Forward Chemicals Tournament

Forward Chemicals Tournament 1979
Tournament type:	league
Attendees:	4th
Venue:	different
Opening:	October 23, 1978
Endgame:	January 28, 1979
Winner:	Ray Reardon
Finalist:	John Spencer
Highest Break:	122 ( John Spencer )

The 1979 Forward Chemicals Tournament was an invitation-only professional snooker league for the 1978/79 season . The tournament was played from October 23, 1979 in various locations in the United Kingdom and ended on January 28, 1979 with the final at the Royal Exchange Theater in the English city ​​of Manchester . The winner of the tournament was Welshman Ray Reardon , who managed a 9: 6 win over the Englishman John Spencer in the final . In return, Spencer played the highest break of the tournament with a 122 break.

Prize money

The tournament was sponsored by Forward Chemicals . There was a total of £ 9,000 in prize money to be won, of which exactly a third, £ 3,000, went to the winner of the tournament.

	Prize money
winner	£ 3,000
finalist	£ 2,300
Third	£ 2,100
Fourth	£ 1,600
All in all	£ 9,000

Tournament course

Four of the leading snooker players of the 1970s were invited to the tournament: the Welsh players Ray Reardon and Doug Mountjoy , the Englishman John Spencer and the Northern Irish crowd- pleaser Alex Higgins . With the exception of Mountjoy, all three had won the World Snooker Championship at least once . The four players competed against each other a total of three times in a round-robin tournament , with these games taking place in different locations in the United Kingdom . The tournament thus resembled the format of the Park Drive 2000 held at the beginning of the 1970s . A table was created from the results of the round-robin tournament, the two first-placed winners of which met in a final. While the games of the round-robin tournament were played in the best of 9 frames mode, the final took place in the best of 17 frames mode .

Round tournament

space	player	Lots	S.	N	Frames
1	Ray Reardon	9	6th	3	40:26
2	John Spencer	9	5	4th	33:34
3	Doug Mountjoy	9	4th	5	31:34
4th	Alex Higgins	9	3	6th	30:40

game Player 1 Result Player 2 1 John Spencer  4th5 : 45  Ray Reardon 2 John Spencer  4th5 : 45  Doug Mountjoy 3 John Spencer  35 : 35  Alex Higgins 4th John Spencer  35 : 35  Ray Reardon 5 John Spencer  05 : 05  Alex Higgins 6th Ray Reardon  35 : 35  Alex Higgins 7th Ray Reardon  35 : 35  Alex Higgins 8th Ray Reardon  25 : 25  Doug Mountjoy 9 Ray Reardon  25 : 25  John Spencer

game Player 1 Result Player 2 10 Ray Reardon  15 : 15  Doug Mountjoy 11 Ray Reardon  05 : 05  Doug Mountjoy 12 Doug Mountjoy  35 : 35  Alex Higgins 13 Doug Mountjoy  35 : 35  Alex Higgins 14th Doug Mountjoy  25 : 25  John Spencer 15th Doug Mountjoy  15 : 15  John Spencer 16 Alex Higgins  4th5 : 45  Doug Mountjoy 17th Alex Higgins  35 : 35  John Spencer 18th Alex Higgins  35 : 35  Ray Reardon

Endgame

The Welshman Ray Reardon had clearly won the round-robin tournament and took first place in the table. Second place and thus the last qualification place for the semifinals went to John Spencer , who however had one less win than Reardon and at the same time won significantly fewer frames and lost significantly more frames than him. So it happened that the third-placed Doug Mountjoy with another win less only had two fewer frames won with the same number of lost frames. By the way, fourth place went to Alex Higgins , who only won three games.

The final took place on January 28, 1979 at the Royal Exchange Theater in Manchester . The beginning of the game was shaped by Spencer, who after an initial lead from Reardon was able to turn the game to 1: 3 or 2: 4. With the next two frames, Reardon equalized before Spencer briefly took the lead 4-5. But as a result, Reardon was able to turn the game around and even take the lead 6: 5 for the second time in the game, before Spencer equalized a short time later. But Reardon was able to win each of the next three frames, so that in the end he won the game 9: 6 and with it the tournament.

Finale: Best of 17 Frames Royal Exchange Theater ,  Manchester , England , January 28, 1979
Ray Reardon	9 : 6	John Spencer
64 : 50, 34: 76 , 57: 65 , 40: 104 , 68 : 7, 37: 79 , 79 : 48, 64 : 54 (p. 53), 19: 95 , 84 : 19, 96 : 54, 47 : 67 , 66 : 55 (p. 50), 66 : 54, 57 : 45
-	Highest break	53
-	Century breaks	-
-	50+ breaks	2

Century Breaks

During the tournament three players played a total of five Century Breaks :

• John Spencer : 122 , 119
• Alex Higgins : 119, 108
• Doug Mountjoy : 115

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b} Ron Florac: 1979 Forward Chemicals Tournament. CueTracker.net, accessed on March 13, 2020 .  
2. ^ ^{A b c} Chris Turner: Other Non-Ranking and Invition Events - First held before 1980 *. Chris Turner's Snooker Archive, 2011, archived from the original on February 16, 2012 ; accessed on March 13, 2020 (English).  
3. ^ ^{A b} Ron Florax: 1979 Forward Chemicals Tournament - Finishes. CueTracker.net, accessed on March 13, 2020 .  
4. ↑ Chris Turner: On this week: Jan 24-30. Eurosport , January 25, 2010, accessed March 13, 2020 .