Australian Goldfields Open

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Australian Goldfields Open
Australian Goldfields Open 2014 Logo.png
Tournament status
Ranking tournament: 2011-2015
Minor ranking tournament: -
Invitation tournament: 1979-1987, 1994-1995
Tournament dates of the last edition
Venue: Bendigo Stadium , Bendigo
Prize money (total): A $ 521,600
Prize money (winner): A $ 75,000
Frames in the final: Best of 17
Records
Most wins: EnglandEngland Tony Meo John Higgins  (2 × each)
ScotlandScotland
Highest Break: 144 John Higgins (1994)
ScotlandScotland
Venue (s) on the map
Australia

The Australian Goldfields Open (formerly Australian Masters ) was a professional snooker tournament . They were part of the main tour tournaments until the 2015/2016 season .

history

The Australian Masters, or Winfield Masters as it was originally called, began in 1979 as a TV event like the BBC Pot Black tournament. Like its English counterpart, it was played on a single frame basis and over three frames in the final. It was played at Channel 10 TV studios in Sydney .

In 1983 the format was changed to a 16 knockout round and in 1984 it moved to the "Paramatta Club", also in Sydney. Tony Meo was the only player to win the tournament twice until the last edition in 2015 and the win by John Higgins there. Australian Ian Anderson , who won in the first year of the event, is the only domestic winner.

In the course of the further professionalization of the tour it became more and more difficult to win top players, so that the tournament was discontinued after 1987.

Another tournament in Australia was planned for 1989. The Australian organizer appeared to the World Professional Billiards & Snooker Association (WPBSA) to be not professional enough during the preparations, so the planned tournament was moved to Hong Kong .

On May 23, 2011, the WPBSA officially announced that the 2011/12 season would be the first time a world ranking tournament would be held in Australia. The tournament on the Main Tour was also firmly planned for the next two seasons. The WPBSA thus continued the course it had taken in the previous year of expanding the tournament calendar to include other events and international venues. For Australia, among other things, the success story of the former world champion and world number leader Neil Robertson from Melbourne , who had sparked an increased interest in snooker in his home country, also spoke .

Bendigo in the southeast of the continent, which is about 150 km from Robertson's hometown Melbourne, was chosen as the venue . The tournament name Goldfields Open refers to the history of the venue: Bendigo was founded in the middle of the 19th century during the Victorian gold rush and is located in the area of ​​the then richest gold deposits in the Australian state of Victoria. The event took place at Bendigo Stadium, which is usually the setting for basketball and volleyball games. In 2014 and 2015, two more tournaments were agreed in Bendigo, but after that the expiring contract was not extended and the Australian Goldfields Open was discontinued.

winner

year venue winner Result finalist Main sponsor season
Australian Masters - no ranked tournament status
1979 Sydney - Channel 10 TV Studios AustraliaAustralia Ian Anderson South Africa 1961South Africa Perrie Mans Winfield 1979/80
1980 EnglandEngland John Spencer Northern IrelandNorthern Ireland Dennis Taylor 1980/81
1981 EnglandEngland Tony Meo EnglandEngland John Spencer 1981/82
1982 EnglandEngland Steve Davis AustraliaAustralia Eddie Charlton 1982/83
1983 CanadaCanada Cliff Thorburn 7: 3 CanadaCanada Bill Werbeniuk 1983/84
1984 Sydney - Paramatta Club EnglandEngland Tony Knowles 7: 3 EnglandEngland John Virgo 1984/85
1985 EnglandEngland Tony Meo 3: 2 AustraliaAustralia John Campbell 1985/86
1986 Northern IrelandNorthern Ireland Dennis Taylor 3: 2 EnglandEngland Steve Davis 1986/87
1987 ScotlandScotland Stephen Hendry 371: 226 EnglandEngland Mike Hallett 1987/88
Australian Open - no ranked tournament status
1994 Melbourne - Bentleigh Club ScotlandScotland John Higgins 9: 5 EnglandEngland Willie Thorne ? 1994/95
Australian Masters - no ranked tournament status
1995 Melbourne - Bentleigh Club EnglandEngland Anthony Hamilton 8: 6 ScotlandScotland Chris Small - 1995/96
Australian Goldfields Open - Ranking tournament status
2011 Bendigo - Bendigo Stadium EnglandEngland Stuart Bingham 9: 8 WalesFlag of Wales (1959 – present) .svg Mark Williams - 2011/12
2012 EnglandEngland Barry Hawkins 9: 3 EnglandEngland Peter Ebdon 2012/13
2013 Hong KongHong Kong Marco Fu 9: 6 AustraliaAustralia Neil Robertson 2013/14
2014 EnglandEngland Judd Trump 9: 5 AustraliaAustralia Neil Robertson 2014/15
2015 ScotlandScotland John Higgins 9: 8 EnglandEngland Martin Gould 2015/16

Remarks

  1. a b c d The finals were played over three frames from 1979 to 1982 (no results available).
  2. The 1987 final was played over five frames.

Individual evidence

  1. a b Australian Goldfields Open Qualifiers Updated Draw. In: worldsnooker.com. World Professional Billiards & Snooker Association , May 21, 2015, accessed April 12, 2016 .
  2. a b Snooker Scene, September 1994, pages 14-15
  3. a b c d e Chris Turner: Australian Events. Invitation and Ranking Events. (No longer available online.) In: Chris Turner's Snooker Archive. Archived from the original on April 25, 2012 ; accessed on April 12, 2016 .
  4. History of professional snooker tournaments in Australia ( Memento from April 18, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) (in Chris Turner's snooker archive)
  5. Snooker Heading Down Under. (No longer available online.) In: worldsnooker.com. World Professional Billiards & Snooker Association , May 23, 2011, archived from the original on April 12, 2016 ; accessed on April 12, 2016 .
  6. ^ Australian Goldfields Open Snooker Odds. (No longer available online.) In: snooker-news.com. Archived from the original on October 20, 2014 ; accessed on April 12, 2016 .
  7. Page no longer available , search in web archives: Snooker: Australian Goldfields Open 2011 in Bendigo , Berliner Kurier, accessed on July 24, 2011@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www3.berliner-kurier.de
  8. ^ All About the Goldfields ( Memento August 21, 2017 in the Internet Archive ), World Snooker, July 20, 2011
  9. Sporting. Bendigo Stadium. (No longer available online.) In: bendigostadium.com.au. Archived from the original on April 16, 2016 ; accessed on April 12, 2016 .
  10. ^ Australian Goldfields Open to return to Bendigo , Eurosport, February 1, 2014
  11. Snooker Scene, June 1994, p. 29