1991 World Seniors Championship

October 2022 World Seniors Championship 1991 09 18 1991 09 22 y Trentham Gardens Stoke-on-Trent England £50,000 £16,000 Doug Mountjoy WAL (110) Cliff Wilson WAL Eddie Charlton AUS 5–4 First 2010 The 1991 World Seniors Championship was a professional snooker tournament that took place from 18 to 22 September 1991 at Trentham Gardens in Stoke-on-Trent, England. It was the first staging of the World Seniors Championship and was contested by sixteen players aged 40 or more, including several former World Snooker Champions. The event was promoted by Barry Hearn and sanctioned by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association. Cliff Wilson won his first professional title, aged 57, by defeating Eddie Charlton by 5 frames to 4 in the final, after trailing 2–4. Doug Mountjoy made the highest break of the tournament, 110, against Mike Massey in the first round. The final was followed by an unofficial World Trickshot Championship won by Terry Griffiths. The World Seniors Championship was not held again until 2010. Overview The 1991 World Seniors Championship was the inaugural event of its kind. It was promoted by Barry Hearn and featured sixteen players. The minimum age for participants was 40, and all eligible former world champions were offered the opportunity to participate. After this, apart from two wild card players chosen by Hearn, Mike Massey and Michael Ferreira, the remaining places were filled by the eight-highest ranked players aged 40 or over in the Snooker world rankings 1991/1992. Six-time world champion Ray Reardon declined an invitation to compete, and was replaced in the draw by Murdo MacLeod.Ray Reardon https://wst.tv/players/ray-reardon/ World Snooker 27 July 2021 dead 27 October 2021 https://web.archive.org/web/20211027112811/https://wst.tv/players/ray-reardon/ All matches were the best-of-nine frames. The event was sanctioned by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA), and held from 18 to 22 September 1991 at Trentham Gardens in Stoke-on-Trent.Taylor top seed for new world seniors Snooker Scene 17 Everton's News Agency Birmingham September 1991 There was television coverage on satellite channel Screensport on 20, 21 and 22 September, including live coverage of the semi-finals and final.Sport on TV Aberdeen Evening Express 14 September 1991 18 Sport on TV Aberdeen Evening Express 21 September 1991 18 Prize fund The breakdown of prize money is shown below: How Cliff Wilson became king of the golden oldies Snooker Scene 18–19 Everton's News Agency Birmingham November 1991 Winner: £16,000 Runner-up: £8,000 Semi-finalist: £4,000 Quarter-finalist: £2,000 Last 16: £1,000 Highest break: £2,000 Total: £50,000 Summary thumb|alt=A headshot of Dennis Taylor smiling|Dennis Taylor (pictured in 2009) was the top seed for the tournament. He lost in the semi-finals to Eddie Charlton. The first day of play saw three 5–0 whitewashes: by Terry Griffiths, who eliminated the oldest player in the field, 78-year-old Fred Davis; by Cliff Wilson against Rex Williams; and by Eddie Charlton over John Spencer.For the Record: Snooker The Times 19 September 1991 37Snooker The Times 19 September 1991 37 Alex Higgins, whose one-year ban from playing snooker had elapsed six weeks previously, led Silvino Francisco 3–2 after compiling a 108 break in the fifth frame. The match went to a deciding frame, which was won by Francisco when he made a clearance from the last red ball to the pink ball. After the match, Higgins told reporters that Francisco had distracted him during the match: "he threatened to fight me in a boxing ring. Winning the [tournament] meant a lot to me, but he just wouldn't sit down when I was playing my shots."Higgins blows his top in golden oldies Staffordshire Sentinel 19 September 1991 60 Francisco responded that the pace at which Higgins played meant that he "just didn't have enough time to move to my chair." Dennis Taylor won the first frame against three-time world amateur English billiards champion Ferreira, but lost the next two frames, before going on to win 5–2. The nine-ball pool specialist Massey recovered from 0–3 to 2–3 against Doug Mountjoy, but won no further frames. Mountjoy compiled a break of 110 in the sixth frame. McLeod defeated John Virgo, who was ranked 41 places above him, 5–4, and Colin Roscoe eliminated Cliff Thorburn 5–3. Against expectations, Wilson defeated Mountjoy 5–4 in the quarter-finals,Wilson's major fillip Birmingham Mail 21 September 1991 35 despite Mountjoy compiling breaks of 36, 41, 97, 39 and 97. Francisco recovered from 0–3 to 3–3 against Charlton, but lost the next two frames. Taylor defeated Roscoe 5–2, and Griffiths, whose highest break in the match was 34, eliminated MacLeod 