Classic (snooker)

Classic

Tournament status

Ranking tournament:

1984-1992

Minor ranking tournament:

-

Invitation tournament:

1980-1983

Tournament dates of the last edition

Venue:

Bournemouth International Center , Bournemouth

Prize money (total):

£ 326,000

Prize money (winner):

£ 60,000

Frames in the final:

Best of 17

Records

Most wins:

Steve Davis (6 ×)

Highest Break:

147 ( Maximum Break ) Steve Davis 1982

Venue (s) on the map

The Classic was a professional snooker tournament that was held for the first time in 1980, achieved world ranking tournament status in 1984 and was held for the last time in 1992. The record winner of the tournament is the Englishman Steve Davis with six wins, who also played the first officially recognized maximum break in the 1982 edition .

history

Starts as an invitation tournament

Its beginning was the tournament in January 1980, when it in the New Century Hall of Manchester was held as an invitation tournament with eight players and Granada Television was recorded and later transferred on television. The first edition won the Englishman John Spencer with a 4-3 victory over Alex Higgins . In December of the same year the second edition followed in Farnworth near Bolton , which Steve Davis won with a 4-1 victory over Dennis Taylor .

After the first two editions were sponsored by Wilsons , the Russian automobile company Lada took over this position in 1982. The tournament was again as an eight-man invitation tournament in Oldham's Queen Elizabeth Hall and was broadcast for the first time on network television . In his quarter-final game Steve Davis played against John Spencer the first officially recognized maximum break , the highest possible break in snooker , in a professional tournament, later Davis lost in the final 8: 9 against Terry Griffiths . 1983 the tournament moved with an increased number of 16 players in the Spectrum Arena of Warrington , where Steve Davis was able to win the tournament for the second time with a 9: 5 victory over the Canadian Bill Werbeniuk .

Years as a world ranking tournament

In 1984 the tournament was opened to all professional players and made a ranked tournament, with Lada sponsoring the tournament for the last time. In the final, Steve Davis was able to win the tournament for the second time in a row when he defeated his friend Tony Meo with a narrow 9: 8 . A year later Mercantile Credit tournament sponsor and distributed a total of 200,000 pounds as prize money. The winner was Willie Thorne with a 13: 8 victory over the Canadian Cliff Thorburn . A year later Thorburn was again in the final and lost to Jimmy White with 12:13.

With the 1987 edition, the tournament moved to Blackpool , where the first rounds and all remaining games from the round of 16 were played at the Norbreck Castle Hotel at the beginning of the season . The winner was again Steve Davis , who beat last year's winner White 13:12 in the final. The following year Davis won again when he defeated John Parrott 13:11.

In 1989 Doug Mountjoy was able to win the second ranked tournament in a row in an all-Welsh final against Wayne Jones after the UK Championship six weeks earlier. A year later, with Steve James and Steve Davis, only two of the best 16 players in the world rankings reached the quarter-finals; in the end, James defeated Australian Warren King 10-6 to win his only ranked tournament.

In 1991 the tournament moved to Bournemouther Bournemouth International Center , where Jimmy White defeated Stephen Hendry 10: 4 in the final. A year later, Steve Davis was able to win the tournament for the sixth time when he again defeated Stephen Hendry 9: 8 in the final.

With the end of the Mercantile Credit sponsorship and the increased number of overseas tournaments, the Classic was canceled and the Welsh Open received its place at the beginning of the new year.

winner

year	venue	winner	Result	finalist	Main sponsor	season
Classic - Invitational Tournament Status
1980 (Jan.)	Manchester - New Century Hall	England John Spencer	4: 3	Northern Ireland Alex Higgins	Wilsons	1979/80
1980 (Dec.)	Farnworth - Blighty's	England Steve Davis	4: 1	Northern Ireland Dennis Taylor	Wilsons	1980/81
1982	Oldham - Queen Elizabeth Hall	Wales Terry Griffiths	9: 8	England Steve Davis	Lada	1981/82
1983	Warrington - Spectrum Arena	England Steve Davis	9: 5	Canada Bill Werbeniuk	Lada	1982/83
Classic - World Ranking Tournament Status
1984	Warrington - Spectrum Arena	England Steve Davis	9: 8	England Tony Meo	Lada	1983/84
1985		England Willie Thorne	13: 8	Canada Cliff Thorburn	Mercantile Credit	1984/85
1986		England Jimmy White	13:12	Canada Cliff Thorburn		1985/86
1987	Blackpool - Norbreck Castle Hotel	England Steve Davis	13:12	England Jimmy White		1986/87
1988		England Steve Davis	13:11	England John Parrott		1987/88
1989		Wales Doug Mountjoy	13:11	Wales Wayne Jones		1988/89
1990		England Steve James	10: 6	Australia Warren King		1989/90
1991	Bournemouth - Bournemouth International Center	England Jimmy White	10: 4	Scotland Stephen Hendry		1990/91
1992	Bournemouth - Bournemouth International Center	England Steve Davis	9: 8	Scotland Stephen Hendry		1991/92

Web links

Classic ( Memento from May 7, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) at Chris Turner's Snooker Archive
Overview of the tournaments on CueTracker.net

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g Chris Turner: Wilsons Classic / Lada Classic / Mercantile Credit Classic - World Ranking Event since 1983/4. Chris Turner's Snooker Archive, 2008, archived from the original on May 7, 2016 ; accessed on July 30, 2019 (English).

[Turner-1] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g Chris Turner: Wilsons Classic / Lada Classic / Mercantile Credit Classic - World Ranking Event since 1983/4. Chris Turner's Snooker Archive, 2008, archived from the original on May 7, 2016 ; accessed on July 30, 2019 (English).