


title: Dear Comrade

text: Hemanth Kumar of "Firstpost" said that the film is "an intense but uneven film". Giving the film a 3/5, he adds, "Dear Comrade is beautifully written and the love story between the two characters is sheer magic, but then it straddles between two worlds that are loosely held together" Sudhir Srinivasan of "The New Indian Express" gave the film a 4.5/5 by praising the movie for its direction and the acting of its leading roles. Writing for "The Times of India", Suhas Yellapantula gave 3.5 stars and said that the film "makes you think, keeps you guessing and plays with your emotions. After the film, there's a good chance you'll walk out with your collar up and ready to raise your voice against anything that doesn't sit right with you — even if it's just for a while." Janani K of "India Today" wrote that "Vijay Deverakonda and Rashmika Mandanna's Dear Comrade is about the relationship between two contrasting characters. While the film addresses an important message on sexual harassment, it gets hidden under mass moments. Watch it for the performances. Director Bharat Kamma had a solid script in hand, and a relevant one at that." Sangeetha Devi Dundoo of "The Hindu" wrote, "Rashmika Mandanna and Vijay Deverakonda shine in director Bharat Kamma's film that underlines the importance of being a comrade". Karthik Kumar, in his review for "Hindustan Times", gave 3.5 stars out of five and wrote that "Dear Comrade does tumble towards the end with a slightly below par climax, but it's still an effort you want to appreciate. The film, about life, love and facing our worst fears, achieves more than one can imagine, and that's what makes it a winner."


title: Dear Comrade

text: "Dear Comrade" collected around 18 crore on its opening day. It collected 30-33 crore in the first weekend. According to International Business Times, "Dear Comrade" grossed a total of 37.33 crores till the end of the year 2019.


title: Indian (1996 film)

text: Indian () is a 1996 Indian Tamil-language vigilante action film written and directed by Shankar and produced by A. M. Rathnam. The film stars Kamal Haasan in a dual role opposite Nedumudi Venu, Sukanya, Manisha Koirala and Urmila Matondkar. The film's score and soundtrack are composed by A. R. Rahman, while cinematography was handled by Jeeva. The film focuses on an ex-freedom fighter turned vigilante bent on rooting out corruption, and his son, who is at the other end of the spectrum by facilitating corrupt practices leading to some unfortunate events. He is well trained in Varma Kalai, an ancient lethal martial art used for close-quarters combat.


title: Indian (1996 film)

text: "Indian" was released on 9 May 1996 worldwide and opened to high critical acclaim on the way to becoming a major commercial success in the box office. It became the highest grossing Tamil film of all time and also the first film from Tamil and South India to gross 50 crore at worldwide box office.


title: Indian (1996 film)

text: The film was selected by India as its entry for the Best Foreign Language Film for the Academy Awards in 1996, but was not nominated. The film also went on to win three National Film Awards including that of Best Actor for Kamal Haasan's portrayal, while his performance also saw him win at the Filmfare Awards and the Tamil Nadu film fare award. It was the highest-grossing Tamil film upon its release, beating the collections of "Baashha" until surpassed by "Padayappa" three years later.


title: Indian (1996 film)

text: A series of murders take place in Avadi, Chennai, in the same pattern; stabbing by a knife. Each time the victim is paralysed before being killed. The Chennai Police Department, led by CBI officer Krishnaswamy suspects several people, and they narrow down the killer by his age, which should be more than 70 years based on the writing style of a letter left behind by the killer while murdering his most recent victim, an officer in the government treasury. The officer is killed by an old man who is later known to be Senapathy, a veteran Indian freedom fighter who was a member of the Indian National Army led by Subhas Chandra Bose, for threatening a poor old woman to bribe him to hand over compensation amount of given by the government as her husband was killed in a riot.


title: Indian (1996 film)

text: Chandrabose alias Chandru is a small-time broker stationed outside the RTO at Chennai, who, along with his assistant Subbaiah, aid people in bribing the right officials inside the RTO for getting permits and licenses. Subbaiah and Paneerselvam, an RTO official, are engaged in regular conflicts with one another. At the same time, Aishwarya, Chandru's love interest and an avid animal rights activist, also comes into conflict with Sapna, a medical student and the daughter of an RTO official. Chandru attempts to win over Sapna and her family to secure a job as a brake inspector at the RTO. Aishwarya is irked by the fact that Sapna, as well as her mother, are exploiting Chandru's situation, getting him to do household chores, but eventually, Sapna realises that Chandru loves Aishwarya and gives up her love. It is revealed that Chandru is actually Senapathy's son. They both had fallen out due to Senapathy's excessive insistence on honesty and righteousness, which Chandru considers to be irrelevant in the present times.


