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Stat needed!

Postby Casey

Mark Allen takes to the World Open final tomorrow attempting to defend his maiden ranking event title.

So my question is this; has any player defended their maiden ranking win? I can’t think of any, not many players have ever been able to defend their titles let alone their first.

Re: Stat needed!

Postby Skullman

Only Reardon and that's due to a technicality, as the Worlds wasn't ranking until 1974 and Reardon won in '74 and '75.

Otherwise the closest was Higgins who won the '94 Grand Prix and then got to final in '95, losing to Hendry.

Re: Stat needed!

Postby Wildey

Skullman wrote:Only Reardon and that's due to a technicality, as the Worlds wasn't ranking until 1974 and Reardon won in '74 and '75.

Otherwise the closest was Higgins who won the '94 Grand Prix and then got to final in '95, losing to Hendry.

Joe Johnson in 1987 World championship after winning in 1986.

Dennis taylor won the Grand Prix in 1984 and lost in the final in 1985

Re: Stat needed!

Postby PLtheRef

Reardon did but remember the tournament was retroactively given Ranking status to form the seeds for the 1977 championship

No player has defended their first ranking title - as said Johnson reached the Crucible final in 1987, and Taylor reached the 1985 Grand Prix Final, losing 10-9 from having been 6-1 at the end of the first session. John Higgins won the GP in 1994 and then lost the Skoda Grand Prix Final 9-5 to Stephen Hendry in 1995


If you want to go further, Quite possibly only Joe, Fred and Steve Davis and John Pullman have successfully defended their first major title.

Re: Stat needed!

Postby Casey

Cheers guys, looks like it's a no.

Allen haters and all would have to admit it would be a great achievement.

Re: Stat needed!

Postby Alex0paul

Ali Carter almost did after winning the 09 Welsh Open to lose in the 2010 final to Higgins

Re: Stat needed!

Postby Casey

Smart wrote:PTCs been defended :chin:


Not that I can find.

Re: Stat needed!

Postby PLtheRef

Smart wrote:
Casey wrote:
Smart wrote:PTCs been defended :chin:


Not that I can find.


I thought not, but wanted to throw it into the mix for some statto to agonise over <ok>



I covered that base well before posting

Re: Stat needed!

Postby Odrl

David Hendon was talking about this in commentary and mentioned John Parrott, who won the European Open in 1989 and 1990. ;-)

Re: Stat needed!

Postby Skullman

How did I miss that <doh> I checked his Wikipedia page as well before posting.

Re: Stat needed!

Postby Casey

Close but still no. The European Open was non ranking in 1989 and 1990!

Re: Stat needed!

Postby Skullman

Wikipedia says ranking :shrug:

If you say it's not I'll go with it, it's a little before my time.

Re: Stat needed!

Postby Wildey

Casey wrote:Close but still no. The European Open was non ranking in 1989 and 1990!

they were Ranking John Parrott's First Ranking event win happened in Douville France in 1989 beating Terry Griffiths in the final and in 1990 retained the title by Beating Stephen Hendry 10-6.

1989 was a strange tournament Hardly nobody came to watch it even Alex Higgins Hopping on 1 Leg Attracted only about 30 people and most of them was Snooker players

Re: Stat needed!

Postby peterwatts1

Yes, Higgins even managed to beat Les Dodd on one leg in that tournament before bowing out to Willie Thorne very strange tournament and not surprisingly they moved it away from Douville after one season

Re: Stat needed!

Postby Wildey

peterwatts1 wrote:Yes, Higgins even managed to beat Les Dodd on one leg in that tournament before bowing out to Willie Thorne very strange tournament and not surprisingly they moved it away from Douville after one season

never to return to france again