Irish Masters 1990

Irish Masters 1990 Benson & Hedges Irish Masters 1990
Tournament type:	Invitation tournament
Attendees:	12
Venue:	Goffs, Kill , Ireland
Opening:	March 27, 1990
Endgame:	April 1, 1990
Winner:	Steve Davis
Finalist:	Dennis Taylor
Highest Break:	99 ( John Parrott / Willie Thorne )
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The Benson & Hedges Irish Masters 1990 was a snooker tournament as part of the Snooker Main Tour of the 1989/90 season . The invitation tournament was held from March 27th to April 1st at the Goffs in Kill near Dublin . The arena of the horse auctioneer was the venue of the traditional tournament for the 13th time.

Last year's winner Alex Higgins lost his opening match this time against his compatriot Dennis Taylor . He was only the second Irishman who then also reached the final. The winner, however, was world number one Steve Davis , who won the tournament for the fifth time. He defeated Taylor 9-4 in the final.

Prize money

There was almost £ 38,000 more for the participants this year than at the previous year's tournament. That was the biggest jump in prize money until then. The winner alone got almost £ 10,000 more, while the defeated finalist got a little more than £ 7,000. Accordingly, there were fewer in the other placements, the first-round losers received around £ 1,300 more for their participation.

placement	Prize money
winner	£ 37,000
final	£ 23,000
Semifinals	£ 15,000
Quarter finals	£ 8,500
Round 1	£ 5,500
Highest break	£ 4,000
All in all	£ 150,000

Final round

In addition to defending champion Alex Higgins from Northern Ireland, who has since fallen to number 24 in the world rankings , the top 11 also competed in full. Higgins and the top 3 were set for the second round. The other participants played in round 1 for the quarter-finals. The tournament started in the mode Best of 9 , in the semifinals it was increased to Best of 11. In the final you then needed 9 frames to win (Best of 17).

	Round 1 (Best of 9)					Quarter Finals (Best of 9)					Semi-finals (Best of 11)					Final (Best of 17)
						1	Alex Higgins	2
	8th	Cliff Thorburn	4th
						9	Dennis Taylor	5
	9	Dennis Taylor	5								9	Dennis Taylor	6th
											5	Jimmy White	5
						4th	Stephen Hendry	2
	5	Jimmy White	5
						5	Jimmy White	5
	12	Joe Johnson	4th													9	Dennis Taylor	4th
																2	Steve Davis	9
						3	John Parrott	3
	6th	Terry Griffiths	5
						6th	Terry Griffiths	5
	11	Doug Mountjoy	1								6th	Terry Griffiths	3
											2	Steve Davis	6th
						2	Steve Davis	5
	7th	Mike Hallett	1
						10	Willie Thorne	3
	10	Willie Thorne	5

final

Up until 1979, Dennis Taylor had been to the Irish Masters every time, but it wasn't until the 12th attempt that he made it to the final. Steve Davis had only been there since 1981 but had reached the finals in his sophomore year and then won four of the next six editions of the tournament. It was already his fifth final of the season and he had already won three titles. Taylor was in the final of the Matchroom Professional Championship almost a year and a half ago and lost to Davis, in 1987 he won his last tournament. In 1987 he had won against Davis for the last time, since then the Englishman had won the direct comparison six times in a row.

So Davis was a clear favorite and lived up to the role. With 3: 1 and 6: 2 he was ahead after half of the first session. In the evening Taylor did not manage to win the first frame despite scoring 50 points, which was something of a preliminary decision. Davis then increased to 8-2 and only needed one frame to win. Taylor did not have a spectacular comeback like in their famous 1985 World Cup final , he only made cosmetic results by winning the next two frames, but then Davis completed with an 84 point break to 9: 4 victory. He had already been the record winner of the tournament and increased it to five wins ahead of Terry Griffiths with three Irish Masters titles.

Final: Best of 17 Frames Goffs,  Kill , Ireland , April 1, 1990
Dennis Taylor	4: 9	Steve Davis
Afternoon : 0: 79 , 72 : 36, 0: 78 (77), 19: 73 , 79 : 1 (79), 14: 89 , 42: 84 , 32: 63 (51); Evening : 49: 71 (50), 13: 63 , 71 : 46 (66), 75 : 43, 7: 84 (84)
65	Highest break	97
-	Century breaks	-
2	50+ breaks	5

Highest breaks

Century breaks were just missed this year. Willie Thorne and John Parrott both managed a break of 99 points in the quarterfinals. So they shared the £ 4,000 premium for the highest tournament break. A total of 5 breaks of 90 or more points were achieved in the 11 tournament games.

swell

1. ↑ Irish Masters. Chris Turner's Snooker Archive, archived from the original on February 16, 2012 ; accessed on November 3, 2019 . 
2. ↑ ^{a b c} 1990 Irish Masters - Finishes. CueTracker, accessed November 3, 2019 . 
3. ↑ 1990 Irish Masters. In: CueTracker Snooker Results & Statistics Database. Ron Florax, accessed November 3, 2019 . 
4. ↑ 1990 Irish Masters Results. In: Snooker Database. Retrieved November 3, 2019 . 
5. ↑ Rankings - 1989-1990. In: CueTracker Snooker Results & Statistics Database. Ron Florax, accessed November 3, 2019 .