title: Indian (1996 film)

text: Meanwhile, Krishnaswamy manages to trace his way to Senapathy's house posing as a freedom fighter eligible for Swathantra Sainik Samman Pension Scheme. When he tries to arrest Senapathy, Senapathy and his wife Amirthavalli, a puppeteer, escape with his expertise in Varma Kalai. Senapathy then goes on to commit a murder in front of a live television audience by killing a corrupt doctor, who refused to treat Senapathy's daughter Kasturi, who was suffering from third-degree burns, because he insisted on a bribe which Senapathy refused, thus leading to her death. The public support surges for Senapathy as he exposes so many corrupt individuals. Senapathy does not do any favours for his son either.


title: Indian (1996 film)

text: Chandru, who managed to bribe his way to a brake inspector job, takes a bribe and gives a safety certificate to a bus with faulty brakes, which eventually kills 40 school children, including the driver. Chandru tries to place the blame on the bus driver for drunk-drive and manages to bribe a police officer and a doctor on the same. However, Senapathy catches him in the act, and is bent on giving Chandru the same punishment that he gives others i.e. death. Despite pleas from Amirthavalli and Aishwarya to spare Chandru's life, Senapathy heads for the airport where Chandru is attempting to flee to Mumbai. A chase then culminates at the airport, where Senapathy tearfully kills his son and apparently dies in an explosion involving an aeroplane. However, Krishnaswamy, on investigating the recorded footage, discovers that Senapathy escaped moments before the jeep exploded.


title: Indian (1996 film)

text: The epilogue shows Senapathy calling Krishnaswamy from Hong Kong, indicating that he will be back whenever the need for his presence should arise.


title: Indian (1996 film)

text: Soon after the release of "Gentleman" (1993), Shankar narrated a script titled "Periya Manushan" to actor Rajinikanth, but the pair did not end up collaborating. He then considered making the film in Telugu with Rajasekhar in a leading role, alongside either Nagarjuna or Venkatesh, but the plans did not materialise. In June 1995, producer A. M. Rathnam signed on Shankar to make the venture featuring leading actor Kamal Haasan in the lead role. The film, retitled as "Indian", was initially reported to be loosely based on the life of prominent Indian freedom fighter, Subhas Chandra Bose.


title: Indian (1996 film)

text: Shankar tried to cast Aishwarya Rai to make her debut and portray the leading female role. Still, her commitment to her advertisement agency until October 1995 meant that she was unavailable to sign the film. Subsequently, Manisha Koirala, who appeared in the critically acclaimed 1995 Mani Ratnam film "Bombay" was selected as the lead heroine. The producers signed on Raadhika to play the pair of the older Kamal Haasan in the film, but her television commitments meant that she was unable to sign a contract. Urvashi's sister subsequently replaced her, only for Shankar to throw her out for missing a day's schedule to attend her wedding. The role was finally handed to Sukanya, who had previously appeared alongside Kamal Haasan in "Mahanadhi". Bollywood actress Urmila Matondkar was signed to play a role in the film after the producers were impressed with her performance and the success of her 1995 Hindi film, "Rangeela". Nassar was chosen to portray an important character in the film; however, as he was busy with other films, he could not accept the offer instead, he provided a voice for Nedumudi Venu. Then Shankar hired Malayalam famous character artist Nedumudi Venu to play the role. The producers engaged Hollywood make-up artistes Michael Westmore and Michael Jones to work on the designs for the senior Kamal Haasan's and Sukanya's look in the film.