5–2. In the semi-finals, Charlton defeated Taylor, who had been the pre-tournament favourite to win the title, 5–3. Charlton recorded breaks of 62, 52, 65, and, in the last frame, 103, during the match, and reached his first major final for 16 years.Charlton in charge Dundee Courier 21 September 1991 17 Griffiths and Wilson were level at 3–3; Wilson won the seventh frame then added the eight, in which he made a 50 break to complete a 5–3 win. Wilson recovered from 2–4 behind against Charlton to win the final 5–2, and claim his first professional title.First for Wilson The Times 23 September 1991 37 Charlton made a breaks of 87 in the first frame and won it by 120 points to zero. Wilson won the second and third frames, before breaks of 53 and 55 by Charlton contributed to him taking a 4–2 lead. In the next three frames, Wilson had breaks of 36, 51 and 52; he won the deciding frame by 77 points to 8. According to the match report in Snooker Scene magazine, Charlton, who had twice been runner-up in the world snooker championship and once in the World Professional Billiards Championship, "started to falter in a fashion all too familiar with his failures on the brink of other world titles" when leading 4–2. In the same issue, Wilson was described as "handicapped by shoulder and eyesight problems, [he] remains one of the best single ball potters in the game". One of the oldest competitors in the competition, at 57,Obituary: Cliff Wilson The Times London 10 24 May 1994 Wilson's prize money of £16,000 was more than twice his previous highest earnings from a tournament, £7,500 for reaching the quarter-finals of the 1987 Mercantile Credit Classic.Where the £250,000 went Snooker Scene 21 Everton's News Agency Birmingham February 1987 The next world seniors championship was in 2010.Turner Chris Masters/Seniors Snooker (Over 40s) http://www.cajt.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/seniors.html https://web.archive.org/web/20120313150047/http://www.cajt.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/seniors.html 13 March 2012 cajt.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk Chris Turner's Snooker Archive 25 March 2011 In the interim there was a 1997 Seniors Pot Black and the 2000 World Seniors Masters.Seniors success story Snooker Scene 5 Everton's News Agency Birmingham December 2010 Main draw Numbers in brackets denote seedings. Higgins takes hump at first world seniors Snooker Scene 17 Everton's News Agency Birmingham November 1991 170 Last 16 Best of 9 frames Quarter-finals Best of 9 frames Semi-finals Best of 9 frames Final Best of 9 frames Dennis Taylor NIR (1) 5 Michael Ferreira IND 2 Cliff Thorburn CAN 3 Colin Roscoe WAL 5 Eddie Charlton AUS 5 John Spencer ENG 0 Silvino Francisco RSA 1982 (4) 5 Alex Higgins NIR 4 Terry Griffiths WAL (3) 5 Fred Davis ENG 0 John Virgo ENG 4 Murdo MacLeod SCO 5 Cliff Wilson WAL 5 Rex Williams ENG 0 Doug Mountjoy WAL (2) 5 Mike Massey USA 2 NIR Dennis Taylor (1) 5 WAL Colin Roscoe 2 AUS Eddie Charlton 5 RSA 1982 Silvino Francisco (4) 3 WAL Terry Griffiths (3) 5 SCO Murdo MacLeod 2 WAL Cliff Wilson 5 WAL Doug Mountjoy (2) 4 NIR Dennis Taylor (1) 3 AUS Eddie Charlton 5 WAL Terry Griffiths (3) 3 WAL Cliff Wilson 5 AUS Eddie Charlton 4 WAL Cliff Wilson 5 Final Numbers in parentheses indicate breaks of 50 or more. Scores in bold are winning scores. Final: Best of 9 frames.Trentham Gardens, Stoke-on-Trent, England, 22 September 1991 Eddie Charlton 4–5 Cliff Wilson 120–0 (87), 53–56, 19–74, 91–17 (63), 69–21 (53); 73–40 (55); 55–69, 17–88 (51), 8–77 (52) 87 Highest break 52 4 50+ breaks 2 Century breaks There were three century breaks made during the tournament: 110 Doug Mountjoy 108 Alex Higgins 103 Eddie Charlton World Trickshot Championship World Snooker Trickshot Championship After the final, an unofficial World Trickshot championship was held. It was not approved by the WPBSA. The judges, including Steve Davis, held up cards showing their marks for each shot, in the manner of judges for ice skating, and Jeremy Beadle was the compere.Thornhill Ted Alex Higgins: The trick shots of a legend https://metro.co.uk/2010/08/02/alex-higgins-the-trick-shots-of-a-legend-467422/ Metro 2 August 2010 4 October 2022 2 November 2015 https://web.archive.org/web/20151102092600/http://metro.co.uk/2010/08/02/alex-higgins-the-trick-shots-of-a-legend-467422/ live Francisco, Griffiths and Massey were tied for first place on 57 points; Griffiths took the title, and £3,000 prize money, by winning a "machine gun shot" play-off.Griffiths wins 'machine gun' shoot-out Snooker Scene 18–19 Everton's News Agency Birmingham November 1991 References 1991 Category:1991 in snooker Category:1991 in English sport Category:Sport in Stoke-on-Trent World Seniors