Irish Professional Championship 1972
Irish Professional Championship 1972
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| Tournament type: | Non-ranking tournament |
| Attendees: | 2 |
| Venue: | Belfast |
| Opening: | 3rd January 1972 |
| Endgame: | January 3-8, 1972
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| Defending champion: |
 Jackie Rea
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| Winner: |
Alex Higgins
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| Finalist: |
Jackie Rea
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← unknown
1978 →
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The Irish Professional Championship 1972 was a professional snooker tournament during the 1971/72 season without affecting the world rankings. The tournament was held as a challenge match between longtime title holder Jackie Rea and challenger Alex Higgins between January 3 and 8, 1972 in Belfast . The winner was Alex Higgins, who a little later also won the World Snooker Championship and was able to hold the title until 1980.
background
The Irish Professional Championship celebrated its 25th anniversary this year, as the first edition had already taken place in 1947. With only one exception in 1952, Jackie Rea had always been the title holder of the tournament, which was held from the beginning as a single challenge match. Now Alex Higgins was another challenger who was only 22 years old but still played at a high level.
The game
The prize-free challenge game between Rea and Higgins took place from January 3rd to 8th, 1972 in Belfast , Northern Ireland . It was scheduled as a game with the best of 55 frames mode . Higgins had the better start and took the lead 4: 0 and 5: 1, but then had to accept that Rea came up to 5: 4. During the following frames, Higgins failed to shake off his opponent: even if he took the lead again with three frames, Rea ended up getting up to within one frame. So it was after 17 frames 9: 8. But then Higgins was in top form and was able to win frame after frame. Up to the score of 23: 8, Rea was unable to win a single frame more. He then came up to him at 23:10 and 24:11, but Higgins finally won with 28:12. Higgins remained the title holder until Dennis Taylor's victory in 1980, while Rea withdrew from the tournament and only dared a not too successful comeback in 1982 when the tournament was opened to all (Northern) Irish players.
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Final: Best of 55 Frames , Belfast , January 3-8, 1972 |
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Jackie Rea
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12: 28 |
Alex Higgins
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| 53: 60 , 51: 61 , 35: 64 , 41: 63 , 63 : 42, 38: 67 , 71 : 37, 97 : 28, 63 : 56, 39: 68 , 46: 63 , 62 : 45, 64 : 46, 22: 59 , 68 : 41, 49: 61 , 67 : 53, 15: 101 , 36: 82 , 21: 85 , 21: 86 , 42: 90 , 33: 77 , 19: 87 , 23: 87 , 30: 66 , 15: 93 , 56: 77 , 57: 82 , 39: 85 , 32: 80 , 66 : 51, 69 : 67, 63: 65 , 43 : 32, 44: 102 , results of four frames unknown |
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| - | Highest break | - |
| - | Century breaks | - |
| - | 50+ breaks | - |
Individual evidence
- ↑ 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 16, 2020 (English).
- ^ Ron Florax: 1972 Irish Professional Championship. CueTracker.net, accessed on July 16, 2020 .