title: Indian (1996 film)

text: For production work, Shankar visited Las Vegas to learn about new technology and purchased cameras for the production. Furthermore, the director visited Australia alongside cinematographer Jeeva and music director A. R. Rahman to location hunt and to compose tunes. The film's unit were given strict orders to maintain privacy, with Hindi actor Jackie Shroff being notably turned away from visiting the shooting spot. A song for the film was shot at Prasad Studios featuring Kamal Haasan and Urmila Matondkar alongside 70 Bombay models. This led to a protest from the Cine Dancers Union who argued that Tamil dancers should have been utilised instead, with Shankar opting to pay them off to avoid further hassle. Another duet between Kamal Haasan and Manisha Koirala was shot near the Sydney Opera House in Sydney and Canberra for fifteen days. A flashback song was canned with four hundred dancers and a thousand extras at Gingee with Kamal Haasan and Sukanya, while another song featured shooting in Jodhpur, Rajasthan. Graphic designer Venky noted that "Indian" was his most difficult project to date (in 1997) with a scene constructed to feature Kamal Haasan's character alongside freedom fighter, Subhas Chandra Bose. Venky had to remove blemishes on the film reel of Bose provided by the Film Division's archive before merging Kamal Haasan on to the shot to make it appear that the pair were marching in tandem.


title: Indian (1996 film)

text: It was the most expensive Indian film at the time. According to an estimate by film critic G. Dhananjayan, the production budget was ₹8 crore (worth ₹96 crore in 2021 prices). Rediff.com however estimated budget to be ₹15 crore. The music video for "Akadanu Naanga" directed by Padam Kumar and choreographed by Vaibhavi Merchant, cost ₹1.5 crore


title: Indian (1996 film)

text: The soundtrack album includes five tracks composed by A. R. Rahman, and was released in 1996 by Pyramid.


title: Indian (1996 film)

text: The Tamil soundtrack of "Indian" was a major success, having sold about 600,000 records within days of release. The Hindi soundtrack, called "Hindustani", sold a further 1.8million units, bringing total sales to at least 2.4million units. Kappaleri Poyachu was shot at Gingee fort, Villupuram district, Tamil Nadu


title: Indian (1996 film)

text: Indian was released worldwide on 9 May 1996 and opened to predominantly positive reviews from critics. Prior to the release of the film, the team also planned a Hindi version of the film. It was partially reshot in Hindi as "Hindustani" with Aruna Irani in place of Manorama. The Hindi version also did well after its release on 23 August 1996. The film was also dubbed in Telugu as "Bharathyeedu" and in Malayalam under the same title. In 2015, the Hindi version "Hindustani" was screened at the Habitat Film Festival.


title: Indian (1996 film)

text: The film became an Industry hit at the box office by breaking record for a Tamil film and earning over in India. The film ran to packed houses for several months in Tamil Nadu. Indian was also dubbed into Telugu as "Bharatheeyudu" and in Hindi as "Hindustani" . Both Telugu and Hindi dubbed versions also became a major commercial success .


title: Indian (1996 film)

text: A critic from "India Today" praised Shankar's script, noting that "with the right mix of pop patriotism, anti-establishment diatribes and other commercial cinema ingredients, Shankar's latest creation has south India applauding" before adding that "the real triumph of the film is the effective make-over that believably transforms the actors". Another film critic wrote that ""Indian" represents Shankar's best effort to date both in terms of the effectiveness of the message he conveys and the entertainment value of the movie as a whole", adding that "the movie features a hardhitting message as well as a great performance from Kamal as an old freedom fighter with a new agenda, impressive special effects and extravagant song sequences." The film went on to win three National Film Awards: Best Actor for Kamal Haasan's portrayal, Best Art Direction for Thota Tharani's pre-independence sets and Best Special Effects for Venky's graphics work. It also achieved regional success, winning Best Film and Best Actor awards at both the Filmfare Awards and from the Tamil Nadu State. It also became the Indian submission for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1997, though eventually did not make the shortlist.


title: Indian (1996 film)

text: "Indian" was selected by India as its entry for the Best Foreign Language Film for the Academy Awards in 1996, but was not nominated.


title: Indian (1996 film)

text: In 2011, producer A. M. Rathnam discussed the idea of a sequel to this project as anti-corruption leaders like Anna Hazare were becoming active. In September 2017, a sequel was announced jointly by Shankar and Haasan, with Dil Raju handling production. It entered production after Haasan completed work on "Vishwaroopam II" and "Sabaash Naidu" as "Indian 2". The following month, Raju left the film which was then picked up by Lyca Productions. The film has Haasan reprising his role as the titular character along with new addition of actors including Siddharth, Kajal Aggarwal, and many others. The soundtrack will be scored by Anirudh Ravichander, the first time for a film starring Kamal Haasan. Kabilan Vairamuthu will be rendering his service for dialogue.


