The 1997 Masters (officially the 1997 Benson & Hedges Masters) was a professional non-

ranking A ranking is a relationship between a set of items such that, for any two items, the first is either "ranked higher than", "ranked lower than" or "ranked equal to" the second. In mathematics, this is known as a weak order or total preorder of o ...

snooker Snooker (pronounced , ) is a cue sports, cue sport played on a Billiard table#Snooker and English billiards tables, rectangular table covered with a green cloth called baize, with six Billiard table#Pockets 2, pockets, one at each corner and o ...

tournament that took place between 2 and 9 February 1997 at the

Wembley Conference Centre Wembley Conference Centre was a conference centre in Wembley Park, London, England, that existed from 1977 to 2006, located next to Wembley Arena. History In the later 1970s, modern multi-purpose halls began opening in British towns and cities. ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

Steve Davis Steve Davis (born 22 August 1957) is an English retired professional snooker player who is currently a Sports commentator, commentator, musician, DJ, and author. He is best known for dominating professional snooker during the 1980s, when he rea ...

won his third Masters title, nine years after his last win in

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Australian ...

, by defeating

Ronnie O'Sullivan Ronald Antonio O'Sullivan (born 5 December 1975) is an English professional snooker player who is the current world champion and world number one. Widely recognised as one of the most talented and accomplished players in the sport's history, ...

in the final. O'Sullivan, who was playing in his third consecutive Masters final, took an 8–4 lead before Davis came back to win six successive frames and clinch the title with a 10–8 victory. The final was notable for featuring snooker's first ever streaker, 22-year-old secretary Lianne Crofts, who invaded the playing area at the beginning of the third frame. After stewards removed her from the arena, O'Sullivan amused the crowd by comically wiping the brow of veteran referee John Street, who was refereeing his final match of his career. The wild-card players included

Paul Hunter Paul Alan Hunter (14 October 1978 – 9 October 2006) was an English professional snooker player. He was a three-time Masters champion, winning the event in 2001, 2002, and 2004, recovering from a deficit in the final to win 10–9 on a ...

, who would later go on to win 3 Masters titles in 4 years between 2001 and 2004. The highest break of the tournament was 130 made by Steve Davis.

Field

Stephen Hendry Stephen Gordon Hendry (born 13 January 1969) is a Scottish professional snooker player who dominated the sport during the 1990s, becoming one of the most successful players in its history. After turning professional in 1985 at age 16, Hendry ...

, defending champion and

World Champion A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

was the number 1 seed. Places were allocated to the top 16 players in the world rankings. Players seeded 15 and 16 played in the wild-card round against the winner of the

qualifying event The Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985 (COBRA) is a law passed by the U.S. Congress on a reconciliation basis and signed by President Ronald Reagan that, among other things, mandates an insurance program which gives some em ...

, Brian Morgan (ranked 49), and

(ranked 78), who was the wild-card selection. Paul Hunter and Brian Morgan were making their debuts in the Masters.

Prize fund

The breakdown of prize money for this year is shown below: * Winner: £135,000 * Runner-up: £70,000 * High Break Prize: £15,000

Wild-card round

In the preliminary round, the qualifier and wild-card players played the 15th and 16th seeds:

Main draw

Final

Qualifying

Brian Morgan won the qualifying tournament, known as the 1996 Benson & Hedges Championship at the time.

Century breaks

Total: 10 * 130

* 121, 116, 113, 108

* 115 Mark Williams * 109

Nigel Bond Nigel Bond (born 15 November 1965) is an English former professional snooker player. Bond competed on the main tour from 1989 to 2022, and was ranked within the world's top 16 players between 1992 and 1999, peaking at 5th for the 1996–97 s ...

* 109

Peter Ebdon Peter David Ebdon (born 27 August 1970) is an English former snooker player. The winner of the 2002 World Snooker Championship, Ebdon won nine world ranking events, placing twelfth on the all-time list of ranking tournament winners. In addit ...

* 108 Brian Morgan * 104

Ken Doherty Ken Doherty (born 17 September 1969) is an Irish professional snooker player, commentator and radio presenter. As an amateur, Doherty won the Irish Amateur Championship twice, the World Under-21 Amateur Championship and the World Amateur C ...

Brian Morgan's century was scored in the wild-card round.

References

{{Snooker season 1996/1997 Masters (snooker)

Masters (snooker) The Masters is a professional invitational snooker tournament. Held every year since 1975, it is the second-longest running tournament behind the World Championship. It is one of the three Triple Crown events, and although not a ranking event, ...

February 1997 sports events in the United Kingdom