1985 British Open

The 1985 British Open was held between 17 February and 3 March 1985. The qualifying competition took place across venues in London, Bristol and Stockport. The first round took place at the Connaught Club in London and the Bradbury Hall in Chesterfield between 14 and 17 January 1985, whilst the remaining rounds took place at the Assembly Rooms, Derby. The qualifying and first rounds were played as best-of-11 . The following rounds, from last 32 to quarter-finals, were played as shorter best-of-9-frames matches because of television scheduling. The event was sponsored by ICI Paints Division and was known for sponsorship purposes as the 1985 Dulux British Open. It took the place of the non-ranking 1984 International Masters tournament on the professional snooker calendar. Prize fund The prize fund for the event was £250,000, with the winner receiving £50,000. • Winner: £50,000 • Runner-up: £30,000 • Semi-finals: £17,500 • Quarter-finals: £9,000 • Last 16: £4,625 • Last 32: £2,000 • Last 64: £750 • Highest break (televised stages): £5,000 Alex Higgins (142) • Highest break (pre-televised stages): £5,000 Steve Davis (129) • Total: £250,000 ==Tournament summary==

In the first round, Bill Werbeniuk, 14th in the world rankings, was beaten 1–6 by Bob Chaperon. Malcolm Bradley, in his first season as a professional player, beat David Taylor 6–3. Bob Harris, who to that point had made little impact as a player, beat world number six Eddie Charlton 6–3 after being 1–3 behind. Danny Fowler, beat Rex Williams, the former world billiards champion, 6–3. A third new professional, Tony Chappel, led reigning world champion Steve Davis 5–4, before Davis prevailed 6–5. The television stages of the event began in the second round. Other players unexpectedly losing in the second round were Willie Thorne, who lost 0–5 to Murdo MacLeod; Ray Reardon, who was wearing spectacles for the first time in a match and who was beaten 4–5 by Dave Martin after leading 4–1; and Jimmy White, who lost 4–5 to Silvino Francisco. Only seven of the top sixteen seeded players progressed into the last 16 of the competition. In the last 16, Alex Higgins was level at 2–2 with Cliff Thorburn, then made a total clearance of 142, the highest break of the tournament, and went on to win 5–2. Kirk Stevens won his quarter-final against Dennis Taylor by winning five straight frames after trailing 0–2, and went on to beat Davis 9–7 in the semi-final to reach his first ranking tournament final. In the other semi-final, Francisco was never behind Higgins in frames, and won 9–7. With the South African Francisco and the Canadian Stevens contesting the final, it was the first snooker ranking tournament where there was no British player in the final. Francisco beat Stevens 12–9 in the final to win the title. The final attracted an average of 11.2million viewers on ITV, peaking at 15.5million. It was Francisco's only ranking tournament win as well as Stevens' only ranking final. ==Main draw==

The main draw for the tournament was held with a total of 64 participants. Players listed in bold denote match winners. Final ==Qualifying==

Qualifying matches were played as best-of-11-frames matches. Players in bold denote match winners. ==References==