Irish Professional Championship
| Tournament status | ||
|---|---|---|
| Ranking tournament: | - | |
| Minor ranking tournament: | - | |
| Invitation tournament: | 1947–1972, 1978–1983, 1985–1989, 1992–1993, 2005–2007 (non-ranking) | |
| Tournament dates of the last edition | ||
| Venue: | Red Cow Exhibition Center, Dublin | |
| Prize money (total): | € 16,500 / £ 5,594 | |
| Prize money (winner): | € 8,000 / £ 2,797 | |
| Frames in the final: | Best of 17 | |
| Records | ||
| Most wins: |
 Jackie Rea (26 years) Dennis Taylor , Alex Higgins (6 ×)
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| Highest Break: | 142 Joe Swail 2005
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| Venue (s) on the map | ||
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The Irish Professional Championship was a professional snooker tournament to determine the national snooker champion of the island of Ireland . Players from Ireland or Northern Ireland were therefore eligible to participate . The tournament was played between 1947 and 1981 on the basis of challenge games, then the tournament was played in a knockout system . After the tournament was subsidized by the World Federation in the 1980s, the tournament was discontinued after the 1989 edition and revived for two editions in the early 1990s and three editions in the mid-2000s. Record winners are Alex Higgins and Dennis Taylor with six titles each and Jackie Rea , who held the title for a total of 26 years. In 2005, Joe Swail played the highest break in tournament history with a 142 break.
history
The Irish Professional Championship was held for the first time in 1947. The winner of the first edition was Jackie Rea , who was now able to choose his challengers as defending champion. In the following 26 years, Rea defeated almost every one of his challengers, he was only defeated by Jack Bates in 1952, but subsequently regained the title. In 1972, however, he was defeated by the aspiring Alex Higgins , who was subsequently able to defend his title once against Dennis Taylor and twice against Patsy Fagan . It was not until the second meeting with Taylor in 1980 that Higgins lost to his challenger and Taylor became the new defending champion. After he had won against Patsy Fagan in 1981, the challenge mode was abolished in 1982 and replaced by a knockout system with numerous participants. Nevertheless, Taylor initially remained the title holder, but then lost to Alex Higgins in 1983. From the late 1970s onwards there were also sponsors: on the one hand the cigarette brand Benson & Hedges , on the other hand the Smithwicks beer brand .
After no edition took place in 1984, the tournament was subsidized from 1985 by the World Federation with £ 1,000 per player. Under the sponsorship of Strongbow Cider (1985 + 1986) and Matchroom Sport (1987) the tournament remained in the knockout system. The following three editions always won Dennis Taylor, until he surprisingly lost in the final in 1988 to Jack McLaughlin . This reached the final again in 1989, but had to admit defeat to Alex Higgins. In 1989, however, the WPBSA subsidy ended and as there was no sponsor, the tournament had to be stopped. In 1992, however, a sponsor was found in the Murphy’s brewery and the tournament was revived. However, it moved to Cork and was therefore held for the first time in the Republic of Ireland. The winners of the following two editions, which were the largest editions of the tournament with 34 participants, were Joe Swail and Ken Doherty . In 1993 the tournament had to be stopped again.
In the mid-2000s, the poker company VC Poker and its platform VCpoker.ie again had a sponsor and the tournament was revived in the greater Dublin area . After Joe Swail won in 2005 and played the highest break in tournament history with a 142 break, Ken Doherty won in 2006 and 2007. But then the tournament had to be stopped again.
winner
Web links
- Overview of the expenses at CueTracker
- Overview of the expenses in the snooker database
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Chris Turner: Irish Professional Championship - Non Ranking Event open to professionals from Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland only. (No longer available online.) Chris Turner's Snooker Archive, 2008, archived from the original on April 18, 2016 ; accessed on July 17, 2020 (English).