title: Department store

text: A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store made a dramatic appearance in the middle of the 19th century, and permanently reshaped shopping habits, and the definition of service and luxury. Similar developments were under way in London (with Whiteleys), in Paris (Le Bon Marché) and in New York (Stewart's).


title: Department store

text: Today, departments often include the following: clothing, cosmetics, do it yourself, furniture, gardening, hardware, home appliances, houseware, paint, sporting goods, toiletries, and toys. Additionally, other lines of products such as food, books, jewellery, electronics, stationery, photographic equipment, baby products, and products for pets are sometimes included. Customers generally check out near the front of the store in discount department stores, while high-end traditional department stores include sales counters within each department. Some stores are one of many within a larger retail chain, while others are independent retailers.


title: Department store

text: Since the 1980s, they have come under heavy pressure from discounters, and have come under even heavier pressure from e-commerce sites since the 2000s.


title: Department store

text: Some sources may refer to the following types of stores as department stores, even they are not generally considered as such:


title: Department store

text: One of the first department stores may have been Bennett's in Derby, first established as an ironmonger (hardware shop) in 1734. It still stands to this day, trading in the same building. However, the first reliably dated department store to be established, was Harding, Howell & Co., which opened in 1796 on Pall Mall, London. (The oldest department store chain may be Debenhams, which was established in 1778 and closed in 2021. It is the longest trading defunct British retailer.) An observer writing in "Ackermann's Repository", a British periodical on contemporary taste and fashion, described the enterprise in 1809 as follows:


title: Department store

text: The house is one hundred and fifty feet in length from front to back, and of proportionate width. It is fitted up with great taste, and is divided by glazed partitions into four departments, for the various branches of the extensive business, which is there carried on. Immediately at the entrance is the first department, which is exclusively appropriated to the sale of furs and fans. The second contains articles of haberdashery of every description, silks, muslins, lace, gloves, &etc. In the third shop, on the right, you meet with a rich assortment of jewelry, ornamental articles in ormolu, French clocks, &etc.; and on the left, with all the different kinds of perfumery necessary for the toilette. The fourth is set apart for millinery and dresses; so that there is no article of female attire or decoration, but what may be here procured in the first style of elegance and fashion. This concern has been conducted for the last twelve years by the present proprietors who have spared neither trouble nor expense to ensure the establishment of a superiority over every other in Europe, and to render it perfectly unique in its kind.


title: Department store

text: This venture is described as having all of the basic characteristics of the department store; it was a public retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different departments. Jonathan Glancey for the BBC writes:


title: Department store

text: Harding, Howell & Co was focused on the needs and desires of fashionable women. Here, at last women were free to browse and shop, safely and decorously, away from home and from the company of men. These, for the main part, were newly affluent middle class women, their good fortune – and the department store itself – nurtured and shaped by the Industrial Revolution. This was transforming life in London and the length and breadth of Britain at a dizzying pace on the back of energetic free trade, fecund invention, steam and sail, and a seemingly inexhaustible supply of expendable cheap labour.


title: Department store

text: This pioneering shop was closed down in 1820 when the business partnership was dissolved. All the major high streets in British cities had flourishing department stores by the mid-or late nineteenth century. Increasingly, women became the main customers. Kendals (formerly Kendal Milne & Faulkner) in Manchester lays claim to being one of the first department stores and is still known to many of its customers as Kendal's, despite its 2005 name change to House of Fraser. The Manchester institution dates back to 1836 but had been trading as Watts Bazaar since 1796. At its zenith the store had buildings on both sides of Deansgate linked by a subterranean passage "Kendals Arcade" and an art nouveau tiled food hall. The store was especially known for its emphasis on quality and style over low prices giving it the nickname "the Harrods of the North", although this was due in part to Harrods acquiring the store in 1919. Harrods of London can be traced back to 1834, though the current store was built between 1894 and 1905. Liberty & Co. gained popularity in the 1870s for selling Oriental goods. In 1889 Oscar Wilde wrote "Liberty's is the chosen resort of the artistic shopper".


