1983 Masters (snooker)

The 1983 Masters (officially the 1983 Benson & Hedges Masters) was a professional non-ranking snooker tournament that took place between from Sunday 23 January to Sunday 30 January 1983 at the Wembley Conference Centre in London, England. The event was increased to 16 players and extended from 6 to 8 days. Although there were 16 players, they were not the top 16 ranked players that would compete in the following years. BBC Television coverage did not start until 26 January and so only two of the eight first round matches were televised.

1983 Benson & Hedges Masters

Tournament information
Dates	23–30 January 1983 (1983-01-23 – 1983-01-30)
Venue	Wembley Conference Centre
City	London
Country	England
Organisation	WPBSA
Format	Non-ranking event
Total prize fund	£55,000
Winner's share	£16,000
Highest break	Terry Griffiths (WAL) (128)
Final
Champion	Cliff Thorburn (CAN)
Runner-up	Ray Reardon (WAL)
Score	9–7
← 1982 1984 →

Cliff Thorburn of Canada became the first overseas player to win the competition beating Ray Reardon in the final to win the first of his three titles. The first round match between Bill Werbeniuk and Alex Higgins saw the biggest crowd ever recorded at a snooker match in the UK 2,836 attended the match at the Conference Centre. The highest break of the tournament was 128 made by Terry Griffiths.

Field

For the first time there were 16 players in the event. Alex Higgins, the World Champion was the number 1 seed with Steve Davis, the defending champion seeded 2. Places were allocated to the leading 8 players in the world rankings and there were two sponsors wild-card entries, Jimmy White (ranked 10) and Terry Griffiths (ranked 14).^[1] The remaining six players qualified based on their performance in the Professional Players Tournament in October. They were semi-finalist John Virgo, quarter-finalists Joe Johnson, Dean Reynolds and Bill Werbeniuk, and Mark Wildman and Tony Meo who lost in the last 16.^[2] Joe Johnson, Dean Reynolds and Mark Wildman were making their debuts in the Masters.

Main draw

^[3][4][1]

	Last 16 Best of 9 frames					Quarter-finals Best of 9 frames					Semi-finals Best of 11 frames					Final Best of 17 frames
	1	Alex Higgins (NIR)	4
		Bill Werbeniuk (CAN)	5
							Bill Werbeniuk	3
						5	Eddie Charlton	5
	5	Eddie Charlton (AUS)	5
		Tony Meo (ENG)	3
											5	Eddie Charlton	5
											4	Cliff Thorburn	6
	6	Kirk Stevens (CAN)	3
		Terry Griffiths (WAL)	5
							Terry Griffiths	3
						4	Cliff Thorburn	5
	4	Cliff Thorburn (CAN)	5
		Joe Johnson (ENG)	2
																4	Cliff Thorburn	9
																3	Ray Reardon	7
	3	Ray Reardon (WAL)	5
		Dean Reynolds (ENG)	1
						3	Ray Reardon	5
							Jimmy White	2
	8	David Taylor (ENG)	2
		Jimmy White (ENG)	5
											3	Ray Reardon	6
											7	Doug Mountjoy	3
	7	Doug Mountjoy (WAL)	5
		John Virgo (ENG)	1
						7	Doug Mountjoy	5
						2	Steve Davis	4
	2	Steve Davis (ENG)	5
		Mark Wildman (ENG)	2

Final

Final: Best of 17 frames. Referee: John Smyth Wembley Conference Centre, London, England, 30 January 1983.
Cliff Thorburn   Canada	9–7	Ray Reardon   Wales
First session: 85–21 (60), 88–30, 1–77, 74–24 (59), 29–63, 57–25, 50–61, 72–44, 97–31, 66–28, 58–69, 74–68 (Thorburn 69, Reardon 54), 34–88 (65), 4–113 (113), 39–76, 77–19 (56)
69	Highest break	113
0	Century breaks	1
4	50+ breaks	3

Century breaks

Total: 4^[5]

• 128 – Terry Griffiths
• 114 – Tony Meo
• 113 – Ray Reardon
• 108 – Eddie Charlton

References

1. "Davis start favourite". The Times. 22 January 1983. p. 17.
2. Everton, Clive (13 October 1982). "Higgins toils in natural break". The Guardian. p. 24 – via Newspapers.com.
3. "1983 Masters Results". Snooker Database. Retrieved 20 February 2011.
4. . Snooker Scene. Archived from the original on 24 January 2013. Retrieved 8 August 2012.
5. "1983 Masters". CueTracker - Snooker Results and Statistics Database. Retrieved 19 January 2015.