Career finals
| Outcome | Year | Championship | Opponent in the final | Score | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winner | 1954 | English Amateur Championship |  Cliff Wilson (WAL) | 11–9 | [13] |
| Born | 1929 (age 94–95) |
|---|---|
| Sport country | England |
Geoff Thompson (born 1929) is an English former professional snooker player.
Thompson was born in 1929. [1] He started playing cue sports on a scaled-down table aged eight or nine, and on a full-sized billiard table from the age of 13. After serving in the armed forces, Thompson won a local English billiards competition in his home town of Leicester, and was runner-up in the 1952 CIU snooker championship to L.F. Taylor. [2]
Having been runner-up CIU final again in 1953, and working as a telephone engineer, Thompson was competing for the first time in the English Amateur Championship when he eliminated the defending champion Tommy Gordon 3–2 [3] and went on to win the title with an 11–9 victory over Cliff Wilson in the final. [4] Due to ill health he withdrew from the 1955 tournament and so was unable to defend the title. [5] In the 1962 championship he compiled a break of 115, a new world record for an officially-recognised amateur break. [6] He was invited to participate in the 1962–63 Television Tournament and, receiving 11 points start in each frame under the handicapping system used, defeated professional Rex Williams 3–0, [7] before losing 2–3 to Ron Gross. [8] In 1966 and 1969 he won the CIU championship. [9]
He turned professional in 1970. [10] He played Maurice Parkin in the first qualifying round for the 1972 World Snooker Championship and lost 10–11, and was defeated 5–9 by Graham Miles in the first round of the 1972 World Snooker Championship. His last World Snooker Championship appearance was in 1974, where he was eliminated 3–8 by Bill Werbeniuk. [11]
In 1953 he compiled a break of 141, but it was not recognised as a record as the billiard table did not meet the standards required by the Billiards Association and Control Council. At the time, the highest officially recognised break by an amateur was 104. [2] [12]
| Outcome | Year | Championship | Opponent in the final | Score | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winner | 1954 | English Amateur Championship | Cliff Wilson (WAL) | 11–9 | [13] |
Joseph Davis was an English professional snooker and English billiards player. He was the dominant figure in snooker from the 1920s to the 1950s, and has been credited with inventing aspects of the way the game is now played, such as break-building. With the help of equipment manufacturer Bill Camkin, he drove the creation of the World Snooker Championship by persuading the Billiards Association and Control Council to recognise an official professional snooker championship in 1927. Davis won the first 15 world championships from 1927 to 1946, and he is the only undefeated player in World Snooker Championship history. In 1930, he scored the championship's first century break.
Desmond Rex Williams is an English retired professional billiards and snooker player. He was the second player to make an official maximum break in snooker, achieving this in an exhibition match in December 1965. Williams won the World Professional Billiards Championship from Clark McConachy in 1968, the first time that the title had been contested since 1951. Williams retained the title in several challenge matches in the 1970s and, after losing it to Fred Davis in 1980, regained it from 1982 to 1983.
Walter Weir Wilson Donaldson was a Scottish professional snooker and billiards player. He contested eight consecutive world championship finals against Fred Davis from 1947 to 1954, and won the title in 1947 and 1950. Donaldson was known for his long potting and his consistency when playing, and had an aversion to the use of side. In 2012, he was inducted posthumously into the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association's World Snooker Hall of Fame.
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The 1969 World Snooker Championship was a professional snooker tournament. It was the first World Snooker Championship in a knock-out format since 1957, following a series of challenge matches from 1964 to 1968. John Spencer won the title, defeating Gary Owen by achieving a winning margin at 37 frames to 24 in the final. Spencer had earlier eliminated defending champion John Pulman from the competition, in the quarter-finals.
Tom Reece was an English professional player of English billiards. He was six times runner-up in the professional billiards championship, now regarded as the world championship, losing three times to Melbourne Inman in finals from 1912 to 1914, and three times to Tom Newman in the 1921, 1924 and 1925 finals. He made the unofficial world's highest billiards break of 499,135 in 1907 using a cradle cannon technique shortly before it was banned from the sport. In 1927, his prowess with the pendulum stroke led to that also being banned from use in competition.
The World Billiards Championship is an international cue sports tournament in the discipline of English billiards, organised by World Billiards, a subsidiary of the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA). In its various forms, and usually as a single competition, the title is one of the oldest sporting world championships, having been contested since 1870.
