2005 Masters (snooker)

Rileys Club Masters
Tournament information
Dates 13–20 February 2005
Venue Wembley Conference Centre
City London
Country England
Organisation(s) WPBSA
Format Non-ranking event
Winner's share £125,000
Highest break 141
Final
Champion England Ronnie O'Sullivan
Runner-up Scotland John Higgins
Score 10–3
2004
2006

The 2005 Rileys Club Masters was a professional non-ranking snooker tournament that took place between 13 and 20 February 2005 at the Wembley Conference Centre in London, England.

Ronnie O'Sullivan won his second Masters title beating John Higgins, whom he also beat during O'Sullivan's other title win in 1995, 10–3. Not since Steve Davis whitewashed Mike Hallett 9–0 in 1988 had there been such a runaway London final.

Davis meanwhile defeated defending champion Paul Hunter 6–5, before losing to Peter Ebdon in the quarter-finals. Another veteran, Jimmy White, who had recently signed a madcap sponsorship deal with HP Sauce (which had sponsored the brown ball in the game) and renaming himself as 'James Brown' (but the new name was never mentioned by referees or commentators during the tournament), made it to the semi-finals again and played against O'Sullivan, but lost 1–6.

After not having a sponsor the previous year, Riley's Club stepped in for the 2005 event. For the first time since the 1989/1990 season there was no qualifying event for the Masters.[1]

Field

Defending champion Paul Hunter was the number 1 seed with World Champion Ronnie O'Sullivan seeded 2. Places were allocated to the top 16 players in the world rankings. Players seeded 15 and 16 played in the wild-card round against the two wild-card selections, Stephen Maguire (ranked 24) and Ding Junhui (ranked 76). Stephen Maguire had won the UK Championship the previous November and was making his debut in the Masters.

Prize fund

The breakdown of prize money for this year is shown below:[2]

Wild-card round

[3][4][5][6]

Match Date Score
WC1 Sunday 13 February Scotland Graeme Dott (15) 6–4 Scotland Stephen Maguire
WC2 Monday 14 February Hong Kong Marco Fu (16) 4–6 China Ding Junhui

Main draw

[3][4][5][6]

Last 16
Best of 11 frames
Quarter-finals
Best of 11 frames
Semi-finals
Best of 11 frames
Final
Best of 19 frames
            
1 England Paul Hunter 5
13 England Steve Davis 6
13 England Steve Davis 1
8 England Peter Ebdon 6
8 England Peter Ebdon 6
14 England David Gray 0
8 England Peter Ebdon 3
5 Scotland John Higgins 6
5 Scotland John Higgins 6
12 Scotland Chris Small 1
5 Scotland John Higgins 6
4 Scotland Stephen Hendry 2
4 Scotland Stephen Hendry 6
9 England Stephen Lee 1
5 Scotland John Higgins 3
2 England Ronnie O'Sullivan 10
3 Wales Mark Williams 6
10 Scotland Alan McManus 3
3 Wales Mark Williams 5
11 England Jimmy White 6
6 Wales Matthew Stevens 5
11 England Jimmy White 6
11 England Jimmy White 1
2 England Ronnie O'Sullivan 6
7 Republic of Ireland Ken Doherty 1
China Ding Junhui 6
China Ding Junhui 2
2 England Ronnie O'Sullivan 6
2 England Ronnie O'Sullivan 6
15 Scotland Graeme Dott 3

Final

Final: Best of 19 frames. Referee: Paul Collier.
Wembley Conference Centre, London, England, 20 February 2005.[4]
John Higgins (5)
 Scotland
3–10 Ronnie O'Sullivan (2)
 England
Afternoon: 9–97 (95), 130–0 (54, 76), 61–7, 0–107 (107), 24–89 (58), 1–102 (97), 0–135 (102), 73–45 (53)
Evening: 0–79 (79), 56–75 (56, 75), 0–79 (79), 1–88 (79), 0–134 (134)
76 Highest break 134
0 Century breaks 3
4 50+ breaks 10

Century breaks

[3]

References

  1. Turner, Chris. "Benson & Hedges Championship, Masters Qualifying Tournament". cajt.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk. Chris Turner's Snooker Archive. Archived from the original on 16 February 2012. Retrieved 9 April 2011.
  2. "Preisgeld Masters 2005". brownball.de. Retrieved 18 April 2011.
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 "2005 Rileys Club Masters". Global Snooker Centre. Archived from the original on 18 January 2008.
  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 "Rileys Club Masters 2005". Snooker.org. Retrieved 19 March 2011.
  5. 5.0 5.1 "2005 Rileys Club Masters". worldsnooker.com. World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association. Archived from the original on 30 August 2005. Retrieved 23 June 2012.
  6. 6.0 6.1 "The Masters". Snooker Scene. Archived from the original on 24 January 2013. Retrieved 8 August 2012.