title: Department store

text: The Paris department stores have roots in the "magasin de nouveautés", or novelty store; the first, the Tapis Rouge, was created in 1784. They flourished in the early 19th century. Balzac described their functioning in his novel "César Birotteau". In the 1840s, with the arrival of the railroads in Paris and the increased number of shoppers they brought, they grew in size, and began to have large plate glass display windows, fixed prices and price tags, and advertising in newspapers.


title: Department store

text: A novelty shop called "Au Bon Marché" had been founded in Paris in 1838 to sell items like lace, ribbons, sheets, mattresses, buttons, and umbrellas. It grew from and 12 employees in 1838 to and 1,788 employees in 1879. Boucicaut was famous for his marketing innovations; a reading room for husbands while their wives shopped; extensive newspaper advertising; entertainment for children; and six million catalogs sent out to customers. By 1880 half the employees were women; unmarried women employees lived in dormitories on the upper floors.


title: Department store

text: "Au Bon Marché" soon had half a dozen or more competitors including Printemps, founded in 1865; La Samaritaine (1869), Bazaar de Hotel de Ville (BHV); and Galeries Lafayette (1895). The French gloried in the national prestige brought by the great Parisian stores. The great writer Émile Zola (1840–1902) set his novel "Au Bonheur des Dames" (1882–83) in the typical department store, making it a symbol of the new technology that was both improving society and devouring it.


title: Department store

text: Australia is notable for having the longest continuously operating Department Store, David Jones. The first David Jones department store was opened on 24 May 1838, by Welsh born immigrant David Jones in a “large and commodious premises” on the corner of George and Barrack Streets in Sydney, NSW, only 50 years after the foundation of the colony. Expanding to a number of stores in the various states of Australia, David Jones is the oldest continuously operating department franchise in the world. Other departemtn stores in Australia include Grace Brothers founded in 1885, now merged with Myer which was founded in 1900.


title: Department store

text: Arnold Constable was the first American department store. It was founded in 1825 as a small dry goods store on Pine Street in New York City. In 1857 the store moved into a five-story white marble dry goods palace known as the Marble House. During the Civil War, Arnold Constable was one of the first stores to issue charge bills of credit to its customers each month instead of on a bi-annual basis. The store soon outgrew the Marble House and erected a cast-iron building on Broadway and Nineteenth Street in 1869; this "Palace of Trade" expanded over the years until it was necessary to move into a larger space in 1914. Financial problems led to bankruptcy in 1975.


title: Department store

text: In New York City in 1846, Alexander Turney Stewart established the "Marble Palace" on Broadway, between Chambers and Reade streets. He offered European retail merchandise at fixed prices on a variety of dry goods, and advertised a policy of providing "free entrance" to all potential customers. Though it was clad in white marble to look like a Renaissance palazzo, the building's cast iron construction permitted large plate glass windows that permitted major seasonal displays, especially in the Christmas shopping season. In 1862, Stewart built a new store on a full city block uptown between 9th and 10th streets, with eight floors. His innovations included buying from manufacturers for cash and in large quantities, keeping his markup small and prices low, truthful presentation of merchandise, the one-price policy (so there was no haggling), simple merchandise returns and cash refund policy, selling for cash and not credit, buyers who searched worldwide for quality merchandise, departmentalization, vertical and horizontal integration, volume sales, and free services for customers such as waiting rooms and free delivery of purchases. In 1858, Rowland Hussey Macy founded Macy's as a dry goods store.


title: Department store

text: Marshall Field & Company originated in 1852. It was the premier department store on the busiest shopping street in the Midwest at the time, State Street in Chicago. Marshall Field's served as a model for other department stores in that it had exceptional customer service. Marshall Field's also had the firsts; among many innovations by Marshall Field's were the first European buying office, which was located in Manchester, England, and the first bridal registry. The company was the first to introduce the concept of the personal shopper, and that service was provided without charge in every Field's store, until the chain's last days under the Marshall Field's name. It was the first store to offer revolving credit and the first department store to use escalators. Marshall Field's book department in the State Street store was legendary; it pioneered the concept of the "book signing". Moreover, every year at Christmas, Marshall Field's downtown store windows were filled with animated displays as part of the downtown shopping district display; the "theme" window displays became famous for their ingenuity and beauty, and visiting the Marshall Field's windows at Christmas became a tradition for Chicagoans and visitors alike, as popular a local practice as visiting the Walnut Room with its equally famous Christmas tree or meeting "under the clock" on State Street.


