Irish Professional Championship 1983
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Irish Professional Championship 1983 Smithwick’s Irish Professional Championship 1983 
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| Tournament type: | Non-ranking |
| Attendees: | 8th |
| Venue: | Maysfield Leisure Center , Belfast , Northern Ireland |
| Opening: | March 9, 1983 |
| Endgame: | March 13, 1983
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| Defending champion: |
 Dennis Taylor
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| Winner: |
Alex Higgins
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| Finalist: |
Dennis Taylor
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| Highest Break: | 132 ( Alex Higgins )
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← 1982
1985 →
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The 1983 Smithwick’s Irish Professional Championship was a professional snooker tournament with no impact on the world rankings to determine the Irish professional champions. The tournament was played as part of the 1982/83 season from 9 to 13 March 1983 at the Maysfield Leisure Center in Belfast , Northern Ireland . In a purely Northern Ireland finals defeated Alex Higgins with Dennis Taylor the winner of the last three editions, Higgins has also played with a 132er break the highest break of the tournament.
Prize money
Compared to the previous year, the prize money almost doubled, but again two fifths of the total prize money went to the winner. The tournament was again sponsored by the Smithwick’s beer brand .
| Prize money | |
|---|---|
| winner | £ 6,000 |
| finalist | £ 3,000 |
| Semi-finalist | £ 1,500 |
| Quarter finalist | 750 pounds |
| All in all | £ 15,000 |
Tournament course
After there had also been eight participants in the previous year, but these were added to the tournament in three of a total of four rounds, this time all participants competed against each other immediately from the quarter-finals. Quarter-finals and semi-finals were played in the best of 11 frames mode , while the final was again played in the best of 31 frames mode .
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Quarterfinals Best of 11 frames |
Semi-final best of 11 frames |
Final Best of 31 frames |
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| Alex Higgins
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6th | ||||||||||||
| Jackie Rea
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3 | ||||||||||||
| Alex Higgins
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6th | ||||||||||||
 Eugene Hughes
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2 | ||||||||||||
| Eugene Hughes
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6th | ||||||||||||
| Pascal Burke
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2 | ||||||||||||
| Alex Higgins
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16 | ||||||||||||
| Dennis Taylor
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11 | ||||||||||||
| Dennis Taylor
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6th | ||||||||||||
| Billy Kelly
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0 | ||||||||||||
| Dennis Taylor
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6th | ||||||||||||
| Patsy Fagan
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1 | ||||||||||||
| Patsy Fagan
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6th | ||||||||||||
| Tommy Murphy
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4th | ||||||||||||
final
The Northern Irishman Dennis Taylor was in the final for the fourth time in a row, the three previous, including two challenge matches, he had won all, defeating both his first and his last Alex Higgins . He had won the tournament four times before Taylor. Taylor only had to give up one frame on the way to the final, while his opponent Higgins had lost a total of five frames.
After Higgins took a 2-0 lead with two +50 breaks, Taylor equalized what he repeated with the score 3: 3. Only then did Higgins manage to win three frames in a row, but Taylor successfully countered this too and shortly afterwards even took the lead 7-8. Higgins turned the match around immediately before taking the lead after an equalization 10: 9. After Taylor equalized one more time, Higgins extended his lead to 13:10 before Taylor was able to shorten it to 13:11. But with three more frames in a row, Higgins made his fifth title win perfect.
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Final: Best of 31 Frames Maysfield Leisure Center , Belfast , Northern Ireland , March 12-13, 1983 |
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Alex Higgins
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16 : 13 |
Dennis Taylor
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110 : 12 (60), 110 : 1 (96), 27: 84 (60), 34: 87 , 91 : 23 (59), 37: 91 (67), 66 : 56 (Taylor 56), 125 : 0 (78), 54 : 39, 22: 64 , 21: 56 , 17: 78 , 103 : 9 (66), 1: 82 (82), 9: 96 (67), 64 : 53, 72 : 26, 46 : 66 , 89 : 9, 50: 68 , 80 : 51, 89 : 51 (71), 91 : 17 (56), 42: 92 (72), 66 : 24, 68 : 40, 61 : 30 |
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| 96 | Highest break | 82 |
| - | Century breaks | - |
| 7th | 50+ breaks | 6th |
Century Break
During the tournament, only the two finalists played a Century Break : While Alex Higgins played a 132 break in his quarterfinal game, Dennis Taylor scored a 128 in the semifinals.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Ron Florax: 1983 Irish Professional Championship. CueTracker.net, accessed April 8, 2019 .
- ↑ a b Ron Florax: 1983 Irish Professional Championship - Finishes. CueTracker.net, accessed April 8, 2019 .
- ↑ Chris Turner: Irish Professional Championship - Non Ranking Event open to professionals from Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland only. Chris Turner's Snooker Archive, 2008, archived from the original on April 18, 2016 ; accessed on April 8, 2019 .