| Tournament Name: | 1980 Pot Black |
| Dates: | Recorded late December 1979 (broadcast) |
| Venue: | Pebble Mill Studios |
| Location: | Birmingham |
| Country: | England |
| Format: | Non-ranking event |
| Winners Share: | £2000 |
| Highest Break: | Dennis Taylor (87) |
| Winner: |  Eddie Charlton |
| Runner Up: | Ray Reardon |
| Score: | 2–1 |
| Previous: | 1979 |
| Next: | 1981 |
The 1980 Pot Black event was a professional invitational snooker tournament, which was held at the Pebble Mill Studios in Birmingham. The tournament began with eight players competing in two groups of four using a round-robin format. The matches were one-frame shoot-outs in the group stages, two-frame aggregate scores in the semi-finals, and best-of-three-frames in the final.
Broadcast on BBC2, the programmes started at 21:00 on Friday 4 January 1980.[1] Alan Weeks presented the programme with Ted Lowe as commentator and Sydney Lee as referee.
The first programme of the series featured reigning Pot Black champion Ray Reardon playing against the then world champion Terry Griffiths making his Pot Black debut. Reardon reached the final where he lost 1–2 to Eddie Charlton who himself won his third title equalling the record set by John Spencer.[2] [3]
| Player 1 | Score | Player 2 | Broadcast Date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ray Reardon | 1–0 | Terry Griffiths | 4 January 1980 | |
| John Spencer | 0–1 | Dennis Taylor | 18 January 1980 | |
| Ray Reardon | 1–0 | John Spencer | 1 February 1980 | |
| Terry Griffiths | 0–1 | Dennis Taylor | 22 February 1980 | |
| Terry Griffiths | 0–1 | John Spencer | 29 February 1980 | |
| Ray Reardon | 0–1 | Dennis Taylor | 14 March 1980 |
| Player 1 | Score | Player 2 | Broadcast Date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Doug Mountjoy | 0–1 | Graham Miles | 11 January 1980 | |
 Perrie Mans | 0–1 | Eddie Charlton | 25 January 1980 | |
| Doug Mountjoy | 1–0 | Perrie Mans | 15 February 1980 | |
| Graham Miles | 0–1 | Eddie Charlton | 29 February 1980 | |
| Doug Mountjoy | 1–0 | Eddie Charlton | 7 March 1980 | |
| Graham Miles | 1–0 | Perrie Mans | 21 March 1980 |