strachan

Strachan Open	Strachan Challenges
World Ranking Event	Minor Ranking & Non Ranking

Brief History

The Strachan Open was a one-off ranking event held in March 1992 and sponsored by the well known billiard table cloth company. It carried a slightly lower points tariff and a considerably lower prize fund than the main ranking events and as such was boycotted by several of the top players.

The final stages were played at the Thornbury Leisure Centre near Bristol. Peter Ebdon made a maximum in the qualifying rounds but it was Thailand’s James Wattana who achieved his first ranking win with a victory over John Parrott in the final.

The event was not repeated but the following season, in an effort to encourage some of the hundreds of new professionals who had joined the tour, the WPBSA experimented with several so-called minor ranking events. These were open to all the pros but carried a much lower ranking points tariff, some ten per cent of that applicable to most of the other tournaments. The already established Benson and Hedges Championship was one of the four events concerned and the others were three legs of the Strachan Challenge. Although there was no restriction as to who could enter, most of the top 16 did not bother. They were played out at snooker clubs, the first and the third at Aldershot and the second in Sheffield. The experiment was not repeated although there were two further Challenge events the following season which did not carry any ranking status.

Strachan Open

Season	Venue	Sponsor	Winner	Runner Up	Score	1st Prize
1991/92	Thornbury Leisure Centre	Strachan	James Wattana	John Parrott	9-5	£12,500

Maximum Breaks

Qualifying Rounds
Peter Ebdon	1991/92	Prelim. Qual Rd 1 v Wayne Martin

Strachan Challenge Minor Ranking events in 1992/3.WPBSA Non-Ranking events in 1993/4

Season	Venue	Event	Winner	Runner Up	Score	1st Prize
1992/93	Jimmy White Snooker Lodge, Aldershot	Strachan Challenge 1st Leg	Joe Swail	Stefan Mazrocis	9-4	£3,000
1992/93	Radion Plaxa Club, Sheffield	Strachan Challenge 2nd Leg	Troy Shaw	Nigel Bond	9-4	£3,000
1992/93	Jimmy White Snooker Lodge, Aldershot	Strachan Challenge 3rd Leg	Tony Drago	Ken Doherty	9-7	£3,000
1993/94	Jimmy White Snooker Lodge, Aldershot	Strachan Challenge 1st Leg	Anthony Hamilton	Andy Hicks	9-4	£5,000
1993/94	Willie Thorne Snooker Centre, Leicester	Strachan Challenge 2nd Leg	Anthony Hamilton	Paul Davies	9-4	£5,000