View source for 1987 Masters (snooker)

{{short description|Professional non-ranking snooker tournament, Jan/Feb 1987}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Blacklisted-links|1=
*http://www.cuetracker.net/Tournaments/Masters/1987/01
*:''Triggered by <code>\bcuetracker\.net\b</code> on the local blacklist''|bot=Cyberbot II|invisible=false}}
{{Infobox individual snooker tournament
|tournament_name=1987 [[Benson & Hedges]] [[Masters (snooker)|Masters]]
|dates={{Start and end dates|1987|01|25|1987|02|1|df=y}}
|venue=[[Wembley Conference Centre]]
|location=London
|country=England
|organisation=[[World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association|WPBSA]]
|format=Non-[[Snooker world rankings|ranking]] event
|Total prize fund=£200,000
|winners_share=£51,000
|highest_break= {{flagathlete|[[Jimmy White]]|ENG}} (136)
|winner={{flagathlete|[[Dennis Taylor]]|NIR}}
|runner_up={{flagathlete|[[Alex Higgins]]|NIR}}
|score=9–8
|previous=[[1986 Masters (snooker)|1986]]
|next=[[1988 Masters (snooker)|1988]]
}}
The '''1987 Masters''' (officially the '''1987 Benson & Hedges Masters''') was a professional non-[[Snooker world rankings|ranking]] [[snooker]] tournament that took place between 25 January and 1 February 1987 at the [[Wembley Conference Centre]] in London, England.

[[Alex Higgins]] dominated the tournament. He defeated [[Terry Griffiths]] in the first round 5–4, after being 2–4 down, and won the match before his fans invaded the Wembley Conference Centre to greet him similar to his [[1985 Masters (snooker)|1985]] match with Steve Davis in the same round. He then cruised past World Champion [[Joe Johnson (snooker player)|Joe Johnson]] and [[Tony Meo]] before facing fellow Irishman [[Dennis Taylor]] in the final, which turned out to be a late night finish. Higgins led 8–5 by the evening session, but Taylor won the last 4 frames to win his only Masters title and his first major title since beating [[Steve Davis]] in the [[1985 World Snooker Championship|1985 World Championship]].

This was the first, and to date only, major final to feature 2 players from Northern Ireland. It also stood as the last time a player from Northern Ireland had won a Triple Crown title for over 30 years until [[Mark Allen (snooker player)|Mark Allen's]] victory in the [[2018 Masters (snooker)|2018 Masters.]]

Also in the 1987 Masters, [[Ray Reardon]] made his last appearance in the competition, when he played Joe Johnson. [[Cliff Thorburn]] failed to make it three Masters titles in row, when he lost 5–6 to Dennis Taylor in the semi-final. The highest break of the tournament was 136 made by [[Jimmy White]].

==Field==
[[1986 Masters (snooker)|Defending champion]] [[Cliff Thorburn]] was the number 1 seed with [[1987 World Snooker Championship|World Champion]] [[Joe Johnson (snooker player)|Joe Johnson]] seeded 2. The remaining places were allocated to players based on the [[Snooker world rankings 1986/1987|world rankings]]. [[Neal Foulds]] was making his debut in the Masters.

