Irish Masters

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Irish Masters
Irish Masters Snooker 2003.png
Tournament status
Ranking tournament: 2003-2005
Minor ranking tournament: -
Invitation tournament: 1975-2002, 2007
Tournament dates of the last edition
Venue: Citywest Hotel , Dublin
Prize money (total): ?
Prize money (winner): £ 50,000
Frames in the final: Best of 19
Records
Most wins: EnglandEngland Steve Davis  (8 ×)
Highest Break: 147 ( Maximum Break ) John Higgins 2000
ScotlandScotland
Venue (s) on the map

The Irish Masters was a professional snooker tournament . It was one of the most traditional tournaments in modern snooker and was part of the professional tour from 1978 to 2005 . It was an invitation tournament until 2002 and has become a world ranking tournament for the past three years.

history

The origins of the tournament lie in a match between the Englishman John Spencer and the Northern Irishman Alex Higgins , which was held in Dublin in 1975 and was sponsored by the cigarette manufacturer Benson & Hedges . In the following two years the event was repeated, but as a tournament with four players each, in 1976 as an elimination tournament , in 1977 as a round-robin tournament with an additional final. It was a loose tournament also known as the Ireland Tournament or Irish Championship .

Since the location and concept had proven themselves, it was decided to firmly establish it as the first professional tournament in Ireland from 1978. It was named Irish Masters , and the location of Kill on the outskirts of Dublin was chosen as the venue . The horse auctioneer Goffs had built new stables and an arena with 144 seats for his auctions there in the 1970s, which was also very suitable for a snooker tournament.

In the first few years they experimented with the event mode and gradually increased the number of participants. From 1982 a format with 12 players prevailed who played an elimination tournament of 4 rounds, whereby the 4 best players were seeded for the second round. Most of the time, the top 8 in the world rankings took part as a group, plus other top players or young players. There was always at least one Irish or Northern Irish player among the participants.

In the early stages, Welsh players dominated the tournament, especially Terry Griffiths , who from 1980 was the only player to win the tournament three times in a row. After him, however, the Englishman Steve Davis was the outstanding player until the 1990s . By 1994 he had 8 tournament victories. Apart from Joe Davis , who had ruled the snooker world championship for two decades before World War II , no other player had as many victories in the same professional tournament.

In 1998 there was a scandal when Ronnie O'Sullivan , who had defeated Ken Doherty in the final , was subsequently stripped of the title because hashish was detected in his doping test. It was the only loss of the title in professional snooker due to doping. For this Doherty was retrospectively the only winner of the Irish Masters who came from the Republic of Ireland. O'Sullivan won the tournament three times later in the 2000s.

Towards the end of the 1990s, the entire professional tour suffered from the emerging advertising and sponsorship bans for the tobacco industry. In 2001 the Irish Masters also lost sponsor Benson & Hedges. The tournament was saved, however, because the Citywest Hotel in Saggart in South Dublin stepped in as both a sponsor and a venue. When more and more world ranking tournaments were stopped for lack of money, it was decided in 2003 to make the Irish Masters a ranking tournament. For three years Ireland played for points for the world rankings , then this tournament was also dropped from the Snooker Main Tour after the 2004/2005 season . The WSA justified this step with the fact that the organizers of the tournament could not come to an agreement with the Citywest Hotel and RTÉ .

In 2007 the tournament was reissued as a memorial tournament for Paul Hunter, who died the previous year . Numerous top professionals took part. It was held in Kilkenny and was not a recognized professional tournament. Therefore, the maximum break that Ronnie O'Sullivan scored there does not appear in the official maximum list. Double bad luck for the Englishman was that he did not get the car, which was originally intended as a bonus for a maximum, but was withdrawn at short notice and without making it public.

