1996 Masters (snooker)
The 1996 Masters (officially the 1996 Benson & Hedges Masters) was a professional non-ranking snooker tournament that took place between 4 and 11 February 1996 at the Wembley Conference Centre in London, England. The last 16 and quarter-final rounds were extended from 9 to 11 frames while the final was extended from 17 to 19 frames, which has remained the match format ever since.
| Tournament information | |
|---|---|
| Dates | 4–11 February 1996 |
| Venue | Wembley Conference Centre |
| City | London |
| Country | England |
| Organisation | WPBSA |
| Format | Non-ranking event |
| Winner's share | £125,000 |
| Highest break |  Stephen Hendry (SCO) (144) |
| Final | |
| Champion | Stephen Hendry (SCO) |
| Runner-up |  Ronnie O'Sullivan (ENG) |
| Score | 10–5 |
← 1995 1997 → | |
Stephen Hendry won his sixth Masters title by defeating defending champion Ronnie O'Sullivan 10–5 in the final. Hendry won £125,000 and £10,000 for the highest break of the tournament (144).[1] During his quarter-final match Hendry also set the record of scoring 487 points without reply against Jimmy White.[2]
Field
Defending champion Ronnie O'Sullivan was the number 1 seed with World Champion Stephen Hendry 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, Matthew Stevens (ranked 236), and Andy Hicks (ranked 17), who was the wild-card selection. Dave Harold, Andy Hicks and Matthew Stevens were making their debuts in the Masters.
Wild-card round
In the preliminary round, the qualifier and wild-card players played the 15th and 16th seeds:[1][3]
| Match | Date | Score | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| WC1 | Sunday 4 February |  Terry Griffiths (WAL) (15) |
3–5 | Matthew Stevens (WAL) |
| WC2 | Monday 5 February | David Roe (ENG) (16) |
2–5 | Andy Hicks (ENG) |
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 | Ronnie O'Sullivan (ENG)
| 6 | |||||||||||||||||
| 12 | Nigel Bond (ENG)
| 5 | |||||||||||||||||
| 1 | Ronnie O'Sullivan
| 6 | |||||||||||||||||
| 8 | Darren Morgan
| 4 | |||||||||||||||||
| 8 | Darren Morgan (WAL)
| 6 | |||||||||||||||||
| 10 | Peter Ebdon (ENG)
| 5 | |||||||||||||||||
| 1 | Ronnie O'Sullivan
| 6 | |||||||||||||||||
| Andy Hicks
| 1 | ||||||||||||||||||
| 5 |  James Wattana (THA)
| 4 | |||||||||||||||||
| Andy Hicks (ENG)
| 6 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Andy Hicks
| 6 | ||||||||||||||||||
| 4 | John Parrott
| 3 | |||||||||||||||||
| 4 | John Parrott (ENG)
| 6 | |||||||||||||||||
| 14 |  Tony Drago (MLT)
| 5 | |||||||||||||||||
| 1 | Ronnie O'Sullivan
| 5 | |||||||||||||||||
| 2 | Stephen Hendry
| 10 | |||||||||||||||||
| 3 | Steve Davis (ENG)
| 6 | |||||||||||||||||
| 9 |  Ken Doherty (IRL)
| 0 | |||||||||||||||||
| 3 | Steve Davis
| 4 | |||||||||||||||||
| 6 | Alan McManus
| 6 | |||||||||||||||||
| 6 | Alan McManus (SCO)
| 6 | |||||||||||||||||
| Matthew Stevens (WAL)
| 5 | ||||||||||||||||||
| 6 | Alan McManus
| 4 | |||||||||||||||||
| 2 | Stephen Hendry
| 6 | |||||||||||||||||
| 7 | Jimmy White (ENG)
| 6 | |||||||||||||||||
| 13 | Dave Harold (ENG)
| 5 | |||||||||||||||||
| 7 | Jimmy White
| 0 | |||||||||||||||||
| 2 | Stephen Hendry
| 6 | |||||||||||||||||
| 2 | Stephen Hendry (SCO)
| 6 | |||||||||||||||||
| 11 | John Higgins (SCO)
| 4 | |||||||||||||||||
Final
| Final: Best of 19 frames. Referee: Wembley Conference Centre, London, England, 11 February 1996.[1] | ||
| Stephen Hendry (2) Scotland |
10–5 | Ronnie O'Sullivan (1) England |
| Afternoon: 108–0 (71), 12–73 (62), 69–90 (Hendry 54), 78–48 (77), 74–49, 61–17 (50), 71–5, 74–1 (62) Evening: 0–109 (109), 122–0 (87), 126–8 (125), 9–62 (61), 80–1 (80), 0–138 (106), 103–0 (97) | ||
| 125 | Highest break | 109 |
| 1 | Century breaks | 2 |
| 9 | 50+ breaks | 4 |
Qualifying
Matthew Stevens won the qualifying tournament, known as the 1995 Benson & Hedges Championship at the time.[4]
Century breaks
Total: 21[5]
- 144, 134, 127, 125, 121, 105 – Stephen Hendry
- 131, 100 – Alan McManus
- 128, 109, 109, 106 – Ronnie O'Sullivan
- 125, 118, 103, 102 – Andy Hicks
- 117 – John Parrott
- 110 – Nigel Bond
- 104 – Steve Davis
- 101 – John Higgins
- 100 – Dave Harold
Andy Hicks's 125, 103 and 102 were scored in the wild-card round.
References
- "Benson & Hedges Masters". Snooker.org. Retrieved 4 April 2011.
- Turner, Chris. "On this Week: White becomes Brown". Eurosport UK. Archived from the original on 18 September 2012. Retrieved 24 May 2011.
- "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.
- "1996 Masters". CueTracker - Snooker Results and Statistics Database. Retrieved 19 January 2015.
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