title: Department store

text: In 1877, John Wanamaker opened what some claim was the United States' first "modern" department store in Philadelphia: the first to offer fixed prices marked on every article and also introduced electrical illumination (1878), the telephone (1879), and the use of pneumatic tubes to transport cash and documents (1880) to the department store business.


title: Department store

text: Another store to revolutionize the concept of the department store was Selfridges in London, established in 1909 by American-born Harry Gordon Selfridge on Oxford Street. The company's innovative marketing promoted the radical notion of shopping for pleasure rather than necessity and its techniques were adopted by modern department stores the world over. The store was extensively promoted through paid advertising. The shop floors were structured so that goods could be made more accessible to customers. There were elegant restaurants with modest prices, a library, reading and writing rooms, special reception rooms for French, German, American and "Colonial" customers, a First Aid Room, and a Silence Room, with soft lights, deep chairs, and double-glazing, all intended to keep customers in the store as long as possible. Staff members were taught to be on hand to "assist" customers, but not too aggressively, and to "sell" the merchandise. Selfridge attracted shoppers with educational and scientific exhibits; in 1909, Louis Blériot's monoplane was exhibited at Selfridges (Blériot was the first to fly over the English Channel), and the first public demonstration of television by John Logie Baird took place in the department store in 1925.


title: Department store

text: In Japan, the first "modern-style" department store was Mitsukoshi, founded in 1904, which has its root as a kimono store called Echigoya from 1673. When the roots are considered, however, Matsuzakaya has an even longer history, dated from 1611. The kimono store changed to a department store in 1910. In 1924, Matsuzakaya store in Ginza allowed street shoes to be worn indoors, something innovative at the time. These former kimono shop department stores dominated the market in its earlier history. They sold, or instead displayed, luxurious products, which contributed to their sophisticated atmospheres. Another origin of the Japanese department store is from railway companies. There have been many private railway operators in the nation and, from the 1920s, they started to build department stores directly linked to their lines' termini. Seibu and Hankyu are typical examples of this type.


title: Department store

text: In the middle of the 1920s, American management theories such as the scientific management of F.W. Taylor started spreading in Europe. The International Management Institute (I.M.I.) was established in Geneva in 1927 to facilitate the diffusion of such ideas. A number of department stores teamed up together to create the International Association of Department Stores in Paris in 1928 to have a discussion space dedicated to this retail format.


title: Department store

text: The U.S. Baby boom led to the development of suburban neighborhoods and suburban commercial developments, including shopping malls. Department stores joined these ventures following the growing market of baby boomer spending.


title: Lord Randolph Churchill

text: Lord Randolph Henry Spencer-Churchill (13 February 1849 – 24 January 1895) was a British statesman. Churchill was a Tory radical and coined the term 'Tory democracy'. He inspired a generation of party managers, created the National Union of the Conservative Party, and broke new ground in modern budgetary presentations, attracting admiration and criticism from across the political spectrum. His most acerbic critics were in his own party, among his closest friends; but his disloyalty to Lord Salisbury was the beginning of the end of what could have been a glittering career. His elder son was Winston Churchill, who wrote a biography of him in 1906.


title: Lord Randolph Churchill

text: Born at 3 Wilton Terrace, Belgravia, London, Randolph Spencer was the third son of John Spencer-Churchill, Marquess of Blandford, and his wife the Marchioness of Blandford ("née" Lady Frances Vane); upon John's father's death in 1857, they became the (7th) Duke of Marlborough, and the Duchess of Marlborough, respectively. As the younger son of a Marquess, Randolph had a courtesy title, and was "Lord Randolph Churchill"; but as a commoner was able to sit in the House of Commons.


title: Lord Randolph Churchill

text: Churchill attended Tabor's Preparatory School, Cheam, then from 1863 Eton College, where he remained until 1865. He did not stand out either at academic work or sport while at Eton; his contemporaries described him as a vivacious and rather unruly boy. Among the lifelong friendships he made at school were with Arthur Balfour and Archibald Primrose (later Lord Rosebery).


