1985 World Cup (snooker)

The 1985 Snooker World Cup sponsored by Guinness was a team snooker tournament with a revamped format. Gone was the round-robin system which had been in place since the first one in 1979 and the tournament was now a knock-out format with eight teams. It moved from October to March as the new Grand Prix tournament now took its old slot in the snooker calendar which was also played at the previous venue, the Hexagon Theatre in Reading. Guinness became the first of many sponsors for the next few years after British American Tobacco, under its trade name State Express, pulled out of all sport sponsorship in Great Britain. This new competition was now played at the new Bournemouth International Centre.

Guinness World Cup
Tournament information
Dates20–23 March 1985 (1985-03-20 – 1985-03-23)
VenueBournemouth International Centre
CityBournemouth
CountryEngland
FormatNon-ranking event
Total prize fund£125,000
Winner's share£40,000
Highest break97 Tony Knowles
Final
ChampionNorthern Ireland Republic of Ireland All Ireland
Runner-upEngland England "A"
Score9–7
1983
1986

England now played in two teams, with the defending champions competing as "England A" with the same players (Steve Davis, Tony Knowles and Tony Meo) while Jimmy White, Willie Thorne and John Spencer competed as "England B". The two Irish jurisdictions competed as "All-Ireland" and, for the first time since 1980, a "Rest of the World" team played with Silvino Francisco, Dene O'Kane and American pool player Jim Rempe (who also competed in 1980). Eventually, All-Ireland won the title, beating "England A" in a 17-frame final.

Main draw

edit

Teams

edit
Country Player 1 (Captain) Player 2 Player 3
  England "A" Steve Davis Tony Knowles Tony Meo
  Wales Ray Reardon Terry Griffiths Doug Mountjoy
  England "B" Jimmy White Willie Thorne John Spencer
    All-Ireland Alex Higgins Dennis Taylor Eugene Hughes
  Canada Cliff Thorburn Kirk Stevens Bill Werbeniuk
  Australia Eddie Charlton John Campbell Warren King
  Scotland Eddie Sinclair Murdo MacLeod Jim Donnelly
Rest of the World   Silvino Francisco   Dene O'Kane   Jim Rempe
Quarter-finals
Best of 9 Frames
Semi-finals
Best of 9 Frames
Final
Best of 17 Frames
  England "A" 5
  Scotland 4   England "A" 5
  England "B" 5   England "B" 2
  Rest of the World 2   England "A" 7
  Canada 2     All-Ireland 9
    All-Ireland 5     All-Ireland 5
  Australia 4   Wales 3
  Wales 5

Final

edit
Final: Best of 17 frames. Referee: John Street
Bournemouth International Centre, Bournemouth, England. 23 March 1985.
    All-Ireland
Dennis Taylor, Alex Higgins, Eugene Hughes
9–7   England "A"
Steve Davis, Tony Knowles, Tony Meo
Afternoon: Dennis Taylor v Tony Knowles: 1–1 (37-75, 65-64) – Match Score: 1–1
Eugene Hughes v Steve Davis: 0–2 (27-96, 26-68) – Match Score: 1–3
Alex Higgins v Tony Meo: 1–1 (48-60, 78-26) – Match Score: 2–4
Dennis Taylor v Tony Knowles: 1–1 (81-18, 1-74) – Match Score: 3–5

Evening: Dennis Taylor v Steve Davis: 1–1 (66–52, 1–82) – Match Score: 4–6
Eugene Hughes v Tony Knowles: 1–1 (102-29, 18-99) – Match Score: 5–7
Alex Higgins v Tony Meo: 2–0 (104-54, 82-23) – Match Score: 7–7
Alex Higgins v Steve Davis: 2–0 (109-1, 73-31) – Match Score: 9–7

Highest break
Century breaks
50+ breaks

References

edit