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2000 BENSON & HEDGES CHAMPIONSHIP
Murphy, currently ranked 116 in the world, has now earned a place at the prestigious Benson & Hedges Masters invitation event next year, at the Wembley Conference Centre in London, England. It was Murphy's first professional event victory, but it looked unlikely after the first session's play when the world number 43 held a solid 5-3 lead. He however took the opening two frames of the second and final session to level the match at 5-5, with the tenth frame being especially dramatic as from 54-0 points behind he hit back with a super break of 63. Although Bingham sneaked ahead again after winning the next frame, Murphy leveled at 6-6 with a break of 99 and you could then sense his growth in confidence as he went further ahead to 8-6. The sixteenth frame was packed with tension and drama as Bingham missed the final blue ball using the rest, Murphy stepped in to pocket two of the last three colors for a well deserved victory. "I didn't come here expecting to win the tournament but now I have it's a dream come true," Murphy said after his win. "I've been to Wembley many times to watch and it looks a fantastic place to play. "It will be awesome and I can't wait to get there. Even when I was 5-2 down I knew the match wasn't over. After all it wasn't first to five it was first to nine." Bingham said: "It was really all or nothing to the winner. I felt more nervous today than I did all week because there was so much at stake." For details on all of the Championship's results, please click Here
The Benson & Hedges Championship is an event open to all WSA
professionals ranked outside the top-16 positions.
The Benson & Hedges Championship is also a qualifying event for
the Benson & Hedges Masters invitation event which is staged
annually at the Wembley Conference Centre in London, England.
The winner of the Benson & Hedges Championship, along with another
wild card entrant, will join the top-16 players to compete in the
Benson & Hedges Masters event, which is not only the most prestigious
invitation event on the Main Tour but one of the sport's top events as a
whole.
Many of snooker's current biggest names have taken their first step on
the road to the big time by winning the Benson & Hedges Championship
title four players who have won the event in the relative obscurity
of a snooker club have gone on to lift the Masters trophy in front of
millions of television viewers.
The Benson & Hedges Championship roll of honor also includes two World
Champions in Ken Doherty and Mark J. Williams, who went on to provide the
Masters with one of its most memorable moments in 1998 when he came from
9 - 6 down to beat Stephen Hendry 10 - 9 on a re-spotted black.
Ronnie O'Sullivan was only 17 years of age when he won the Benson &
Hedges Championship in 1993, and in 1995 got his hands on the Masters trophy
by beating John Higgins 9 - 3 in the final.
O'Sullivan was replaced as Benson & Hedges Championship winner by Mark J.
Williams, and in 1995 it was his Welsh compatriot Matthew Stevens who
captured the title. He then went on to win the Masters this year beating
Ken Doherty in the final, who agonizingly missed an easy final black ball for
a maximum 147 break.
It was Scotland's Alan McManus however who captured the first Benson &
Hedges Championship in 1990 and it launced his career. He went on to win
the Masters in 1994 to become the first player to beat Stephen Hendry in the
event after he had won it for five consecutive years.
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Shaun Murphy pictured with the Benson & Hedges Championship trophy