title: Lord Randolph Churchill

text: In October 1867, Churchill matriculated at Merton College, Oxford. At Oxford, Primrose – now with his own courtesy title of "Lord Dalmeny" – was along with Churchill a member of the Bullingdon Club, and joined him at the club's champagne-fuelled parties. Randolph was frequently in trouble with the university authorities for drunkenness, smoking in academic dress, and smashing windows at the Randolph Hotel. His rowdy behaviour was infectious, rubbing off on friends and contemporaries; he gained a reputation as an "enfant terrible". He had a liking for hunting, but was also a well-read historian. He gained a second-class degree in jurisprudence and modern history in 1870.


title: Lord Randolph Churchill

text: Churchill experienced no early doubts but made many mistakes, as alluded to in Rosebery's biography. He never regretted being an early friend and admirer of the Disraelis. His behaviour was, however, the later cause of dissension in his relations with a colder, more aloof, disciplinarian Salisbury. In 1871 Churchill and his elder brother George were initiated into the rites of Freemasonry, as later his son Winston would be.


title: Lord Randolph Churchill

text: At the general election of 1874 Churchill was elected to Parliament as Conservative member for Woodstock, near the family seat of Blenheim Palace, defeating George Brodrick, a Fellow of Merton. His maiden speech, delivered in his first session, prompted compliments from William Harcourt and Benjamin Disraeli, who wrote to the Queen of Churchill's "energy and natural flow".


title: Lord Randolph Churchill

text: Churchill was a close friend of Nathan Rothschild, 1st Baron Rothschild, and received "extensive loans" from the Rothschilds. He reported on the mining industry in South Africa on their behalf, where their agent Cecil Rhodes was consolidating mining deposits which ultimately led to the creation of De Beers.


title: Lord Randolph Churchill

text: Lord Randolph Churchill was married at the British Embassy in Paris on 15 April 1874 to Jennie Jerome, daughter of Leonard Jerome, an American businessman. The couple had two sons:


title: Lord Randolph Churchill

text: In January 1875, about a month after Winston's birth, Randolph made repeated visits to Dr Oscar Clayton. He had twenty years to live, but suffered from debilitating illness, particularly in his last decade. Quinault, writing in the "Oxford Dictionary of National Biography", theorises that Randolph was probably passing through the stages of secondary syphilis and then tertiary syphilis, but mentions a brain tumour and multiple sclerosis as other possible causes. Whatever the true source of this illness was, Randolph was certainly treated for syphilis, and it has been suggested that he may have been suffering from symptoms related to the mercury-based medication which was used in such cases at the time. Clayton was a society doctor and specialist in the treatment of syphilis who worked from his practice at 5 Harley Street. Robson Roose, who was the Churchills' family doctor in the 1880s, had written on syphilis as a root cause of debilitating disease, and subsequently diagnosed Randolph as suffering from it. He referred Randolph to the specialist Thomas Buzzard, but continued to prescribe potassium iodide and mercury.


title: Lord Randolph Churchill

text: According to Frank Harris, who published the allegation in his scandalous autobiography, "My Life and Loves" (1922–27), "Randolph had caught syphilis". He relied on a story by Louis Jennings, an associate of Randolph's who had later fallen out with him. John H. Mather of the National Churchill Library and Center called into question Harris' veracity, and offered the alternative theory of a "left side brain tumour". Mather noted that "[t]here is no indication that Lady Randolph or her sons were infected with syphilis." Additionally, author Richard M. Langworth claims that Roose never actually identified the disease that Randolph was suffering from as syphilis, instead using the term "general paralysis", which in that period "suggested not only syphilis but nervous exhaustion". Langworth also states that there is "no evidence that Roose or Buzzard treated Lord Randolph with mercury or potassium iodide", arguing that "their toxic effects, such as a distinctive grey pallor, would have been evident."


title: Lord Randolph Churchill

text: It was not until 1878 that he came to public notice as the exponent of independent Conservatism. He made a series of furious attacks on Sir Stafford Northcote, R. A. Cross, and other prominent members of the "old gang". George Sclater-Booth (afterwards 1st Baron Basing), President of the Local Government Board, was a specific target, and the minister's County Government Bill was fiercely denounced as the "crowning dishonour to Tory principles", and the "supreme violation of political honesty". Lord Randolph's attitude, and the vituperative fluency of his invective, made him a parliamentary figure of some importance before the dissolution of the 1874 parliament, though he was not yet taken quite seriously, owing to his high-pitched hysterical laugh.


