The 1981 Masters (officially the 1981 Benson & Hedges Masters) was a professional non-Snooker world rankings, ranking snooker tournament that took place from Tuesday 27 January to Sunday 1 February 1981 at the Wembley Conference Centre in London, England. The number of invited players had been raised to 12, which saw Steve Davis make his Masters debut and a rise in prize money. With the increase in the number of players the tournament was extended from 5 days to 6, with a Sunday finish. Alex Higgins reached his fourth consecutive Masters final by defeating Cliff Thorburn 6–5 in the semi-finals, despite having trailed 1–5. There he reversed the result of the 1980 Masters (snooker), 1980 final against Terry Griffiths, who had himself made a dramatic recovery to beat John Spencer (snooker player), John Spencer 6–5 in the semi-finals, after trailing 2–5 and needing two snookers in the eighth frame. Griffiths set a new tournament record break of 136 in the final. The tournament attracted 18,742 spectators in its six days, including a new British tournament record of 2,422 for the final session.

Main draw

Final

Century breaks

Total: 2 * 136 Terry Griffiths * 102 Cliff Thorburn

References

{{Snooker season 1980/1981 Masters (snooker) 1981 in snooker, Masters 1981 sports events in London, Masters (snooker) January 1981 sports events in the United Kingdom, Masters (snooker) February 1981 sports events in the United Kingdom, Masters (snooker)