The 1932 World Snooker Championship, known at the time as the Professional Championship of Snooker, was a professional snooker tournament that took place from 14 to 20 April 1932, with the final being held at Thurston's Hall in London, England. It is recognised as the sixth edition of the World Snooker Championship. The defending champion, Joe Davis from England, won the title for the sixth time by defeating New Zealander Clark McConachy by 30 frames to 19 in the final. The score when Davis achieved a winning margin was 25–18, with dead frames played afterwards. Davis set a new Championship record break of 99 in the 36th frame of the final. McConachy had become the first player from outside the British Isles to enter the championship. The only other participant was Tom Dennis, who was defeated 11–13 by McConachy in the semi-final at Skegness.
The 1947 World Snooker Championship was a professional snooker tournament that took place from 20 January to 25 October 1947. The final was held at the Leicester Square Hall in London, England, from 13 to 25 October. The semi-finals were completed in March, but the final was delayed due to building works at the venue, which had been bombed in October 1940. Walter Donaldson won the title by defeating Fred Davis by 82 frames to 63 in the final, although he reached the winning margin earlier, at 73–49. Davis made the highest break of the tournament with a 135 clearance in frame 86 of the final.
The 1954 World Professional Match-play Championship was a professional snooker tournament held from 5 October 1953 to 6 March 1954 across various locations in the British Isles. The final was held at Houldsworth Hall in Manchester, England. Fred Davis won his sixth World Snooker Championship title by defeating Walter Donaldson by 45 frames to 26 in the final after securing a winning lead at 36–15. Donaldson compiled a break of 121, the highest of the tournament, on the last day of the final.
The 1956 World Professional Match-play Championship was a snooker tournament that took place from 9 January to 10 March 1956 with the final being held at the Tower Circus in Blackpool, England from 5 to 10 March. Fred Davis won his eighth and last world snooker title by defeating John Pulman by 38 frames to 35 in the final. Pulman led 31–29 going into the last day of the final on 10 March, but Davis won 8 of the first 10 frames on that day to take a winning lead of 37–33. The event, organised by the Professional Billiards Players' Association, is now recognised as an edition of the World Snooker Championship.
The World Professional Match-play Championship was a professional snooker tournament established in 1952 as an alternative to the professional World Snooker Championship by some of the professional players, following a dispute with the Billiards Association and Control Council, the sport's governing body. Fred Davis won the first five editions of the tournament, but didn't participate in 1957, when John Pulman won. After this, the event was discontinued due to a decline in the popularity of snooker.
The Women's Professional Billiards Championship was an English billiards tournament held from 1930 to 1950. The tournament was first organised by Burroughes and Watts in 1930 and 1931, before the WBA ran the event until its conclusion in 1950. Joyce Gardner won the tournament on seven of the fourteen times that it was held, and was runner-up six times; the only time that she was not in the final was the 1940 tournament. The other players to hold the title were Thelma Carpenter who won four times, and Ruth Harrison who took three championship titles. Harrison's break of 197 in 1937 remains a women's record in competitive billiards.
The Billiards and Snooker Control Council (B&SCC) was the governing body of the games of English billiards and snooker and organised professional and amateur championships in both sports. It was formed in 1919 by the union of the Billiards Association and the Billiards Control Club.
Leslie Driffield (1912–1988) was an English world champion player of English billiards. He won the World Amateur Billiards Championship title twice, in 1952 and 1967; and the Billiards and Snooker Control Council version of the world professional championship, played on a challenge basis, in 1971 and 1973.
The World Women's Billiards Championship is an English billiards tournament, first held in 1931 when organised by the cue sports company Burroughes and Watts then run from 1932 by the Women's Billiards Association (WBA). It is currently run under the auspices of World Billiards Ltd (WBL), a subsidiary company of the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association.
The 1962–63 Television Tournament was a pro-am invitational snooker tournament, featuring eight players. There were four professional participants, and four amateurs. All four professionals lost in the opening round. The tournament was won by Jonathan Barron, who defeated Ron Gross 4–3 in the final. The event was also referred to as the "ITV tournament" and the "BACC Television Tournament".
Douglas French is an English former professional snooker player.
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The Castle Snooker Club was a billiard hall at 57-59 Castle Way, Southampton, England, opened in 1970 by professional snooker player Bernard Bennett. Snooker historian Clive Everton described it as "the earliest of the new-style snooker establishments which were to replace the dingy, disreputable billiard halls of old."