|
TOURNAMENT HISTORY - THE REGAL SCOTTISH MASTERS
The first event, for which Langs Supreme provided the sponsorship, was held in Glasgow’s vast Kelvin Hall with nine competitors. 19-year-old, Jimmy White beat three world champions, Reardon, Steve Davis and Cliff Thorburn, to collect the £8,000 first prize and his first major title.
Steve Davis beat Alex
Higgins for the 1982 title when the event had moved to the Holiday Inn
in Glasgow. Another year, another Glasgow hotel, the Skean Dhu,
but it was
Canada’s Cliff Thorburn
beat Willie Thorne in 1985 and Alex Higgins in 1986 for two successive
victories and then in 1987 Joe Johnson gained his only major victory
other than the world title w
With sponsorship from Imperial Tobacco’s Regal brand, Stephen Hendry’s management company, headed by Ian Doyle, promoted the revival of the event, now known as the Regal Masters, at The Scottish Exhibition Centre in Glasgow in 1989.
Since the
first event, there had always been eight players but this
was now increased to ten with a top prize of £32,500. Hendry
rewarded his boss’s faith by winning the event beating Terry
Griffiths in the final. The same two contested the 1990
final with the same resul
Mike Hallett was the surprise winner in 1991 and Neal Foulds triumphed over Gary Wilkinson the following year when the field was increased to twelve. Local favourites, Alan McManus and Stephen Hendry, both fell at the final hurdle to Ken Doherty in 1993 and 1994 respectively but then Hendry brought the trophy back to Scotland with a victory over Peter Ebdon. In that year, 1995, a qualifying competition was introduced with the winner joining the other eleven invitees. Peter reached the final again in 1996 and this time came away as the winner against Alan McManus who was to lose in a third final the following year to Nigel Bond in the deciding frame.
On the second day of the 2000 event, Marco Fu from Hong Kong made the tournament’s first 147 maximum against Ken Doherty, but lost the match. Ronnie O’Sullivan beat Stephen Hendry in the final which meant that a Scottish player had lost in each of the last five finals – four of them to Englishmen!
For 2001, the event moved back to Glasgow, to the Thistle Hotel. For the ninth year in a row there was a Scot in the final although only one of them had emerged victorious in the previous eight. This time however John Higgins, who was in the middle of a fantastic run of form, managed to win, beating the holder, O’Sullivan, 9-6.
With the end of tobacco sponsorship looming, a new sponsor will have to be found if the Scottish Masters is to continue beyond 2002.
Chris TurnerJuly 2002 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Like its counterparts
in London and Ireland, the Scottish Masters is an invitation event,
usually one of the first of the season, and has been held, apart from
1988, continuously since 1981. 
the same winner, Steve Davis, who beat Tony Knowles for the
title for which the prize had now risen to £10,000. Davis
completed a hat trick in 1984, with Jimmy White as his final
victim, this time at the Hospitality Inn which would remain
the venue for the next four years.
hen
he beat Terry Griffiths. The Langs sponsorship then came to
an end and the event disappeared from the calendar, but only
for one season.
t.
The event was now part of a World Series of invitation
events and had moved to Motherwell’s Civic Centre which
would become its home for the next eleven years.
1998
saw Ronnie O’Sullivan pick up the winner’s cheque which had
now risen to £61,000 and Matthew Stevens took the title to
Wales for the first time in 1999. He was the first winner to
have come through the qualifying competition. John Higgins
was the beaten finali
st
on both these occasions.