 Caricature of Stevenson, Vanity Fair, 25 May 1905 | |
| Born | 14 June 1874 Hull |
|---|---|
| Died | 11 June 1944 (aged 69) |
| Sport country |  England |
Harry W. Stevenson (1874-1944) was an English champion player of English billiards. He held the world professional title in billiards five times, including two times that he was declared champion without playing.
Stevenson was born in Hull and became a billiards marker, a role that involved keeping the score of billiards matches. He moved to South Africa, but returned to England by 1893. [1] [2]
In 1900, Stevenson and Edward Diggle challenged Charles Dawson for the Billiards Association title. Stevenson beat Diggle in the preliminary round, compiling a break of 648 in the match, but lost 6,775–9,000 to Dawson. [3]
In January 1901, Stevenson beat Dawson to win the title, but Dawson then won it back in April. [3] Following the April match, Stevenson challenged Dawson again. The match was due to be played within three months of the challenge being made, but both players agreed to a postponement until November. Although Dawson was aware that the match was due to be played in November, he organised an exhibition match with Diggle in Glasgow for that month and was unavailable for the championship match. Stevenson refused a further extension, and was awarded the title. [3]
Dawson and Stevenson contested for the title again in 1903, with Dawson winning a close match 9,000–8,700. Following this, the championship was not contested for several years. In 1908, the Billiards Association declared Melbourne Inman the champion. The Billiards Control Club (BCC), formed in 1908, promoted a championship for which Stevenson was the only entry, and he was therefore declared the BCC champion. Inman challenged Stevenson for the BCC title, and they played in 1910, but the match was abandoned following the death of Stevenson's wife on 4 May 1910, with Stevenson leading at that point by just 158. Stevenson subsequently beat Inman for the title twice, in October 1910 and April 1911. Stevenson declined to defend the title in 1912, opting instead to undertake an exhibition tour. Stevenson played Inman again 1919, but was soundly beaten, 9,468–16,000. [3] [4]
His highest break at billiards was 1,016, made in 1912. [1] Sidney Felsted wrote in The Badminton Magazine of Sports and Pastimes in 1913 that "Stevenson possibly represents the prettiest and most stylish player the world has ever seen." [5]
Billiards Association
Billiards Control Club
English billiards, called simply billiards in the United Kingdom and in many former British colonies, is a cue sport that combines the aspects of carom billiards and pool. Two cue balls and a red object ball are used. Each player or team uses a different cue ball. It is played on a billiards table with the same dimensions as one used for snooker and points are scored for cannons and pocketing the balls.
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 1935, 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.
Horace Lindrum was an Australian professional player of snooker and English billiards. Lindrum won the 1952 World Snooker Championship defeating New Zealander Clark McConachy. The tournament is disputed, as it had only two participants, and other players boycotted the event to play in the 1952 World Professional Match-play Championship. Lindrum won the Australian Professional Billiards Championship on multiple occasions, first winning the event in 1934.
Willie Smith was an English professional player of snooker and English billiards. Smith was, according to an article on the English Amateur Billiards Association's website, "by common consent, the greatest all-round billiards player who ever lived".
The 1927 World Snooker Championship was a snooker tournament held at several venues from 29 November 1926 to 12 May 1927. At the time, it was titled the Professional Championship of Snooker but it is now recognised as the inaugural edition of the World Snooker Championship. The impetus for the championship came from professional English billiards player Joe Davis and billiard hall manager Bill Camkin, who had both observed the growing popularity of snooker, and proposed the event to the Billiards Association and Control Council. Ten players entered the competition, including most of the leading English billiards players. The two matches in the preliminary round were held at Thurston's Hall in London, and the semi-finals and final took place at Camkin's Hall in Birmingham. The players involved determined the venues for the quarter-finals, resulting in matches in London, Birmingham, Nottingham and Liverpool.
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.
John Roberts Jr was a dominant English professional player of English billiards. He won the world professional title eight times in matches between 1870 - 1885 when it was held on a challenge basis. His highest break came in 1894. Roberts was also a notable manufacturer of billiards cues and tables, and promoter of the sport.
Jack Karnehm was a British snooker commentator, who was regularly heard on BBC television from 1978 until 1994, and a former amateur world champion at the game of English billiards. Karnehm was also a professional snooker and billiards player.
The 1931 World Snooker Championship was a snooker tournament held at the Lounge Hall in Nottingham, England from 27 April to 1 May 1931. Despite increasing interest in the game of snooker, only two players entered the competition for the title: defending champion Joe Davis and three-times runner-up Tom Dennis. It was the fifth time that the World Snooker Championship had been contested since its inception in 1927. Davis won his fifth World title by defeating Dennis 25–21. Dennis led 19–16 at one stage but Davis won 9 of the next 11 frames to take the title. The highest break of the match was 72, compiled by Davis in the 41st frame.
The 1935 World Snooker Championship was a snooker tournament held at Thurston's Hall in London, England from 8 to 27 April 1935. It was the first edition of the Championship to incorporate "world" in its name, being called the World's Professional Snooker Championship. Joe Davis won the title for the ninth time by defeating Willie Smith by 28 frames to 21 in the final, having achieved a winning margin at 25–20. Davis recorded the first century break in the history of the championship, a 110 in his semi-final match against Tom Newman.
The 1949 World Snooker Championship was a snooker tournament held at Leicester Square Hall in London, England from 21 February to 7 May 1949, organised by the Billiards and Snooker Control Council. There were 12 entrants, of which eight participated in the main draw. Seven players were placed directly into the main draw. They were joined by Conrad Stanbury, who won the qualifying competition which was held from 10 to 19 February at the same venue. Stanbury won all three of his qualifying matches on the deciding frame.
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 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.
Charles Raynor Dawson was an English champion player of English billiards. He held the world professional title in billiards in 1899, 1900, 1901 and 1903, when it was held on a challenge basis.
John Roberts Sr was a Welsh champion player of English billiards.
Edwin Kentfield also known as Jonathan Kentfield, was an English player of English billiards. He claimed the Billiards Championship in 1825 and held it uncontested until 1849.
Charles Chambers was a referee for the cue sports of snooker and English billiards. He worked at Thurston's Hall in London for three decades and was as well known in billiards circles as the leading players. He was the referee during Walter Lindrum's world record billiards break of 4,137 points in 1932. Chambers was the first referee to receive an "A class" certificate from the Billiards Association and Control Council, and refereed the final of the 1937 World Snooker Championship between Joe Davis and Horace Lindrum. His ruling in a 1938 match led to a minimum length cue being specified in the official rules of the game.