Irish Masters 1995

Irish Masters 1995 Benson & Hedges Irish Masters 1995
Tournament type:	Invitation tournament
Attendees:	12
Venue:	Goffs, Kill , Ireland
Opening:	March 21, 1995
Endgame:	March 26, 1995
Winner:	Peter Ebdon
Finalist:	Stephen Hendry
Highest Break:	138 ( Dave Harold )
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The 1995 Benson & Hedges Irish Masters was a snooker tournament as part of the Snooker Main Tour of the 1994/95 season . The invitation tournament was held from March 21st to 26th in Kill in the east of the Republic of Ireland. For the 18th time, the horse auctioneer's hall Goffs in the place just outside Dublin was the venue.

After Steve Davis had won twice in a row, this time he lost his opening match 4-5 against Peter Ebdon . Ebdon then reached the final and prevailed there 9: 8 against world champion and world number one Stephen Hendry . After winning the Grand Prix in 1993 , it was his second title win on the professional tour.

Prize money

£ 200,000 in the price pot was the record at the Irish Masters. As long as it was an invitation tournament, the amount was not exceeded afterwards either. It was an increase of £ 10,000 over the previous year, but the amounts were distributed very differently overall. The winner got £ 22,000 more, the loser was £ 2,000 plus. The other 10 players were cut by £ 1,000 and £ 1,500 respectively.

placement	Prize money
winner	£ 70,000
final	£ 30,000
Semifinals	£ 18,000
Quarter finals	£ 9,000
Round 1	£ 6,250
Highest break	£ 3,000
All in all	£ 200,000

Final round

The top 11 in the world rankings competed in Dublin for the Irish Masters. As the twelfth player, the Northern Irishman Joe Swail , number 19 in the ranking, got a starting place. Defending champion Peter Ebdon and the top 3 were set for the quarter-finals. The other participants played against each other in round 1 for the other quarter-finals. Unlike before, the first two rounds were no longer played in the Best of 9 mode , but all rounds up to the semi-finals were Best of 11. The final was, as before, over 9 winning frames (Best of 17).

	Round 1 (Best of 9)					Quarter Finals (Best of 9)					Semi-finals (Best of 11)					Final (Best of 17)
						1	Steve Davis	4th
	8th	Darren Morgan	4th
						10	Peter Ebdon	5
	10	Peter Ebdon	5								10	Peter Ebdon	6th
											5	John Parrott	3
						4th	Jimmy White	4th
	5	John Parrott	5
						5	John Parrott	5
	9	Ronnie O'Sullivan	2													10	Peter Ebdon	9
																2	Stephen Hendry	8th
						3	James Wattana	3
	6th	Alan McManus	1
						11	Joe Swail	5
	11	Joe Swail	5								11	Joe Swail	3
											2	Stephen Hendry	6th
						2	Stephen Hendry	5
	7th	Ken Doherty	5
						7th	Ken Doherty	4th
	12	Dave Harold	3

final

Stephen Hendry was not only the current number 1 in snooker when he first stood in the final of the Irish Masters in 1989 , Peter Ebdon had not even been a professional. For Hendry it was the third final of the tournament - he won in 1992 - and for Ebdon it was the third final of his career. However, Ebdon had already defeated Hendry twice: a year and a half earlier at the Grand Prix , which he subsequently won, and a month earlier at the Masters .

But at first it looked like a clear favorite victory. Hendry won the first 4 frames, although Ebdon had his chance in all frames. After the first break, he finally managed to pull off a break and secure the first point with a century break . Hendry countered immediately with his own Century, but after that the Englishman fought for the next two frames and with 3: 5 after the first session the match was still open for Ebdon. In the evening it didn't help Hendry that he won the first frame, Ebdon then got 3 frames in a row and equalized 6: 6 at the mid-session break. In the 12th frame, a break of 55 points was not enough for Hendry, Ebdon stole him by 2 points. The last phase of the finals started better for the Scotsman: The world champion got two frames in a row and was only one frame away from victory. But even this lead was not enough. Even under pressure, Ebdon got three frames in a row for the second time and won the second professional title in his fourth professional year with 9: 8.

Finale: Best of 17 Frames Goffs,  Kill , Ireland , March 26th 1995
Peter Ebdon	9 : 8	Stephen Hendry
Afternoon : 20: 117 (82), 48: 78 , 40: 80 (59), 34: 92 , 129 : 0 (123), 0: 107 (101), 75 : 33, 75 : 5 (75); Evening : 28: 94 (70), 86 : 21, 78 : 44, 62 : 60 (55 Hendry), 4: 76 , 35: 80 , 66 : 28 (59), 65 : 49, 62 : 10
123	Highest break	101
1	Century breaks	1
3	50+ breaks	5

Century breaks

5 players played 7 century breaks in 11 games , the two finalists each achieved two breaks of over 100 points. The highest break of the tournament was scored by Dave Harold in Round 1, for which he received the extra bonus of £ 3,000.

Dave Harold	138
Joe Swail	128
Peter Ebdon	123, 106
Ken Doherty	122
Stephen Hendry	108, 101

swell

1. ↑ Irish Masters. Chris Turner's Snooker Archive, archived from the original on February 16, 2012 ; accessed on October 29, 2019 . 
2. ↑ ^{a b c} 1995 Irish Masters - Finishes. CueTracker, accessed October 29, 2019 . 
3. ↑ 1995 Irish Masters. In: CueTracker Snooker Results & Statistics Database. Ron Florax, accessed October 29, 2019 . 
4. ↑ ^{a b} 1995 Benson & Hedges Irish Masters. snooker.org, accessed October 29, 2019 . 
5. ↑ Rankings - 1994-1995. In: CueTracker Snooker Results & Statistics Database. Ron Florax, accessed October 29, 2019 .