1991 Masters (snooker)

The 1991 Benson & Hedges Masters was a professional non-ranking snooker tournament that took place between 3 and 10 February 1991 at the Wembley Conference Centre in London, England. The highest break of the tournament was a 135 compiled by Dennis Taylor, for which he earned £7,500.

Benson & Hedges Masters

Tournament information
Dates	3–10 February 1991
Venue	Wembley Conference Centre
City	London
Country	England
Organisation(s)	WPBSA
Format	Non-ranking event
Total prize fund	£350,000
Winner's share	£100,000
Highest break	Dennis Taylor (135)
Final
Champion	Stephen Hendry
Runner-up	Mike Hallett
Score	9–8
← 1990 1992 →

In the final, defending champion Stephen Hendry performed what is considered to be one of the greatest comebacks in snooker,[1] when he defeated Mike Hallett 9–8, after trailing 0–7 and 2–8 earlier in the match. With the Masters title in his sights, Hallett just needed to pot the final pink and black in the eleventh frame to win the match, but he missed the pink with the rest at 8–2 up, allowing Hendry to take the frame and then make a historic recovery.

Places in the tournament were allocated to the top 16 players in the world rankings. World number one Stephen Hendry was the number 1 seed. Players seeded 15 and 16 (Tony Meo and Alain Robidoux) competed in the wild-card round against Alan McManus, who was the winner of the qualifying event, and Gary Wilkinson (ranked 19), who was the wild-card selection. Martin Clark (ranked 12), Alan McManus, Alain Robidoux, and Gary Wilkinson were making their Masters debuts.

Wild-card round

Match[2][3]	Date		Score
WC1	Sunday 3 February	Tony Meo (15)	5–3	Gary Wilkinson
WC2	Monday 4 February	Alain Robidoux (16)	3–5	Alan McManus

Main draw

[2][3]

	Last 16 Best of 9 frames					Quarter-finals Best of 9 frames					Semi-finals Best of 11 frames					Final Best of 17 frames
	1	Stephen Hendry	5
	14	John Virgo	1
						1	Stephen Hendry	5
						15	Tony Meo	0
	8	Dean Reynolds	2
	15	Tony Meo	5
											1	Stephen Hendry	6
											4	Jimmy White	1
	5	Doug Mountjoy	4
	9	Steve James	5
						9	Steve James	4
						4	Jimmy White	5
	4	Jimmy White	5
	12	Martin Clark	1
																1	Stephen Hendry	9
																7	Mike Hallett	8
	3	John Parrott	5
	11	Willie Thorne	3
						3	John Parrott	2
						6	Terry Griffiths	5
	6	Terry Griffiths	5
	10	Dennis Taylor	2
											6	Terry Griffiths	3
											7	Mike Hallett	6
	7	Mike Hallett	5
		Alan McManus	3
						7	Mike Hallett	5
						13	Neal Foulds	1
	2	Steve Davis	4
	13	Neal Foulds	5

Final

Final: Best of 17 frames. Referee: John Street Wembley Conference Centre, London, England, 10 February 1991.
Stephen Hendry  Scotland	9–8	Mike Hallett  England
First session: 59–84 (Hendry 59, Hallett 80), 4–58, 12–93 (53), 29–81, 41–87 (87), 7–88 (73), 0–77, 73–67 (60), 73–35, 58–70 (Hendry 53), 67–49, 61–50, 67–43, 72–15, 63–14, 64–57, 51–41
60	Highest break	87
0	Century breaks	0
3	50+ breaks	4

Qualifying

Alan McManus won the qualifying tournament, known as the 1990 Benson & Hedges Satellite Championship at the time.[4]

Century breaks

Total: 9[5]

• 135 Dennis Taylor
• 131, 117, 114 Stephen Hendry
• 125 Mike Hallett
• 107 Doug Mountjoy
• 103, 101 Jimmy White
• 101 Steve James

References

1. Vedat, Ismail (17 January 2014). "Snooker's greatest comeback: 'It took me six months to get over it'". ESPN UK. Retrieved 26 April 2019.
2. "1991 Masters Results". Snooker Database. Retrieved 5 May 2011.
3. "The Masters". Snooker Scene. Archived from the original on 24 January 2013. Retrieved 8 August 2012.
4. 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.
5. "1991 Masters". CueTracker - Snooker Results and Statistics Database. Retrieved 19 January 2015.