Tournament information | |
---|---|
Dates | 17–21 September 1986 |
Venue | Cliffs Pavilion |
City | Southend-on-Sea |
Country | England |
Organisation | Matchroom Sport |
Format | Non-ranking event |
Total prize fund | £100,000 [1] |
Winner's share | £50,000 [1] |
Highest break | Willie Thorne (ENG) (137) [1] |
Final | |
Champion | Willie Thorne (ENG) |
Runner-up | Steve Davis (ENG) |
Score | 10–9 |
1987 → |
The 1986 Matchroom Professional Championship was the inaugural edition of the professional invitational snooker tournament which took place from 17 to 21 September 1986 in Southend-on-Sea, England. [2] [3]
The tournament featured six professional players, all part of Barry Hearn's Matchroom Sport stable. The tournament was won by Willie Thorne, who defeated Steve Davis 10–9 in the final. [4] [5] [6] Thorne made a break of 137 in his opening match against Neal Foulds. [7] The event was played at the same time as the 1986 Scottish Masters.
The breakdown of prize money for this year is shown below: [8]
Quarter-finals Best of 11 frames | Semi-finals Best of 11 frames | Final Best of 19 Frames | ||||||||
Steve Davis (ENG) | 6 | |||||||||
Terry Griffiths | 3 | |||||||||
Terry Griffiths (WAL) | 6 | |||||||||
Tony Meo (ENG) | 3 | |||||||||
Willie Thorne | 10 | |||||||||
Steve Davis | 9 | |||||||||
Dennis Taylor (NIR) | 5 | |||||||||
Willie Thorne | 6 | |||||||||
Willie Thorne (ENG) | 6 | |||||||||
Neal Foulds (ENG) | 3 | |||||||||
Steve Davis is an English retired professional snooker player who is currently a commentator, DJ, electronic musician and author. He dominated professional snooker in the 1980s, when he reached eight World Snooker Championship finals in nine years, won six world titles, and held the world number one ranking for seven consecutive seasons. He won 28 ranking titles during his career, placing him fifth on the all-time list, behind Ronnie O'Sullivan (41), Stephen Hendry (36), John Higgins (31) and Judd Trump (30). The first player to make an officially recognised maximum break in professional competition, at the 1982 Classic, he was also the first to earn £1 million in career prize money. He is the only snooker player to have won the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award, which he received in 1988.
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