Holsten Lager International

Holsten Lager International 1979
Tournament type:	Non-ranking tournament
Attendees:	16
Venue:	Fulcrum Center , Slough
Opening:	January 14, 1979
Endgame:	17th January 1979
Winner:	John Spencer
Finalist:	Graham Miles
Highest Break:	147 ( John Spencer )

The Holsten Lager International 1979 was a professional snooker tournament without any influence on the world rankings during the 1978/79 season . The tournament was from 14 to 17 January 1979 at the Fulcrum Center of the English town of Slough discharged. The winner in an all-English final was John Spencer , who defeated Graham Miles 11: 7 in the final. However, the tournament became known through the first maximum break in a professional tournament on the part of Spencer, which, however, was not officially recognized due to the size of the pockets on the snooker table, and due to a break in the broadcast of the television team, it was not also the first maximum break shown on television.

Prize money

The tournament was organized by Holsten Lager , a beer brand from the Holsten brewery . There was a total of £ 11,800 in prize money to be won, of which a good quarter, or £ 3,000, went to the winner.

	Prize money
winner	£ 3,000
finalist	£ 2,000
Semi-finalist	£ 1,000
Quarter finalist	600 pounds
Round of 16	300 pounds
All in all	£ 11,800

Tournament course

A total of sixteen players were invited to the tournament who played for the title in a knockout system . Nevertheless, the snooker author Chris Turner described the tournament mode as "unusual", since the results of the round of 16 games from the results of three and those of the quarter-finals from the results of six frames were added together. This was followed by the semi-finals in the best of 11 frames mode and the final in the best of 21 frames mode .

In the first session of the quarter-final game between John Spencer and the Canadian Cliff Thorburn , Spencer was the first game ever to play a maximum break in a professional tournament . This break would have been the first officially recognized maximum break in a professional tournament, but there was no official recognition due to the fact that the pockets of the snooker table were too big and did not comply with the regulations. It would also have been the first televised maximum break, but the Thames Television broadcast team took a tea break during the session . Three years later, at the 1982 Classic , Steve Davis played the first officially recognized and at the same time also the first televised maximum break in a game against Spencer.

	Round of 16 total of three frames				Quarter-final total of six frames				Semi-final best of 11 frames				Final Best of 21 frames
	John Spencer	206
	Patsy Fagan	185
					John Spencer	467
					Cliff Thorburn	296
	Cliff Thorburn	206
	Doug Mountjoy	110
									John Spencer	6th
									Rex Williams	2
	Rex Williams	180
	Bill Werbeniuk	60
					Rex Williams	364
					Ray Reardon	362
	Ray Reardon	221
	Ray Edmonds	112
													John Spencer	11
													Graham Miles	7th
	Graham Miles	235
	John Pulman	118
					Graham Miles	395
					Dennis Taylor	340
	Dennis Taylor	217
	Fred Davis	151
									Graham Miles	6th
									Alex Higgins	3
	Alex Higgins	233
	Eddie Charlton	138
					Alex Higgins	391
					David Taylor	300
	David Taylor	241
	Perrie Mans	182

final

John Spencer had started his way to the final with a relatively narrow victory over Patsy Fagan and then continued with a clear victory over Cliff Thorburn due to the maximum break . In the semifinals he finally qualified for the final with a clear 6-2 win over Rex Williams . The three-time world champion now met the vice-world champion of 1974 with Graham Miles . Miles started the tournament with a victory over the eight-time world champion of the 1960s, John Pulman , and had defeated the two Northern Irish Dennis Taylor and Alex Higgins .

The game started openly when it was 2-2 after four frames, whereupon Spencer took the lead 4-2, but could not prevent Miles from equalizing. A cat-and-mouse game then developed in which Miles was able to take the lead three times in a row with one frame each and Spencer equalized at 5: 5, 6: 6 and 7: 7. With a score of 7: 7, however, Spencer managed to win the next frame with 73:60 and with a 77:17 and a 69 break in the next two frames to extend his lead to 10: 7. With an 85:14 victory in the 18th frame of the game, Spencer finally won it 11: 7 and thus the title.

Final: Best of 21 Frames Fulcrum Center ,  Slough , England , 17th January 1979
John Spencer	11 : 7	Graham Miles
94 : 12 (73), 48: 71 , 25: 77 , 61 : 59, 109 : 16 (96), 94 : 6, 30: 97 (69), 47: 56 , 47: 56 , 59 : 27, 0 : 115 (107), 84 : 30, 23: 100 (82), 94 : 9 (90), 73 : 60, 77 : 17, 129 : 0 (96), 85 : 14
96	Highest break	107
-	Century breaks	1
4th	50+ breaks	3

Century Breaks

During the tournament, the two finalists played a total of three century breaks . Other players were unsuccessful.

• John Spencer : 147 , 109
• Graham Miles : 107

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{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).  
2. ↑ ^{a b} Ron Florax: 1979 Holsten Lager International - Finishes. CueTracker.net, accessed on March 13, 2020 .  
3. ^ ^{A b} Ron Florax: 1979 Holsten Lager International. CueTracker.net, accessed on March 13, 2020 .  
4. ^ Snooker Holsten Lager International Tournament (1979). British Film Institute , accessed March 13, 2020 .  
5. ^ Gilbert Makes Historic 147th Maximum. In: wst.tv. World Professional Billiards & Snooker Association , January 22, 2019, accessed March 13, 2020 .