Australian Goldfields Open

Australian Goldfields Open
Tournament information
Venue Bendigo Stadium
Location Bendigo
Country Australia
Established 1979
Organisation(s) World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association
Format Ranking event
Current champion(s) Stuart Bingham

The Australian Goldfields Open is a snooker ranking tournament. Australia had previously hosted the 1971 and 1975 World Snooker Championships, as well as several other high profile snooker tournaments and in 1979 the Australian Masters was established. There was an attempt to turn the event into a ranking tournament in 1989 but the sponsorship fell through so it was staged in Hong Kong instead, as the Hong Kong Open, which incidentally became the first ranking tournament to be staged in Asia. The Hong Kong event was discontinued after just one year, but returned to Australia in 1994 as the Australian Open. The tournament reverted to being called the Australian Masters for the following season, but was dropped from the calendar after the 1995 event. In 2011 the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association resurrected the event under the Australian Goldfields Open name and added it to the 2011/2012 calendar.

Winners

Year Winner Opponent Final score Season
Australian Masters (non-ranking)[1]
1979 Perrie Mans Ian Anderson [n 1] 1979/80
1980 John Spencer Dennis Taylor [n 1] 1980/81
1980 Tony Meo John Spencer [n 1] 1981/82
1982 Steve Davis Eddie Charlton [n 1] 1982/83
1983 Cliff Thorburn Bill Werbeniuk 7–3 1983/84
1984 Tony Knowles John Virgo 7–3 1984/85
1985 Tony Meo John Campbell 3–2 1985/86
1986 Dennis Taylor Steve Davis 3–2 1986/87
1987 Stephen Hendry Mike Hallett 371–226[n 1] 1987/88
Hong Kong Open (ranking)
1989 Mike Hallett Dene O'Kane 9–8[2] 1989/90
Australian Open (non-ranking)
1994 John Higgins Willie Thorne 9–5[3] 1994/95
Australian Masters (non-ranking)
1995 Anthony Hamilton Chris Small 8–6[3] 1995/96
Australian Goldfields Open (ranking)
2011 Stuart Bingham Mark Williams 9–8[4] 2011/12

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e The finals were decided on aggregate score over three frames (between 1979–1982) and five frames (in 1987)

References

  1. ^ Turner, Chris. "Australian Events". Chris Turner's Snooker Archive. http://www.cajt.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/Aust.html. Retrieved 10 November 2011. 
  2. ^ Turner, Chris. "Other Asia Ranking Events". Chris Turner's Snooker Archive. http://www.cajt.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/Asia.html. Retrieved 14 June 2011. 
  3. ^ a b Hayton, Eric (2004). The CueSport Book of Professional Snooker. Suffolk: Rose Villa Publications. pp. 165–167. ISBN 9780954854904. 
  4. ^ "Stuart Bingham beats Mark Williams 9-8 to win Australian Open". BBC Sport. 24 July 2011. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/snooker/14267221.stm. Retrieved 10 November 2011. 
Ranking
Non-ranking
Variant events