By Elliott West
“I was just glad to get over the finishing line but it was worth waiting for. I had a great start to lead 3-0 but John was so difficult to shake off and I really thought he would clear up in the decider”.
Nigel Bond
Introduction
With the recent announcement by World Snooker that the British Open is to return to next year’s snooker calendar after a 17 year absence, it is only fitting to cast our minds back to one of those classic tournaments. The 1996 event was so special because the final went down to the wire and produced a surprise winner, claiming his first and only ranking career title.
Held at the legendary Plymouth Pavilions, the British Open was staged between 1-8 April, 1996 and had a total prize fund of £321,400 with a winner’s share of £60,000. The defending champion was John Higgins who had defeated Ronnie O’Sullivan 9-6 the previous year.
Plymouth Promise
The Tournament
Round One (The last 64)
Stephen Hendry managed to shake the monkey off his back when he played Terry Murphy for the second time in the space of three weeks. Prior to this tournament, Stephen had played the Irishman at the Thailand Open in Bangkok and had struggled to beat Murphy 5-4 in the first round. However, perhaps the sea air of Plymouth reinvigorated the Scot because when he came to play Terry for the second time, Hendry produced a series of breaks to hammer Murphy.
Two breaks of 62 in the first frame, followed by an 80 in the second frame by Hendry, produced the momentum that he needed to win the match in 86 minutes. The only mistake he made was missing an easy green in the third frame and then it was plain sailing for the ‘Golden Bairn’, thanks to successive breaks of 82, 84 and 60 in 30 minutes to win the match 5-1.
The shock defeat of the first round had to be Mark Johnson-Allen’s crushing victory against the then No.2, Steve Davis. Mark had some form in beating top players and had already defeated Hendry and White in previous seasons. However, he had never played Steve Davis before. Breaks of 69, 49, and 40 helped him on the way to producing a crushing blow to his opponent and despite nerves and lack of sleep, he hammered home a 5-2 victory. A bitter disappointment for Davis who had won this title on two previous occasions.
There were also wins for Mike Hallett, who overcame Brian Morgan 5-2 and produced his first-century break of the season of 110 and only his second in two years. Not bad going seeing as he had to be given special permission to play due to suffering the after-effects of chicken pox and Darren Morgan, fresh from his Irish Masters’ victory, made the journey just in time from Dublin to Plymouth to carve out a 5-2 victory against Stefan Mazrocis.
Jimmy White beat the then promising teenager, Matthew Stevens 5-3 John Higgins waltzed past Jamie Burnett 5-1, Andy Hicks produced a 139 break on his way to beating Chris Scanlon 5-1 and Mark Bennett whitewashed Tony Drago 5-0. Not bad going, seeing as Bennett had been tied up working in his betting shop in Newport and had only played one frame of snooker since losing to Anthony Hamilton at the International Open at Swindon that February. The best recovery though had to come from Graeme Dott who in his match against Willie Thorne, trailed by four frames and won five consecutive frames to win 5-4.
Round Two
John Higgins, who had been suffering from a stomach bug, did well to get past Jason Ferguson. John lost the first frame but came back with breaks of 69 and 71 to lead 2-1. An undeterred Ferguson saved the fourth frame on the black and went on to lead 3-2 and 4-3. All square at 4-4, John then compiled a 58 break to win the match 5-4 in a decider.
Alan McManus booked his place in the third round by winning the last three frames of his match against Steve James. The Scot who created a break of 74 in the second frame, fought back after going 4-2 down to James, producing breaks of 56 and 69 before winning a 36-minute deciding frame 39-16 and his opponent throwing in the towel when the green was over the pocket. A close match but Alan got the better of his opponent and squeaked through 5-4.
Wins also came for Stephen Hendry, beating Joe Swail 5-1 in 114 minutes, Ken Doherty stopped the rot in his match against the local hero, Andy Hicks. Ken had knocked in a 120 break to lead 2-1 but then lost the next three frames but won the decider with a 50 break. Dennis Taylor came so close to winning his match against Peter Ebdon and forced a deciding frame after a four-hour epic battle. A match where Dennis was 4-2 down at one stage and almost won with breaks of 98, 690, 52, and 47. Taylor was bitterly disappointed after the match, accusing Ebdon of not playing well and accusing him of winning the match due to the number of flukes he produced.
