By Elliott West
Introduction
It always gives me great pleasure to research and write about some of the snooker tournaments of yesterday that have now been sadly forgotten. Breathing life into another one of these events, let’s look at at the short-lived 1982 Highland Masters. Held only once, the Highland Masters took place at the Eden Court Theatre, Inverness, Scotland in April, 1982 and was promoted by Bert Demarco with Bill McKerron and Joe Nugent as the referees. Made up of eight players, Steve Davis, Bert Demarco, Matt Gibson, Alex Higgins, Murdo MacLeod, Eddie Sinclair, John Spencer and Ray Reardon, this was a Scottish affair that was full of twists and turns. A tournament where the favourites were left side-lined and the winner would cash a cheque for £5,000.
The Tournament
This was an event that full of surprises from start to finish with the dominant Steve Davis being dispatched and Alex Higgins, badly beaten. A drama that is all too common in the world of snooker. In the first round, a total of three Scottish players were vying for the title. Perhaps a curse in this home, Bert Demarco drew Ray Reardon and was pipped to the post by the Welshman 4-3, the then current Scottish champion, Eddie Sinclair suffered the same fate as his countryman Demarco, losing to Alex Higgins 3-4, Scotland’s Matt Gibson was defeated by Steve Davis 4-3. and spookily, Murdo MacLeod was at the other end of a 4-0 drubbing by John Spencer. However the results don’t actually reflect the actual standard of play in these matches. All players bar MacLeod, led their games 3-2 but sadly couldn’t hold their lead and Murdo did play well in his match against John Spencer despite the whitewash. An uphill struggle that he couldn’t reverse.
In the semi-final, Alex Higgins was pitched against John Spencer. This was a clash of two former World Champions. On paper, Alex should have won this match hands down but Spencer surprised and played exceptionally well, relighting some of his former magic. This was in the end, one of John’s easiest victories in this best of 11 frames. Spencer won the first frame 58-37 with Higgins conceding the next at 71-7. John then took the third frame with a fantastic 102 break and went on to capture the next five, including breaks of 63, 68, 55, 80 and 41. The ‘Hurricane just couldn’t get going in this match and was consequently denied his hand on the table. An in-form Spencer went on to capture the final two frames 64-57 and 93-21 with Alex failing to get a break over 20.
The other semi-final, certainly didn’t disappoint with Steve Davis drawn against Ray Reardon. This was a match that just as surprising as the other with Ray Reardon in blistering form. The Welshman won the first three frames after Davis conceded them. The former six times World Champion, went on to win the next two.
In the evening session, Reardon carried on his run of good form, taking the first, Davis then lost the next.Spurred on by an audience member intervention, when one of the crowd shouted “Oh c’mon Steve, can we no see some championship form here?”. Davis responded by potting one of his notorious long reds and duly bowed to the member of the audience. However this surge wasn’t enough and Steve was only able to produce a break of 6. This went in to to be a day to forget for the man from Romford, as he went on to lose the match 6-0. A fantastic scalp for Ray Reardon.
In the final, two long-standing adversaries were drawn against each. This was a match where the audience were transported back to yesteryear as John Spencer played his great friend and table foe, Ray Reardon. Reardon took the first of this 21 frame final with breaks of 52 and 36 with Spencer only making 6 points. John won the next 74-21 but Ray retaliated and took the next three frames to lead 4-1 at the interval.
After the interval, Spencer bounced back to take the next two frames 83-18 and 119-13 and looked in better form. However this wasn’t enough to stop the Welshman’s onslaught and John lost the next three frames. Ray then won the eleventh frame, looking as if he couldn’t do anything wrong but Spencer, determined to have one final attempt, made a 70 break and take the frame 103-17. This wasn’t enough as Ray went on to take the last three frames and cement a famous victory over his rival. A final that ended 11-4 in Reardon’s favour and rewarded him with a £5,000 reward.
Summary
This was a tournament that was jam-packed with drama and cost the turf accountants a few pounds. The favourites were swept aside and in their place, some of the greats of snooker, battled it out for the title. Despite advancing years, Reardon showed his class in this tournament and swept aside all that was thrown at him. This was a great year for Ray as he went on to reach the final of the World Championship later in 1982. A final that would lead to Alex Higgins’s second title 18-15 after winning the title ten years earlier in 1972.
