By Elliott West
Introduction
The 1986 BCE International Open was a professional snooker tournament that took place between the 26th September and the 5th October, 1986. Held at Trentham Gardens in Stoke-on-Trent, this event had a winner’s prize of £35,000. This was the year that Neal Foulds won his only ranking title by beating Cliff Thorburn 12-9 in the final and classically played his father, Geoff Foulds in the last 32, 5-0 in just seventy minutes. Additionally, Peter Francisco beat his Uncle, Silvino Francisco 5-3 in the quarter-finals.
The Tournament
Here is a flavour of some of the matches:
Quarter-Finals
Eugene Hughes beat Steve Davis 5-4
The WPBSA’s tournament regulation which, subject to the tournament director’s discretion, does not permit a frame to be started less than 40 minutes before the scheduled commencement of the next session had a crucial bearing on this match.
At 4-4 the rule was quite properly applied but had the effect of stopping Davis in full flight after he had won the last two frames in 24 minutes with breaks of 74 and 59. It also allowed Hughes four and a half hours to regain his composure for the sudden death decider- by which time Davis’s inspiration had evaporated.
Both players, well aware of the regulation, played to it. Davis, feverishly consulting his watch, was reminiscent of a show jumper engaged in a jump-off against the clock; Hughes prolonging the eighth frame well after he was sure to lose it, was like a team playing possession football as it waited for the final whistle.
None of this should obscure the merit of Hughes’s performance as he matched Davis in six long tactical frames in a manner few had been able to. His 33 clearance gave him the second frame on the black when a 0-2 deficit threatened and he did not allow himself to be disheartened by losing the third on the black from 55-0.
The fourth frame occupied 53 minutes and the fifth 47 but Hughes won both to lead 3-2 and held on from 45-0 to lead 4-2. Then came an abrupt change of tempo. Hughes missed a middle distance red and suddenly Davis was playing as if there was a ten second time limit on every shot. In this manner, the three times world champion levelled at 4-4 but the difference between a continuation of this form and the difficulty of reproducing it ‘cold’ was epitomised in the way he bungled the break-off shot in the deferred ninth frame decider.
Hughes made 27 from this and with 29 led 56-1. Forced the split the remaining reds with a safety shot he gave Davis one last chance but the world number 1, forced to attempt a red striking downwards with power, wobbled it in the corner and did not return to the table after the Irishman’s ensuing visit.
“That was by far the most important frame I’ve ever played”, said Hughes who demonstrated his maturity as a match player not only by the way he played but by the way he composed himself for the late night shoot-out.
Neal Foulds beat Dean Reynolds 5-2
The Londoner’s previous experience of major quarter-finals appeared in his favour on this occasion as Reynolds missed quite a large number of the sort of pots he normally gets.
In what was, on the whole, a nondescript encounter, Foulds led 3-0 but only clinched 4-2 after Reynolds had unluckily gone in-off potting the green in the sixth.
Semi-Finals
Neal Foulds beats Eugene Hughes 9-8
After his 5-4 quarter-final win over Steve Davis, Hughes said: “I’m so high, I can’t give you a sensible answer to anything”.
Such moods invariably produce some reaction even though he needed to miss only a handful of shots to go two frames down, Foulds making breaks of 101 and 57 in this opening phase.
A winning 63 in the third saw Hughes’s touch restored; he took the fourth; and when Foulds missed a tiddler of a red concentrating on gliding the cue-ball off the pack for position on the black, he punished him with 55.
Soon, Hughes led 3-2 and with the last red, the key ball in the sixth, he made it 4-2. When he also led 39-0 in the last frame of the afternoon, a 5-2 lead looked imminent but Foulds responded with 46 and with a few bits and pieces captured the frame to limit his interval deficit to 3-4.
Hughes nevertheless led 5-3 and 6-4 early into the evening session and it was not until 8-7 that Foulds actually regained the lead. The young Londoner had not lost to a player ranked beneath him for two years and was to preserve this record on this occasion, strong evidence of the sound match temperament which underpinned his formidable technique.
Both between 4-6 and 6-6 and 6-7 and 8-7, he was able to raise his game significantly and even when Hughes took the match into the seventeenth frame by levelling at 8-8 with a break of 63, he was just a shade stronger in the decider.
The key to this was the snooker which Foulds left after potting the last red when 23 in front. Hughes not only hit the black but snookered himself again and conceded another four to leave himself needing three snookers.
The Final
Neal Foulds beat Cliff Thorburn 12-9
Not only throughout this match but throughout the tournament, Foulds potted outstandingly well at distance and even this was almost in the lead in the early stages of frames. In thirteen of the Saturday’s fourteen frames he held leads-often big leads-and it was a testimony to Thorburn’s tenacity that the Canadian should actually win five of these frames on the black and in another pink.
The only frame which Thorburn win by a distance was the second, in which he made a break of 102, taking blacks with his first seven reds before coming away voluntarily for the pink.
In the afternoon session, Foulds was three times the odd frame ahead and refused to be demoralised by trailing 4-3 at the interval when he could so easily have been 5-2 or even 6-1 ahead.
With the first two frames of the evening session, Foulds again struck the front at 5-4 but somewhat impetuously to double the third last red in the tenth and had to sit out Thorburn’s 48 clearance.
Two frames later, Foulds made a break of 66 to go 43 in front with only two reds remaining but the great escapologist wriggled free again as a snooker, a free-ball and a 41 clearance gave Thorburn 6-6.
The penultimate frame of the day was another disaster from the young Londoner’s point of view as he lost it from 40 in front, Thorburn extracting 20 in penalties on the last red and taking it on the black.
After so many disappointments, Foulds did well to compile 64 to assure him of 7-7 overnight. Thorburn led 52-0 in the first frame on the second and final afternoon but in a dramatic reversal of the previous day’s pattern. Foulds snatched it with 60 to the pink.
Somewhat reminiscent of his disappointing final session against Willie Thorne in the Mercantile Credit Classic. Thorburn started to struggle as he fell two behind at 7-9 and did not play really any better in the following frame, although he won it.
At this point he requested the fifteen minutes time out, which was permitted by the WPBSA tournament regulations, to change his tip. By agreement with Foulds, this replaced the mid-session interval scheduled after the fourth frame.
“The tip was shiny and hard. I should have changed it the day before the match”
Cliff Thorburn
On the other hand, few professionals would have chosen to play with a tip which had not received at least two or three days’ wear and for two frames Thorburn was dreadfully out of touch.
Foulds, feeling the pressure as he neared the finishing tape for his first major title, was also missing a few but did enough to go three up with four to play at 11-8.
Thorburn started to regain some form as he won the next frame with breaks of 37 and 56 but Foulds, still potting reliably even if some of his touch had gone, got home on the blue, with pink for good measure, to clinch victory at 12-9.
Summary
Neal Foulds was a very good amateur and professional player. Perhaps he should have won more than one professional title but least he dug deep into tournaments and this title was the pinnacle of his efforts. The presentation ceremony was very touching, especially when his father Geoff ran onto the stage to congratulate his son.
