1990 Shoot-Out

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 frames final. All other matches were decided by a single frame, and the event featured a randomised draw.

Jimmy White, the fourth seed, withdrew from the tournament at short notice, explaining that he had broken his cue. 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 a professional player. 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 pink and black were left on the table.

Hallet won the first frame of the final, and led by 22 points in the next frame, but Morgan made a break of 53 and drew level. During the deciding frame, Hallett accidentally foreced the final brown ball 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."