By Elliott West
Introduction
Cast your minds back to 1984, a year where the news was dominated in the United Kingdom by the raging miner’s strike, a battle of principles between the leader of the National Union of Mineworkers, Arthur Scargill and the Conservative-led government of Margaret Thatcher. In the world of snooker, this was the first year that the Everards Open was held at the Willie Thorne Snooker Centre in Leicester. A tournament that carried a winner’s prize of £3,000, the highest ever prize for a tournament of its type.
The Tournament
The final itself came down to a battle between Barry West, still an amateur and Bradford’s Joe Johnson. Joe had previously had a few tough matches, defeating Tommy Murphy in the quarter-finals with a match that started on an equal footing. Murphy took the first frame after doubling the black and Johnson levelled it up to 1-1 when he made a break of 102 in the second. The Yorkshireman then took the next two frames with clearances of 35 and 40 but the Irishman wasn’t beaten yet and it went to a deciding frame at 3-3. However, Joe capitalised on a poor safety shot on the last red by Murphy and was able to clear the remaining balls to win 4-3.
In the semi-finals, Johnson was drawn against Mike Hallett and Joe reeled off a two advantage. Mike fought back to make it 2-2 but the snooker pendulum swung again when Joe made breaks of 59 and 77 to take the match to a 3-2 advantage. Hallett then used his fantastic safety play to breathe life into his corner with a 3-3 scoreline. It looked like Hallett was going to win in the decider when he played a sublime shot of swerving around the brown to pot a red over the top corner pocket but he went on to only score 19 points. Joe took advantage and made a break of 39 to win the match.
The Final
Played before an audience of 130, Johnson made a break of 48 at his first visit to the table. West replied with a 58 break but a poor positional shot in the last red left him snookered. Although Barry was able to negotiate the snooker, he made the critical mistake of leaving a red over the pocket. One that led to Joe to make a 32 clearance.
The Bradford player got in early in the second frame and made 44 but it wasn’t enough. West replied with a break of 22 and produced a great safety shot. This was followed by a 41 clearance to the pink to make it 1-1. Johnson then clawed back after going 2-1 down to level the match again at 2-2 with a break of 58.
However, the fifth and sixth frames went to Barry West to lead 4-2 but this just fired his opponent up and Johnson started to pot everything in sight and the match was quickly returned to a 4-4 scoreline. With a final deciding frame now a certainty, Joe got in quickly and made a 40 break. Joe then broke down, scattering the pack after a few safety shots and a dangerous pot attempt. This was a golden opportunity for Barry West but again he wasn’t able to capitalise. Making a break of just 15, led to West conceding the match one visit later, making way for a victorious Joe Johnson.