Jimmy White’s hopes of staying in the top 16, hung by a thread after his 5-3 defeat to Fergal O’Brien. White had led the match 2-1 but then wasn’t able to bat off the barrage of breaks that his opponent produced. Breaks of 65, 60, 61 and 78, produced a 5-3 win for the Irishman. Wins also came for Mark Williams with a 5-1 victory over Neal Foulds, Stephen Lee beat Mike Hallett 5-3 and Mark Bennett whitewashed Gary Wilkinson.
The shock of the round came with Tony Knowles defeating James Wattana 5-4. Knowles led 2-0 and then Wattana pulled back 3-2. The match then went 3-3, thanks to a 119 break by Tony. James then got in front with a 115 break, but Knowles returned again with breaks of 46 and 49 to force a decider.
Wattana went ahead in the last frame with a break of 39 but missed a red to the middle pocket and Knowles getting back in, fluked the black to win the 92-minute encounter 5-4.
Round Three
The talk of Plymouth in this round, was Stephen Hendry crashing out to Nigel Bond 5-4 and his opponent denying him a place in the quarter-finals. Bond didn’t have a good track record against the Scot and in their head-to-head over seven years, Stephen had won ten of the eleven encounters including an 18-9 thrashing in the Embassy World Championship. Hendry missed a black in the decider and allowed Bond to steal the frame and match with a 59 break.
There were also wins for John Higgins who beat Stephen Lee 5-3, a 5-0 whitewash of Tony Knowles by Mark Williams, Ronnie O’Sullivan defeated Ken Doherty 5-3, Fergal O’Brien was beaten 5-1 by Darren Morgan, Peter Ebdon defeated Alan McManus 5-1 with breaks of 126, 91, 65 and 60, and Dave Harold beat Mark Johnson-Allen 5-2.
Quarter-Finals
John Higgins was in trouble when John Parrott led 2-0 and even equalled Andy Hicks’ highest break of 139. John went ahead in the third frame but lost his concentration, taking his eye off the ball and allowing an 82-clearance by his opponent. This was followed by an 84 break by Higgins to draw level. He then made breaks of 48, 47, 37, and 31 to win the match 5-2 and progress to the semi-finals.
Nigel Bond also carried on his winning streak with a 5-3 victory over Peter Ebdon. Peter had led the match 2-0 with breaks of 60 and 72 and was 45-4 ahead in the third frame but lost on the black. Bond then went 4-2 ahead and despite Ebdon saving the seventh frame, he didn’t pot a ball in the eighth frame. Wins also came for Dave Harold, disposing of Darren Morgan 5-1 in 137 minutes while Ronnie O’Sullivan beat Mark Williams 5-3 including a moment in the match when Ronnie bit his tip off his cue going into the interval.
Semi-Finals
Nigel Bond booked his place in the final with a 6-5 victory over Dave Harold. This was a welcome return to form for Nigel and put to bed the three out of the four first-round exits he had previously displayed in major tournaments that season. Both players were never separated by more than a frame and in the end, Bond had to scrap it out against the gritty Harold. Both players wanted to reach the final but only one could make it through. Elsewhere, Ronnie O’Sullivan lost 4-6 to John Higgins with Higgins ruling the roost after the interval, winning four of the six frames with breaks of 106, 80, 73, and 68.
The Final
Nigel Bond was impressive in his bout against John Higgins in the British Open final. By denying Higgins the title on the final black, Bond prevented John from overtaking Stephen Hendry in the provisional ranking and stealing the Scot’s crown. Bond managed to shake off the defiant champion and stopped the rot after Bind initially led the match 3-0. A win that defied his previous track record and produced winning form at just the right moment. A scintillating 9-8 victory and one of those finals that will always be labelled in the snooker annals as a classic.
