1981 Masters (snooker)

Benson & Hedges Masters

Tournament information
Dates	27 January–1 February 1981
Venue	Wembley Conference Centre
City	London
Country	England
Organisation(s)	WPBSA
Format	Non-ranking event
Total prize fund	£20,500
Winner's share	£6,000
Highest break	136
Final
Champion	Alex Higgins
Runner-up	Terry Griffiths
Score	9–6
← 1980 1982 →

The 1981 Benson & Hedges Masters was a professional non-ranking snooker tournament that took place from Tuesday 27th January to Sunday 1st February 1981 at the Wembley Conference Centre in London, England. The number of invited players had been raised to 12, which saw Steve Davis make his Masters debut and a rise in prize money. With the increase in the number of players the tournament was extended from 5 days to 6, with a Sunday finish.

Alex Higgins reached his fourth consecutive Masters final by defeating Cliff Thorburn 6–5 in the semi-finals, despite having trailed 1–5. There he reversed the result of the 1980 final against Terry Griffiths, who had himself made a dramatic recovery to beat John Spencer 6–5 in the semi-finals, after trailing 2–5 and needing two snookers in the eighth frame. Griffiths set a new tournament record break of 136 in the final. The tournament attracted 18,742 spectators in its six days, including a new British tournament record of 2,422 for the final session.

Main draw

^[1][2][3]

	Round 1 Best of 9 frames					Quarter-finals Best of 9 frames					Semi-finals Best of 11 frames					Final Best of 17 frames
						Terry Griffiths		5
	Fred Davis		5			Fred Davis		2
	Kirk Stevens		4								Terry Griffiths		6
											John Spencer		5
						Ray Reardon		1
	Dennis Taylor		2			John Spencer		5
	John Spencer		5													Terry Griffiths		6
																Alex Higgins		9
						Alex Higgins		5
	Eddie Charlton		0			Doug Mountjoy		1
	Doug Mountjoy		5								Alex Higgins		6
											Cliff Thorburn		5
						Cliff Thorburn		5
	Perrie Mans		5			Perrie Mans		4
	Steve Davis		3

Century breaks

^[4]

• 136 Terry Griffiths
• 102 Cliff Thorburn

References

1. "1981 Masters Results". Snooker Database. Retrieved 5 May 2011.
2. "The Masters". Snooker Scene. Archived from the original on 24 January 2013. Retrieved 8 August 2012.
3. "1981 Benson & Hedges Masters". Global Snooker Centre. Archived from the original on 7 October 2008. Retrieved 3 June 2013.
4. "1981 Masters". CueTracker - Snooker Results and Statistics Database. Retrieved 19 January 2015.