1998 Benson & Hedges Masters

Tournament information
Dates	1–8 February 1998 (1998-02-01 – 1998-02-08)
Venue	Wembley Conference Centre
City	London
Country	England
Organisation	WPBSA
Format	Non-ranking event
Total prize fund	£535,000
Winner's share	£145,000
Highest break	Andy Hicks (ENG) (142)
Final
Champion	Mark Williams (WAL)
Runner-up	Stephen Hendry (SCO)
Score	10–9
← 1997 1999 →

The 1998 Masters (officially the 1998 Benson & Hedges Masters) was a professional non-ranking snooker tournament that took place between 1 and 8 February 1998 at the Wembley Conference Centre in London, England.

The final frame of final between Mark Williams and Stephen Hendry turned into a re-spotted black for the first time since John Spencer beat Ray Reardon in the first final in 1975. Hendry had led 9–6, before Williams tied it to 9–9. Williams was then trailing 56–34 in the final frame, when he potted the brown and the remaining colours to tie the scores in the match, after Hendry missed the brown.^[1] They then played seven shots on the black in a match similar to the 1985 World Championship final between Dennis Taylor and Steve Davis. Hendry then missed a straight black across the nap in the middle pocket before Williams potted it on the top right pocket to claim his first Masters title.

Field

Defending champion Steve Davis was the number 1 seed with World Champion Ken Doherty 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 winner of the qualifying event, Andy Hicks (ranked 19), and Jimmy White (ranked 21), who was the wild-card selection. Anthony Hamilton and Stephen Lee were making their debuts in the Masters.

Prize fund

The breakdown of prize money for this year is shown below:
Winner: £145,000
Runner-up: £75,000

High Break: £16,000

Total: £535,000

Wild-card round

In the preliminary round, the wild-card players played the 15th and 16th seeds:^[2][3]

Match	Date		Score
WC1	Sunday 1 February	Darren Morgan (WAL) (15)	5–4	Andy Hicks (ENG)
WC2	Monday 2 February	Stephen Lee (ENG) (16)	5–1	Jimmy White (ENG)

Main draw

^[2][3]

	Last 16 Best of 11 frames					Quarter-finals Best of 11 frames					Semi-finals Best of 11 frames					Final Best of 19 frames
	1	Steve Davis (ENG)	6
	15	Darren Morgan (WAL)	2
						1	Steve Davis	6
						8	Ronnie O'Sullivan	3
	8	Ronnie O'Sullivan (ENG)	6
	10	Alain Robidoux (CAN)	5
											1	Steve Davis	3
											5	Mark Williams	6
	5	Mark Williams (WAL)	6
	11	Alan McManus (SCO)	4
						5	Mark Williams	6
						14	Anthony Hamilton	3
	4	John Higgins (SCO)	3
	14	Anthony Hamilton (ENG)	6
																5	Mark Williams	10
																3	Stephen Hendry	9
	3	Stephen Hendry (SCO)	6
	16	Stephen Lee (ENG)	1
						3	Stephen Hendry	6
						9	Nigel Bond	3
	6	Peter Ebdon (ENG)	2
	9	Nigel Bond (ENG)	6
											3	Stephen Hendry	6
											2	Ken Doherty	5
	7	John Parrott (ENG)	5
	13	James Wattana (THA)	6
						13	James Wattana	1
						2	Ken Doherty	6
	2	Ken Doherty (IRL)	6
	12	Tony Drago (MLT)	4

Final

Final: Best of 19 frames. Referee: Alan Chamberlain Wembley Conference Centre, London, England, 8 February 1998[2]
Mark Williams (5)  Wales	10–9	Stephen Hendry (3)  Scotland
Afternoon: 63–72, 68–34 (64), 45–79, 0–98 (98), 82–36, 0–121 (120), 6–70 (70), 80–66 Evening: 64–26, 104–1 (100), 0–106 (67), 87–2, 1–69, 44–73 (69), 0–78 (78), 72–60 (Hendry 54), 70–20 (69), 52–23, 63–56
100	Highest break	120
1	Century breaks	1
3	50+ breaks	7

Qualifying

Andy Hicks won the qualifying tournament, known as the 1997 Benson & Hedges Championship at the time.^[4]

Century breaks

Total: 20^[5]

• 142 – Andy Hicks
• 133, 113, 100 – James Wattana
• 133 – John Higgins
• 131, 122, 120, 110 – Stephen Hendry
• 126 – Alain Robidoux
• 124 – Ronnie O'Sullivan
• 119, 112 – Nigel Bond
• 114 – Stephen Lee
• 106 – Darren Morgan
• 104, 100 – Steve Davis
• 104 – Darren Morgan
• 100, 100 – Mark Williams

Andy Hicks, Stephen Lee and Darren Morgan scored their century breaks in the wild-card round.

References