The British Open makes a return to the snooker calendar after being absent for over a decade and a half as the event finds a home in an already packed calendar for 2021/22. The long running, near two-decade tournament has been won by all the greats of the 1980s/90s and will now see the current generation of players attempt to add their names to the impressive list before them.
The British Open was branded and introduced in 1985 to add to the handful of ranking events that existed during the 1980s. Similar to most ranking events, The Open followed the format of a series of short-form matches, culminating in a best-of-17 final (with the exception of the earlier editions of the event).
It’s an event that has been won by all the great names that you can think of going back to the golden decades of snooker – Davis, Hendry, White, The Class of ’92, Paul Hunter and more. Hendry and Higgins share the most British Open trophies with four each, claiming almost half of the victories in this tournament during its original tenure.
If you’re a fan of maximums, the British Open seems to be a breeding ground for the perfect break. The tournament has seen six maximum breaks achieved, three of which were compiled during the 1999 iteration. These were made by Stephen Hendry, Graeme Dott and Jason Prince (in qualifying).
The British Open had a significant presence in Derby from 1985-94 before moving to Plymouth until 2000. For the final few years that the British Open existed, it moved across various locations such as Newcastle, Telford and Brighton. If WST can adhere to the name of the event and have it held at various locations across Britain each year, I think this would be a great sight for the tour.
Whether you’re a fan of the decision to add another event to the calendar will depend which perspective you view it from. If you’re a player, then you’ll probably relish a further opportunity to make some money and win an event. Alternatively, it could be seen as another event that players are obligated to compete in thus burning them out even more. If you’re a fan, you’ll probably view this is the same manner. Or you’ll be delighted at the fact that you’ll be able to watch some more snooker.
This is more of a display of the change in management as Barry Hearn stepped aside from his governing responsibility as Chairman and passed the mantle to Steve Dawson. I would imagine this being the first of a series of ideas that Dawson plans to implement in order to plant his flag and make his mark. My question is, will the newly revived British Open be included as part of Home Nations series?
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