title: Lord Randolph Churchill

text: In the new parliament of 1880 he speedily began to play a more notable role. Along with Henry Drummond Wolff, John Gorst and occasionally Arthur Balfour, he made himself known as the audacious opponent of the Liberal administration and the unsparing critic of the Conservative front bench. The "fourth party", as it was nicknamed, at first did little damage to the government, but awakened the opposition from its apathy; Churchill roused the Conservatives by leading resistance to Charles Bradlaugh, the member for Northampton, who as an avowed atheist or agnostic, was prepared to take the parliamentary oath only under protest. Stafford Northcote, the Conservative leader in the Lower House, was forced to take a strong line on this difficult question by the energy of the fourth party.


title: Lord Randolph Churchill

text: The long controversy over Bradlaugh's seat showed that Lord Randolph Churchill was a parliamentary champion who added to his audacity much tactical skill and shrewdness. He continued to play a conspicuous part throughout the parliament of 1880–85, targeting William Ewart Gladstone as well as the Conservative front bench, some of whose members, particularly Sir Richard Cross and William Henry Smith, he singled out for attack when they opposed the reduced Army estimates. This would be the ostensible cause for his resignation because Salisbury failed to support his Chancellor in cabinet. They opposed his unionist politics of 'economising' by Tory tradition, making Randolph grow to hate cabinet meetings.


title: Lord Randolph Churchill

text: From the beginning of the Egyptian imbroglio Lord Randolph was emphatically opposed to almost every step taken by the government. He declared that the suppression of Urabi Pasha's rebellion was an error, and the restoration of the khedive's authority a crime. He called Gladstone the "Moloch of Midlothian", for whom torrents of blood had been shed in Africa. He was equally severe on the domestic policy of the administration, and was particularly bitter in his criticism of the Kilmainham Treaty and the rapprochement between the Gladstonians and the Parnellites.


title: Lord Randolph Churchill

text: By 1885 he had formulated the policy of progressive Conservatism which was known as "Tory Democracy". He declared that the Conservatives ought to adopt, rather than oppose, popular reforms, and to challenge the claims of the Liberals to pose as champions of the masses. His views were largely accepted by the official Conservative leaders in the treatment of the Gladstonian Representation of the People Act 1884. Lord Randolph insisted that the principle of the bill should be accepted by the opposition, and that resistance should be focused on the refusal of the government to combine with it a scheme of redistribution. The prominent, and on the whole judicious and successful, part he played in the debates on these questions, still further increased his influence with the rank and file of the Conservatives in the constituencies.


title: Lord Randolph Churchill

text: At the same time he was actively spreading his gospel of democratic Toryism in a series of platform campaigns. In 1883 and 1884 he went to the radical stronghold of Birmingham, and in the latter year took part in a Conservative garden party at Aston Manor, at which his opponents paid him the compliment of raising a serious riot. He gave constant attention to the party organisation, which had fallen into considerable disorder after 1880, and was an active promoter of the Primrose League, which owed its origin to the inspiration of one of his own “fourth party” colleagues.


title: Lord Randolph Churchill

text: In 1884 progressive Toryism won out. At the conference of the National Union of Conservative Associations, Lord Randolph was nominated chairman, despite the opposition of the parliamentary leaders. A split was averted by Lord Randolph's voluntary resignation which he had done his best to engineer; but the episode had confirmed his title to a leading place in the Tory ranks.


title: Lord Randolph Churchill

text: He built up Tory Democracy in the towns reinforcing the urban middle classes' part in the party, while simultaneously including a working-class element. His unsuccessful bid for the party leadership was inextricably part of the National Union's attempt to control the party organization. It had originally been founded by Tory peers to organize propaganda to attract working men's votes, registration, choose candidates, conduct elections; associations were linked to provincial unions. Lord Randolph was not the originator but his campaign of 1884 encouraged the leadership to improve on their designs. For the first time since 1832 the Conservatives won in the majority of English boroughs in November 1885.