By Elliott West
Introduction
The Masters in snooker is one of the jewels of the baize crown. Now an instituted part of the annual snooker calendar, the event is one of the Triple Crown events. Held in multiple locations over the years, in places like Wembley Conference Centre and now Alexandra Palace, the tournament was first played as a non-ranking in the week of 13-17 January, 1975 at the West Centre Hotel in London.
The Tournament
The first Masters was an invitational event with ten players taking part. With a total prize fund of £6,092, the overall winner could look forward to a cheque of £2,000. With the likes of Fred Davis, Alex Higgins, Cliff Thorburn and Ray Reardon all taking part, this was a tournament that showcased the cream of the crop in this era. Ironically in all the matches played at the West Centre Hotel, there wasn’t a single century break with the closest being John Spencer’s break of 92 in the first frame of the final. With a format of a best of nine frames in all matches apart from the final where it was the best of seventeen frames, ten players were whittled down to two in the final. The best of the week being Ray Reardon and John Spencer. In a close final, Spencer stole the match, 9-8 on a re-spotted black.
The Draw
Round 1 ( Best of 9 frames)
Alex Higgins v Bill Werbeniuk 5-0
John Pulman v Cliff Thorburn 5-3
Quarter-Finals (Best of 9 frames)
Ray Reardon v Graham Miles 5-3
Rex Williams v Alex Higgins 5-3
Fred Davis v Eddie Charlton 3-5
John Spencer v John Pulman 5-3
Semi-Finals (Best of 9 frames)
Ray Reardon v Rex Williams 5-4
Eddie Charlton v John Spencer 2-5
Final (Best of 17 frames)
John Spencer v Ray Reardon 9-8
First session: 121-13 (92), 52-81, 63-57, 59-68, (Spencer 57), 67-51, 22-77, 82-22 (70), 16-96
Second session: 46-63, 68-20, 50-72, 68-40, 57-63, 22-82, 53-3, 64-25, 65-58 Highest Break: John Spencer: 92 with three 50+ breaks in the match
Summary
The Masters has always been recognised as a very special event as it brings together the snooker elite. Back in 1975, there were far fewer professional players and so this first Masters fused together many of the established players. In the end, the tournament produced the two best players of the early 1970s in the final. John Spencer and Ray Reardon had a long rivalry with Reardon outstripping Spencer in tournament wins but on this occasion, it was John that had the upper hand.
