The 1990 Shoot-Out was a professional non-ranking snooker tournament that took place from 26 to 28 September 1990 at Trentham Gardens in Stoke-on-Trent, England.
Darren Morgan won the tournament, defeating Mike Hallett 2–1 in the best of three final. All other matches were decided by a single frame.
Jimmy White, the fourth seed, withdrew from the tournament at short notice, explaining that he had broken his . Bill Oliver was injured in a road traffic incident collision whilst driving to the venue on 27 September and withdrew from the tournament; Hallett, his passenger, was uninjured. The reigning world champion, Stephen Hendry, was eliminated by Alan McManus in the first round. Hallett, who was seventh in the Snooker world rankings 1990/1991, was the highest-ranked player to progress through to the third round; only Hallett, Dean Reynolds and Neal Foulds from the top 16 in the rankings progressed into the last-16 round.
Both losing semi-finalists were in their debut season as professional players. Jason Whittaker, who at 18 was the youngest professional player at the time, was eliminated by Morgan. McManus, the other losing semi-finalist, had progressed after requiring his opponents in both the last-16 and quarter-final to concede penalty points when only the final and were left on the .
Hallet won the first frame of the final, and led by 22 in the next frame, but Morgan made a break of 53 and drew level. During the , Hallett accidentally forced the final off the table; Morgan went on to win the frame 65–32 and take the title. After his victory, Morgan commented that "In a tournament like this, there is a lot of luck involved, and I had mine at exactly the right time."
Prize fund The winner of the event received £5,000 from a total prize fund of £40,000. The breakdown of prize money for the event is shown below.
Winner: £5,000 Runner-up: £3,000 Semi-finalists: £2,000 Quarter-finalists: £1,250 Last 16: £750 Last 32: £500 Last 64: £250 Highest break: £1,000
Tournament draw Match winners are shown in bold.Note: w/d=withdrawn; w/o=walk-over
The following 12 players received byes from round-one into the last-64:
Round one Group one
62–50 77–33 65–21 61–47 70–26 48–47 60–28 63–24 97–4 67–43 64–22 75–0 54–24
Group two
86–13 w/o–w/d 108–16 70–53 73–48 63–33 68–37 64–54 58–37 68–1 62–52 65–19 w/o–w/d
Group three
63–25 w/o–w/d 115–0 w/o–w/d 74–40 65–43 87–30 80–33 67–43 71–28 60–38 103–17 61–35
Group four
59–52 73–39 61–27 w/o–w/d 81–7 60–25 w/o–w/d 92–15 w/o–w/d 75–5 93–13 69–42 62–58
Last 64 Group one
94–0 81–61 76–15 61–45 81–18 100–6 76–51 73–49 w/o–w/d 64–2 68–18 78–0 63–60 60–22 67–25 59–40
Group two
77–52 120–0 w/o–w/d 60–21 60–46 70–1 67–32 106–1 67–47 77–9 72–40 84–24 58–9 78–12 65–32 96–13
Last 32
60–9 64–30 66–32 86–11 74–27 77–16 62–50 79–34 76–64 71–69 74–38 67–36 79–4 69–42 62–52 63–25
Last 16
72–17 68–47 68–46 66–16 62–38 68–9 77–43 56–14
Quarter-finals
50–37 66–62 78–2 69–29
Semi-finals 66–21 77–14
Final Final: Best of 3 framesTrentham Gardens, Stoke-on-Trent, England, 28 September 1990 Darren Morgan 2–1 Mike Hallett 28–97, 72–35 (53), 65–32
Century breaks Only one century break was made during the tournament. The second-highest break was 93, compiled by Willie Thorne. 120 Tony Knowles
References