winner

year venue winner Result finalist Main sponsor season
Irish Masters - no ranked tournament status
1978 Kill
Goff’s, Kill, Co.
EnglandEngland John Spencer 5: 3 WalesFlag of Wales (1959 – present) .svg Doug Mountjoy Benson & Hedges 1977/78
1979 WalesFlag of Wales (1959 – present) .svg Doug Mountjoy 6: 5 WalesFlag of Wales (1959 – present) .svg Ray Reardon 1978/79
1980 WalesFlag of Wales (1959 – present) .svg Terry Griffiths 9: 8 WalesFlag of Wales (1959 – present) .svg Doug Mountjoy 1979/80
1981 WalesFlag of Wales (1959 – present) .svg Terry Griffiths 9: 7 WalesFlag of Wales (1959 – present) .svg Ray Reardon 1980/81
1982 WalesFlag of Wales (1959 – present) .svg Terry Griffiths 9: 5 EnglandEngland Steve Davis 1981/82
1983 EnglandEngland Steve Davis 9: 2 WalesFlag of Wales (1959 – present) .svg Ray Reardon 1982/83
1984 EnglandEngland Steve Davis 9: 1 WalesFlag of Wales (1959 – present) .svg Terry Griffiths 1983/84
1985 EnglandEngland Jimmy White 9: 5 Northern IrelandNorthern Ireland Alex Higgins 1984/85
1986 EnglandEngland Jimmy White 9: 5 EnglandEngland Willie Thorne 1985/86
1987 EnglandEngland Steve Davis 9: 1 EnglandEngland Willie Thorne 1986/87
1988 EnglandEngland Steve Davis 9: 4 EnglandEngland Neal Foulds 1987/88
1989 Northern IrelandNorthern Ireland Alex Higgins 9: 8 ScotlandScotland Stephen Hendry 1988/89
1990 EnglandEngland Steve Davis 9: 4 Northern IrelandNorthern Ireland Dennis Taylor 1989/90
1991 EnglandEngland Steve Davis 9: 5 EnglandEngland John Parrott 1990/91
1992 ScotlandScotland Stephen Hendry 9: 6 IrelandIreland Ken Doherty 1991/92
1993 EnglandEngland Steve Davis 9: 4 ScotlandScotland Alan McManus 1992/93
1994 EnglandEngland Steve Davis 9: 8 ScotlandScotland Alan McManus 1993/94
1995 EnglandEngland Peter Ebdon 9: 8 ScotlandScotland Stephen Hendry 1994/95
1996 WalesFlag of Wales (1959 – present) .svg Darren Morgan 9: 8 EnglandEngland Steve Davis 1995/96
1997 ScotlandScotland Stephen Hendry 9: 8 WalesFlag of Wales (1959 – present) .svg Darren Morgan 1996/97
1998 IrelandIreland Ken Doherty a 1997/98
1999 ScotlandScotland Stephen Hendry 9: 8 EnglandEngland Stephen Lee 1998/99
2000 ScotlandScotland John Higgins 9: 4 ScotlandScotland Stephen Hendry 1999/00
2001 Dublin
Citywest Hotel
EnglandEngland Ronnie O'Sullivan 9: 8 ScotlandScotland Stephen Hendry Citywest Hotels 2000/01
2002 ScotlandScotland John Higgins 10: 3 EnglandEngland Peter Ebdon 2001/02
Irish Masters - Ranking tournament status
2003 Dublin
Citywest Hotel
EnglandEngland Ronnie O'Sullivan 10: 9 ScotlandScotland John Higgins Citywest Hotels 2002/03
2004 EnglandEngland Peter Ebdon 10: 7 EnglandEngland Mark King 2003/04
2005 EnglandEngland Ronnie O'Sullivan 10: 8 WalesFlag of Wales (1959 – present) .svg Matthew Stevens 2004/05
Irish Masters - no ranked tournament status
2007 Kilkenny
Ormonde Hotel
EnglandEngland Ronnie O'Sullivan 9: 1 EnglandEngland Barry Hawkins Kilkenny 2006/07
aThe 1998 final was originally won by Ronnie O'Sullivan 9: 3 against Ken Doherty, but after a positive doping test the result was annulled, Doherty was awarded the victory and O'Sullivan was deleted from the list of results.

swell

  1. Irish Masters. Chris Turner's Snooker Archive, archived from the original on February 16, 2012 ; accessed on November 4, 2019 .
  2. Irish Masters. CueTracker, accessed November 4, 2019 .
  3. Chris Turner: On This Week. In: Eurosport . March 21, 1987, accessed October 31, 2019 .
  4. Charles Whebell: O'Sullivan driven to victory. In: The Telegraph . March 12, 2007, accessed November 4, 2019 .