1976 Masters (snooker)

1976 Benson & Hedges Masters

Tournament information
Dates	26–30 January 1976 (1976-01-26 – 1976-01-30)
Venue	New London Theatre
City	London
Country	England
Organisation	WPBSA
Format	Non-Ranking event
Winner's share	£2,000 [1]
Highest break	Eddie Charlton  (AUS) (97)
Final
Champion	Ray Reardon  (WAL)
Runner-up	Graham Miles  (ENG)
Score	7–3
← 1975 1977 →

The 1976 Masters (officially the 1976 Benson & Hedges Masters) was a professional snooker tournament that took place from 26 to 30 January 1976 at the New London Theatre in London, England. It featured ten invited players, nine of whom had featured in the 1975 tournament. Dennis Taylor made his Masters debut, replacing Bill Werbeniuk.

The previous year's runner-up Ray Reardon won the tournament, defeating Graham Miles 7–3 in the final. It was the only Masters title of Reardon's career. Aged 43 years and 114 days at the time of his win, Reardon remained the oldest winner of the event until Stuart Bingham won the title in 2020, aged 43 years and 243 days. ^[2]

The highest break of the tournament was 97 by Eddie Charlton.

Main draw

^{[3] [4]}

	Round 1 Best of 7 frames					Quarter-finals Best of 7 frames					Semi-finals Best of 9 frames					Final Best of 13 frames
						John Spencer  (ENG)		4
	Fred Davis  (ENG)		4			Fred Davis		0
	Cliff Thorburn  (CAN)		2								John Spencer		4
											Graham Miles		5
						Alex Higgins  (NIR)		1
						Graham Miles  (ENG)		4
																Graham Miles		3
																Ray Reardon		7
						Rex Williams  (ENG)		1
						Eddie Charlton  (AUS)		4
											Eddie Charlton		4
											Ray Reardon		5
						Ray Reardon  (WAL)		4
	John Pulman  (ENG)		4			John Pulman		1
	Dennis Taylor  (NIR)		2

Final

Final: Best of 13 frames. Referee: New London Theatre, London, England, 30 January 1976.
Ray Reardon   Wales	7–3	Graham Miles   England
First session:79–34, 88–11, 63–1 (57), 42–68, 73–18 (70), 61–22, 41–95, 104–17 (90), 11–85, 57–16
90	Highest break
0	Century breaks	0
3	50+ breaks	0

Century breaks

^[5]

• None. Highest break: 97– Eddie Charlton

References

1. Turner, Chris. "The Masters". cajt.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk. Chris Turner's Snooker Archive. Archived from the original on 7 January 2012. Retrieved 1 March 2011.
2. Turner, Chris. "On this week: Jan 24–30 – Hunter's first ranking title". Eurosport UK. Archived from the original on 16 January 2014. Retrieved 22 November 2012.
3. "1976 Masters Results". Snooker Database. Archived from the original on 7 October 2011. Retrieved 5 May 2011.
4. "The Masters". Snooker Scene. Archived from the original on 24 January 2013. Retrieved 8 August 2012.
5. "1976 Masters". CueTracker - Snooker Results and Statistics Database. Retrieved 19 January 2015.