History
The championship was first played in the 1920s, but it was more than 50 years before Ray Reardon and Doug Mountjoy met, in 1977, for an 'unofficial' Welsh Professional title. Reardon won that encounter 12–8. Even though the event was sponsored by William Hill it wasn't a success and wasn't held again until 1980.
The Ebbw Vale Leisure Centre staged the first official revived championship in 1980 and would host the championship until 1984. The event was sponsored by cider producers H. P. Bulmer, using their Woodpecker name from 1980 until 1983 and their Strongbrow brand in 1984. In 1985 and 1986 the event was held at the Abertillery Leisure Centre. The sponsorship was taken over by BCE for 1985 and Zetters for 1986. The event moved to the Newport Centre in 1985 and remained there until 2001. In the last five years the event had three different sponsors: Matchroom in 1987, Senator Windows between 1988 and 1990, and Regal in 1991.
After the 1991 event Regal withdraw their sponsorship and began to sponsor the new Welsh Open ranking event at the same venue, and the event wasn't held since then.
Read more about this topic: Welsh Professional Championship
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The history of modern art is also the history of the progressive loss of art’s audience. Art has increasingly become the concern of the artist and the bafflement of the public.”
—Henry Geldzahler (1935–1994)
“If you look at history you’ll find that no state has been so plagued by its rulers as when power has fallen into the hands of some dabbler in philosophy or literary addict.”
—Desiderius Erasmus (c. 1466–1536)
“Every generation rewrites the past. In easy times history is more or less of an ornamental art, but in times of danger we are driven to the written record by a pressing need to find answers to the riddles of today.... In times of change and danger when there is a quicksand of fear under men’s reasoning, a sense of continuity with generations gone before can stretch like a lifeline across the scary present and get us past that idiot delusion of the exceptional Now that blocks good thinking.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)