1997 Seniors Pot Black

Seniors Pot Black
Tournament information
Dates	Early 1997 (broadcast 3–14 March 1997)
Venue	Goodwood House
City	Chichester
Country	England
Organisation	WPBSA
Format	Non-Ranking event
Highest break	Joe Johnson (57)
Final
Champion	Joe Johnson
Runner-up	Terry Griffiths
Score	2–0
	← 1993 2005 →

The 1997 Seniors Pot Black was a one-off invitational snooker tournament of the popular series Pot Black. Recording took place during early 1997 and broadcast in March. The tournament was held at Goodwood House in Chichester, Sussex. It featured 12 veteran players in a knock-out system both aged over 40. All matches until the final were one-frame shoot-outs and the final being contested over the best of three frames.

Broadcasts were shown on teatime daily on BBC2 and the series started at 17:30 on Monday 3 March 1997.^[1] David Vine presented the programme and Ted Lowe and Clive Everton were the commentators while there were more referees in this event than previously. Alan Chamberian and John Newton joined long time referee John Williams.

The players were all over 40 years of age. Some had retired from the game and some were still competing in tournaments. All the previous Pot Black champions over 40 were there including Ray Reardon, John Spencer and Eddie Charlton. Joe Johnson who never competed in any previous series of Pot Black won the title beating Terry Griffiths 2–0 to become the only champion of Seniors Pot Black.^[2]^[3]

Main draw

Round 1

Player 1	Score	Player 2	Broadcast Date
John Spencer	0–1	Dennis Taylor	3 March 1997
Ray Reardon	1–0	Willie Thorne	4 March 1997
Perrie Mans	0–1	Joe Johnson	5 March 1997
Graham Miles	1–0	Rex Williams	6 March 1997

Quarter-finals (7-11 March 1997)		Semi-finals (12-13 March 1997)		Final Best of 3 frames (14 March 1997)

Doug Mountjoy	0

Dennis Taylor	1
		Dennis Taylor	0

		Joe Johnson	1
Eddie Charlton	0

Joe Johnson	1
				Joe Johnson	2

				Terry Griffiths	0
Cliff Thorburn	0

Graham Miles	1
		Graham Miles	0

		Terry Griffiths	1
Terry Griffiths	1

Ray Reardon	0

Final

Final: Best of 3 frames. Goodwood House, Chichester, England, Early 1997 (Broadcast 14 March 1997).
Joe Johnson England	2–0 Frame scores 85-32, 70-17	Terry Griffiths Wales