1998 Masters (snooker)
| Tournament information | |
|---|---|
| Dates | 1–8 February 1998 |
| Venue | Wembley Conference Centre |
| City | London |
| Country | England |
| Organisation(s) | WPBSA |
| Format | Non-ranking event |
| Total prize fund | £535,000 |
| Winner's share | £145,000 |
| Highest break | 142 |
| Final | |
| Champion |
 Mark Williams |
| Runner-up |
 Stephen Hendry |
| Score | 10–9 |
|
← 1997 1999 → | |
The 1998 Benson & Hedges Masters was a professional non-ranking snooker tournament that took place between 1 and 8 February 1998 at the Wembley Conference Centre in London, England.
The final frame of final between Mark Williams and Stephen Hendry turned into a re-spotted black for the first time since Ray Reardon and John Spencer in the first final in 1975. Hendry had led 9–6, before Williams tied it to 9–9. Williams was then trailing 56–34 in the final frame, when he potted the brown and the remaining colours to tie the scores in the match, after Hendry missed the brown.[1] They then played seven shots on the black in a match similar to the 1985 World Championship final between Dennis Taylor and Steve Davis. Hendry then missed an easy black in the middle pocket before Williams potted it on the top left pocket in to claim his first Masters title.
After winning the £145,000 prize money, it was sent to another player named Mark Williams by mistake before it came to the champion. This led to him officially becoming known as Mark J. Williams.[2] The highest break of the tournament was 142 made by Andy Hicks.
Field
Defending champion Steve Davis was the number 1 seed with World Champion Ken Doherty seeded 2. Places were allocated to the top 16 players in the world rankings. Players seeded 15 and 16 played in the wild-card round against the winner of the qualifying event, Andy Hicks (ranked 19), and Jimmy White (ranked 21), who was the wild-card selection. Anthony Hamilton and Stephen Lee were making their debuts in the Masters.
Prize fund
The breakdown of prize money for this year is shown below:
Winner: £145,000
Runner-up: £75,000
High Break: £16,000
Total: £535,000
Wild-card round
In the preliminary round, the wild-card players played the 15th and 16th seeds:[3][4]
| Match | Date | Score | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| WC1 | Sunday 1 February | Darren Morgan (15) |
5–4 |  Andy Hicks |
| WC2 | Monday 2 February | Stephen Lee (16) |
5–1 | Jimmy White |
Main draw
| Last 16 Best of 11 frames | Quarter-finals Best of 11 frames | Semi-finals Best of 11 frames | Final Best of 19 frames | ||||||||||||||||
| 1 | Steve Davis
| 6 | |||||||||||||||||
| 15 | Darren Morgan
| 2 | |||||||||||||||||
| 1 | Steve Davis
| 6 | |||||||||||||||||
| 8 | Ronnie O'Sullivan
| 3 | |||||||||||||||||
| 8 | Ronnie O'Sullivan
| 6 | |||||||||||||||||
| 10 |  Alain Robidoux
| 5 | |||||||||||||||||
| 1 | Steve Davis
| 3 | |||||||||||||||||
| 5 | Mark Williams
| 6 | |||||||||||||||||
| 5 | Mark Williams
| 6 | |||||||||||||||||
| 11 | Alan McManus
| 4 | |||||||||||||||||
| 5 | Mark Williams
| 6 | |||||||||||||||||
| 14 | Anthony Hamilton
| 3 | |||||||||||||||||
| 4 | John Higgins
| 3 | |||||||||||||||||
| 14 | Anthony Hamilton
| 6 | |||||||||||||||||
| 5 | Mark Williams
| 10 | |||||||||||||||||
| 3 | Stephen Hendry
| 9 | |||||||||||||||||
| 3 | Stephen Hendry
| 6 | |||||||||||||||||
| 16 | Stephen Lee
| 1 | |||||||||||||||||
| 3 | Stephen Hendry
| 6 | |||||||||||||||||
| 9 | Nigel Bond
| 3 | |||||||||||||||||
| 6 | Peter Ebdon
| 2 | |||||||||||||||||
| 9 | Nigel Bond
| 6 | |||||||||||||||||
| 3 | Stephen Hendry
| 6 | |||||||||||||||||
| 2 |  Ken Doherty
| 5 | |||||||||||||||||
| 7 | John Parrott
| 5 | |||||||||||||||||
| 13 |  James Wattana
| 6 | |||||||||||||||||
| 13 | James Wattana
| 1 | |||||||||||||||||
| 2 | Ken Doherty
| 6 | |||||||||||||||||
| 2 | Ken Doherty
| 6 | |||||||||||||||||
| 12 |  Tony Drago
| 4 | |||||||||||||||||
Final
| Final: Best of 19 frames. Referee: Alan Chamberlain Wembley Conference Centre, London, England, 8 February 1998[3] | ||
| Mark Williams (5) Wales |
10–9 | Stephen Hendry (3) Scotland |
| Afternoon: 63–72, 68–34 (64), 45–79, 0–98 (98), 82–36, 0–121 (120), 6–70 (70), 80–66 Evening: 64–26, 104–1 (100), 0–106 (67), 87–2, 1–69, 44–73 (69), 0–78 (78), 72–60 (Hendry 54), 70–20 (69), 52–23, 63–56 | ||
| 100 | Highest break | 120 |
| 1 | Century breaks | 1 |
| 3 | 50+ breaks | 7 |
Qualifying
Andy Hicks won the qualifying tournament, known as the 1997 Benson & Hedges Championship at the time.[5]
Century breaks
- 142 Andy Hicks
- 133, 113, 100 James Wattana
- 133 John Higgins
- 131, 122, 120, 110 Stephen Hendry
- 126 Alain Robidoux
- 124 Ronnie O'Sullivan
- 119, 112 Nigel Bond
- 114 Stephen Lee
- 106 Darren Morgan
- 104, 100 Steve Davis
- 104 Darren Morgan
- 100, 100 Mark Williams
Andy Hicks, Stephen Lee and Darren Morgan scored their century breaks in the wild-card round.
References
- ↑ Turner, Chris. "On this Week: White becomes Brown". Eurosport UK. Archived from the original on 2 June 2011. Retrieved 24 May 2011.
- ↑ Weir, Stuart. "World Snooker: Everything you wanted to know but were afraid to ask about the Crucible". Sunday Mail on HighBeam Research. Retrieved 22 May 2012. (subscription required)
- 1 2 3 "Benson & Hedges Masters 1998". Snooker.org. Retrieved 11 November 2010.
- 1 2 "The Masters". Snooker Scene. Archived from the original on 24 January 2013. Retrieved 8 August 2012.
- ↑ Turner, Chris. "Benson & Hedges Championship, Masters Qualifying Tournament". cajt.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk. Chris Turner's Snooker Archive. Archived from the original on 16 February 2012. Retrieved 23 December 2010.
- ↑ "1998 Masters". CueTracker - Snooker Results and Statistics Database. Retrieved 19 January 2015.