By Elliott West
“Probably the best television snooker tournament I think I have ever seen”
Fred Dinenage
Introduction
Touted as a rival to Pot Black, the Canadian Club Masters was a tournament that was broadcast on Yorkshire Television and shown over eight weeks. With Fred Dinenage as the presenter,Ted Lowe on commentary and Stan Brookes as the referee, this was Canadian Club whisky’s first venture into snooker and was filmed at the Northern Snooker Centre in Leeds. Yorkshire Television had already dabbled in snooker with earlier projects of a pro/celebrity snooker series and the International tournament in the previous October in Sheffield.
The Tournament
Set in a room where the audience were literally on top of the table and the audience and players smoked profusely, the players didn’t even have a seating area and used to sit on the stairs either side of the audience in between shots. The Tournament itself was a non-ranking event and had six main players with two additional players, the Northern amateur snooker champion, Roy Andrewartha and Embassy Invitational winner, John Virgo. Both Roy and John joined the others through an invitational knockout prior to the tournament itself.
The Final
The final was pitched between two familiar faces of the era, Alex Higgins and Ray Reardon. A match that went fairly close with Alex beating his rival, 6-4. In the last frame, Reardon was in the balls but broke down on the last difficult blue along the cushion. One point ahead on a break of 23 (55-54), Ray double-kissed the blue and left it potable for Higgins, close to the right corner pocket. This was like shelling peas for the Irishman and potted the blue and pink, leaving a solitary black for the referee to scoop up after the match. Alex smiled liked a Cheshire Cat, producing a fist pump and then a bow before returning to his section of the stairs and taking a quick puff on his cigarette. He was then presented by Alastair Dow, the UK Regional Director of Canadian Club whisky, a silver plate and prize money of £1,000.
Main Draw
Quarter-Finals (Best of 5 frames)
Alex Higgins v Graham Miles 3-1
John Pulman v John Dunning 3-2
Ray Reardon v Roy Andrewartha 3-2
John Spencer v John Virgo 3-0
Semi-Finals (Best of 5 frames)
Alex Higgins v John Pulman 3-0
Ray Reardon v John Spencer 3-1
Final (Best of 11 frames)
Alex Higgins v Ray Reardon 6-4
Summary
The Canadian Club Masters was a short-lived tournament but was important because it gave an insight into the progression of snooker as a sport at the time. This was a transition phase where the mix of the smoke filled room met the start of a tournament environment. The surroundings may be crude at the time but the Northern Snooker Centre in Leeds was quickly becoming a powerhouse of snooker in the north of the country. Hosting tournaments like the Webster’s Open, the building attracted a host of players at the time and was to continue to be a major training ground for the sport up to the present day.
