The 2000 Seniors Masters

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Long before the World Seniors tour was created, a tournament took place in 2000 that could be seen as the trailblazer for the future tour. Called the World Seniors Masters, it was held at the RAC Club in London and was the brainchild of two businessmen, Peter Bainbridge and Ralph Holt. Designed as a Pot Black style tournament, former professional players were invited to take part with a total of £25,000 on offer, divided into £10,000 for the winner, £7,500 for the runner up and £3,750 for the losing semi-finalists. The winner received an antique gilded claret jug that was retained by the winner  during his year as titleholder. The event ran between 27-28 May, 2000.

The event was invitational with 15 players finally taking part after Terry Griffiths and John Spencer were unable to take part With support from Willie Thorne, the tournament was streamed on the internet and Willie beat Cliff Thorburn in the final 1-0. Years later Thorne said of the Masters :

“When I won the Seniors Masters, it was played at the RAC Club in Pall Mall with a black-tie audience. They really did it nicely, but unfortunately it never really got off the ground.”

The main reason that this event was so important in the history of Seniors snooker is that it acted as a template for the future. Prior to this tournament taking place, Seniors events were very thin on the ground and players over the age of 40, relied on sporadic tournaments. It wasn’t until 1991 that Matchroom organised the vey first Seniors World Championship, won by Cliff Wilson  and of course subsequent to the Seniors Masters in 2000, five further events were supposed to follow but never materialised. It wasn’t until 2010 that the WPSA formed the World Seniors Championship that ran until 2016. Of course the rest is history with the Snooker Legends events born in 2009 and out of that came the World Seniors tour in 2017.

SENIOR MASTERS INVITATIONAL 
Royal Automobile Club, Pall Mall, London 
May 26th to 28th 2000 
(EVENT FORMAT: One frame sudden-death shoot-outs) 

FINAL 
Willie Thorne beat Cliff Thorburn 84-8 

SEMI FINALS 
Cliff Thorburn beat Jim Wych 63-14 
Willie Thorne beat David Taylor 81-24 

QUARTER FINALS 
Jim Wych beat Eddie Charlton 63-11 
Cliff Thorburn beat Mike Hallett 59-57 
David Taylor beat Graham Miles 75-13 
Willie Thorne beat Rex Williams 68-65 

FIRST ROUND 
Jim Wych beat Perrie Mans 85-13 
Eddie Charlton beat Tony Knowles 60-3 
Mike Hallett beat Kirk Stevens 64-34 
Cliff Thorburn beat Doug Mountjoy 70-1 
Graham Miles beat Ray Reardon 69-46 
David Taylor BYE 
Rex Williams beat John Virgo 54-31 
Willie Thorne beat Joe Johnson 75-31 



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