==Main draw==
<ref>{{cite web|title=1987 Masters Results|url=http://snookerdatabase.co.uk/EventResults.aspx?EventKey=85|publisher=Snooker Database|accessdate=5 May 2011|archive-date=7 October 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111007103429/http://www.snookerdatabase.co.uk/EventResults.aspx?EventKey=85|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=The Masters|url=http://www.snookerscene.co.uk/page.php?id=60|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130124071627/http://www.snookerscene.co.uk/page.php?id=60|archivedate=24 January 2013|publisher=Snooker Scene|accessdate=8 August 2012}}</ref>
{{16TeamBracket
| seed-width  =
| team-width  = 180
| score-width =
| RD1= Last 16 <br />Best of 9 frames
| RD2= Quarter-finals <br />Best of 9 frames
| RD3= Semi-finals <br />Best of 11 frames
| RD4= Final <br />Best of 17 frames
| RD1-seed01=1
| RD1-team01='''{{flagathlete|[[Cliff Thorburn]]|CAN}}'''
| RD1-score01='''5'''
| RD1-seed02=16
| RD1-team02={{flagathlete|[[Rex Williams]]|ENG}}
| RD1-score02=1
| RD1-seed03=8
| RD1-team03='''{{flagathlete|[[Willie Thorne]]|ENG}}'''
| RD1-score03='''5'''
| RD1-seed04=9
| RD1-team04={{flagathlete|[[Kirk Stevens]]|CAN}}
| RD1-score04=3
| RD1-seed05=5
| RD1-team05={{flagathlete|[[Tony Knowles (snooker player)|Tony Knowles]]|ENG}}
| RD1-score05=2
| RD1-seed06=12
| RD1-team06={{flagathlete|'''[[Silvino Francisco]]|RSA|1982}}'''
| RD1-score06='''5'''
| RD1-seed07=4
| RD1-team07='''{{flagathlete|[[Dennis Taylor]]|NIR}}'''
| RD1-score07='''5'''
| RD1-seed08=13
| RD1-team08={{flagathlete|[[Neal Foulds]]|ENG}}
| RD1-score08=2
| RD1-seed09=3
| RD1-team09={{flagathlete|[[Steve Davis]]|ENG}}
| RD1-score09=2
| RD1-seed10=14
| RD1-team10='''{{flagathlete|[[Doug Mountjoy]]|WAL}}'''
| RD1-score10='''5'''
| RD1-seed11=6
| RD1-team11={{flagathlete|[[Jimmy White]]|ENG}}
| RD1-score11=4
| RD1-seed12=11
| RD1-team12='''{{flagathlete|[[Tony Meo]]|ENG}}'''
| RD1-score12='''5'''
| RD1-seed13=7
| RD1-team13='''{{flagathlete|[[Alex Higgins]]|NIR}}'''
| RD1-score13='''5'''
| RD1-seed14=10
| RD1-team14={{flagathlete|[[Terry Griffiths]]|WAL}}
| RD1-score14=4
| RD1-seed15=2
| RD1-team15='''{{flagathlete|[[Joe Johnson (snooker player)|Joe Johnson]]|ENG}}'''
| RD1-score15='''5'''
| RD1-seed16=15
| RD1-team16={{flagathlete|[[Ray Reardon]]|WAL}}
| RD1-score16=2
| RD2-seed01=1
| RD2-team01={{flagicon|CAN}} '''[[Cliff Thorburn]]'''
| RD2-score01='''5'''
| RD2-seed02=8
| RD2-team02={{flagicon|ENG}} [[Willie Thorne]]
| RD2-score02=3
| RD2-seed03=12
| RD2-team03={{flagicon|RSA|1982}} [[Silvino Francisco]]
| RD2-score03=3
| RD2-seed04=4
| RD2-team04={{flagicon|NIR}} '''[[Dennis Taylor]]'''
| RD2-score04='''5'''
| RD2-seed05=14
| RD2-team05={{flagicon|WAL}} [[Doug Mountjoy]]
| RD2-score05=4
| RD2-seed06=11
| RD2-team06={{flagicon|ENG}} '''[[Tony Meo]]'''
| RD2-score06='''5'''
| RD2-seed07=7
| RD2-team07={{flagicon|NIR}} '''[[Alex Higgins]]'''
| RD2-score07='''5'''
| RD2-seed08=2
| RD2-team08={{flagicon|ENG}} [[Joe Johnson (snooker player)|Joe Johnson]]
| RD2-score08=1
| RD3-seed01=1
| RD3-team01={{flagicon|CAN}} [[Cliff Thorburn]]
| RD3-score01=5
| RD3-seed02=4
| RD3-team02={{flagicon|NIR}} '''[[Dennis Taylor]]'''
| RD3-score02='''6'''
| RD3-seed03=11
| RD3-team03={{flagicon|ENG}} [[Tony Meo]]
| RD3-score03=2
| RD3-seed04=7
| RD3-team04={{flagicon|NIR}} '''[[Alex Higgins]]'''
| RD3-score04='''6'''
| RD4-seed01=4
| RD4-team01={{flagicon|NIR}} '''[[Dennis Taylor]]'''
| RD4-score01='''9'''
| RD4-seed02=7
| RD4-team02={{flagicon|NIR}} [[Alex Higgins]]
| RD4-score02=8
}}

==Final==
{| class="wikitable" style="font-size: 95%; margin: 1em auto 1em auto;"
|-
| colspan="3" align="center" bgcolor="#ffd700" | '''Final:''' Best of 17 frames. Referee: [[John Smyth (snooker referee)|John Smyth]]<br />[[Wembley Conference Centre]], [[London]], [[England]], 1 February 1987.
|-
| width="230" align="right" | '''[[Dennis Taylor]]'''<br />{{NIR}}
| width="100" align="center" | '''9'''–8
| width="230" | [[Alex Higgins]]<br />{{NIR}}
|-
| colspan="3" align="center" style="font-size: 100%" | ''First session:'' '''63'''–37, 16–'''89''' (56), 49–'''69''', '''89'''–41, '''69'''–33 (65), 48–'''74''', '''73'''–11, '''60'''–40 (60), 22–'''66''', '''53'''–30, 0–'''113''' (98), 63–'''77''', 25–'''92''' (88), '''61'''–50, '''118'''–9 (74), '''50'''–40, '''82'''–0
|-
| align="right" | 74
| align="center" | Highest break
| '''98'''
|-
| align="right" | ''0''
| align="center" | Century breaks
| ''0''
|-
| align="right" | ''3''
| align="center" | 50+ breaks
| ''3''
|}

==Century breaks==
Total: 7<ref>{{cite web|title=1987 Masters|url=http://www.cuetracker.net/Tournaments/Masters/1987/01|publisher=CueTracker - Snooker Results and Statistics Database|accessdate=19 January 2015}}</ref>
* 136 {{ndash}} [[Jimmy White]]
* 111, 106, 105, 101 {{ndash}} [[Dennis Taylor]]
* 108 {{ndash}} [[Alex Higgins]]
* 101 {{ndash}} [[Tony Meo]]

== References ==
{{reflist}}

{{Masters (snooker)}}
{{Snooker season 1986/1987}}

[[Category:Masters (snooker)]]
[[Category:1987 in snooker|Masters Snooker]]
[[Category:1987 sports events in London|Masters Snooker]]
[[Category:1987 in English sport|Masters (snooker)]]
[[Category:January 1987 sports events in the United Kingdom|Masters Snooker]]
[[Category:February 1987 sports events in the United Kingdom|Masters Snooker]]