Strachan Open

Strachan Open

Tournament information
Venue	Willie Thorne Snooker Centre
Location	Leicester
Country	England
Established	1992; 32 years ago (1992)
Organisation(s)	World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association
Format	Non-ranking event
Final year	1994; 30 years ago (1994)
Final champion	Anthony Hamilton

The Strachan Open was a professional snooker tournament held between 1992 and 1994. It had varying ranking status during its history.

The tournament was first held in 1992, and was a ranking tournament. It was sponsored by billiard cloth company Strachan. The event was boycotted by several top players due to lower points tariff and prize money. The final stages were played at the Thornbury Leisure Centre in Thornbury.^[1] Peter Ebdon made his first official maximum break in the qualifying rounds against Wayne Martin.^[2]

The following season to encourage the new professional, the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association created four so-called minor ranking events. These tournaments were open to every professional, but earned only one-tenth of the ranking points of most other ranking tournaments. Three of the four minor ranking events were Strachan Challenges. The fourth was the Benson & Hedges Championship. Most of the top sixteen players did not bother to enter. The Strachan Challenges continued for one more season with two events, but they did not carry ranking points.^[1]

^[1]

Year	Winner	Runner-up	Final score	Season
Strachan Open (ranking)
1992	James Wattana	John Parrott	9–5	1991/92
Strachan Challenge (minor-ranking)
1992 – Event 1	Joe Swail	Stefan Mazrocis	9–4	1992/93
1993 – Event 2	Troy Shaw	Nigel Bond	9–4
1993 – Event 3	Tony Drago	Ken Doherty	9–7
Strachan Challenge (non-ranking)
1994 – Event 1	Anthony Hamilton	Andy Hicks	9–4	1993/94
1994 – Event 2	Anthony Hamilton	Paul Davies	9–4