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Classic (snooker)




The Classic was a professional Snooker tournament.

The tournament started life as the ''Wilsons Classic'' in 1980 . A change in sponsor in 1982 meant a name change to ''Lada Classic''. Two years later, the tournament was made a Ranking Tournament . Mercantile Credit took over the sponsorship for the 1984/85 season. The tournament ran until 1992 .

Memorable incidents from the history of the tournament include the following:

  • In 1982 , Steve Davis made the first televised 147 break against John Spencer .

  • In 1983 , Bill Werbeniuk reached the only ranking final of his career in what was by far his best season.

  • In 1984 , Davis was level at 8 frames each with Tony Meo and only the colours were left in the deciding frame. As Meo lined up on the yellow, a spectator yelled out "Come on Tony!". Although Meo took time to compose himself after the shout, he missed the yellow and Davis cleared the colours to win.

  • In 1985 , Willie Thorne won his first ranking tournament victory, beating Cliff Thorburn in a final of extremely high quality. Earlier the same seasons, Thorburn had lost to another popular player winning his first ranking tournament, Dennis Taylor in the Grand Prix .

  • In 1986 , the tournament finally provided Jimmy White's first ranking tournament victory.

  • In 1989 , Doug Mountjoy at the age of 47 won his second ranking tournament in a row, having previously won the 1988 UK Championship . He remains one of only four players to win back-to-back ranking tournaments.






WINNERS