Chris Turner’s SNOOKER ARCHIVE

Masters (Seniors) Snooker (over 40s)

Brief History of Seniors Snooker

The first ever World Championship for senior players was held in 1991. Sixteen over 40s gathered at Trentham Gardens in Stoke-on-Trent most of whom were still actively playing on the main circuit and indeed it was two of the three highest ranked players who fought out the final with Cliff Wilson edging Eddie Charlton 5-4.

That event was never repeated but in 2000 there was a serious attempt to establish a Senior’s Tour. One event was held, the World Seniors Masters at the RAC Club in London but plans for a World Championship ended when neither sponsorship nor television coverage could be secured.

In the non-professional game a European Seniors event began running in conjunction with the Men’s European Championship in 2000 and in 2004 the IBSF added a seniors’ event at their world championship, the first two of which was won by New Zealand’s former world number 18, Dene O’Kane. In 2006 the event was re-named the IBSF Masters World Championship and the EBSA followed suit. A European Masters Team Championship began in 2004. The IBSF held their first World Team Championship for Seniors in 2006 but to date it had not been repeated

© Chris Turner

October 2006

World Professional Seniors Championship.

Year	Venue	Winner		Runner Up		Score
1991	Trentham Gardens, Stoke on Trent	Cliff Wilson	WAL	Eddie Charlton	AUS	5-4

World Seniors Masters.

Year	Venue	Winner		Runner Up		Score
2000	RAC Club, London	Willie Thorne	ENG	Cliff Thorburn	CAN	84-8*
	* Single frame event

IBSF World Masters Championship.

Year	Venue	Winner		Runner Up		Score
2004	Veldhoven, Netherlands	Dene O’Kane	NZL	Eugene Hughes	IRL	5-2
2005	Manama, Bahrain	Dene O’Kane	NZL	Joe Delaney	IRL	5-4
2006	Amman, Jordan	Mohammed Yousuf	PAK	Glen Wilkinson	AUS	5-4
2007	Korat, Thailand	Darren Morgan	WAL	Karnchai Wongjan	THA	5-1
2008	Wels, Austria	Dene O’Kane	NZL	Geet Sethi	IND	5-1

IBSF World Masters Team Championship.

Year	Venue	Winner	Runner Up	Score
2006	San Jose, California, USA	England	India ‘A’	5-2

EBSA European Masters Championship.

Year	Venue	Winner		Runner Up		Score
2000	Sterling, Scotland	Joe Delaney	IRL	John Caven	SCO	5-2
2001	Riga, Latvia	Eugene Hughes	IRL	Joe Delaney	IRL	6-3
2002	Kalisz, Poland	Ron Jones	WAL	Eugene Hughes	IRL	6-1
2003	Bad Wildungen, Germany	Ron Jones	WAL	Joe Delaney	IRL	6-4
2004	Volkermarkt, Austria	Alan Trigg	ENG	Ron Jones	WAL	6-4
2005	Ostrow Wielkopolski, Poland	Michael Maguire	SCO	Eugene Hughes	IRL	6-2
2006	Constanta, Romania	Jyri Virtanen	FIN	Kimmo Lang	FIN	6-4
2007	Carlow, Ireland	Darren Morgan	WAL	Kieran McMahon	NIR	6-2
2008	Lublin, Poland