the World Three-Cushion Championship is a billiards competition held in the Americas. [1] It was the most prestigious Three-cushion tournament up until the UMB World Three-cushion Championship popularized Three-cushion in Europe. The event was held in United States and from 1928 ran alongside the UMB World Three-cushion Championship, both as World Championship events. By the 1950s, the popularity of three-cushion had declined in the US following the retirement of Willie Hoppe. [2] [ page needed ] [3] [4] [5]
The first three-cushion billiards tournament took place at Mussey’s Billiard Hall in the United States in 1878. The winner was Leon Magnus, who received a cash prize of $75 (equivalent to $2,274 in 2023). However, fans of cue sports were not immediately taken with the new sport of three-cushion billiards. This lack of popularity resulted in a lull in the occurrence of additional tournaments in the United States for several years. In the subsequent decades, the tournament was held only once in 1899 and was won by William Catton.
The popularity of three-cushion billiards increased with the introduction of the Lambert Trophy in 1907. To win this trophy, a player had to defeat others in a knockout-style tournament. Harry Cline was the first winner of the Lambert Trophy. Around this time, less formal tournaments also became popular, especially in the United States. These were designed for both amateur and professional players, with the winner receiving a trophy or cup. Tournaments took place in billiard parlours with proprietors using posters to advertise the tournament events.
In the 1870s, Wayman McCreery invented the game of three-cushion. [1]
| Name | Nationality | Winner | Years a champion |
|---|---|---|---|
| Willie Hoppe |  United States | 15 | 12 |
| Johnny Layton | United States | 6 | 5 |
| Welker Cochran | United States | 5 | 5 |
| Harold Worst | United States | 4 | 4 |
| Otto Reiselt | United States | 2 | |
| August Kieckhefer | United States | 3 |
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.
William Joseph Mosconi was an American professional pool player from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Mosconi is widely considered one of the greatest pool players of all time. Between the years of 1941 and 1957, he won the World Straight Pool Championship nineteen times. For most of the 20th century, his name was essentially synonymous with pool in North America – he was nicknamed "Mr. Pocket Billiards" – and he was among the first Billiard Congress of America Hall of Fame inductees. Mosconi pioneered and regularly employed numerous trick shots, set many records, and helped to popularize pool as a national recreation activity.
Carom billiards, also called French billiards and sometimes carambole billiards, is the overarching title of a family of cue sports generally played on cloth-covered, pocketless billiard tables. In its simplest form, the object of the game is to score points or "counts" by caroming one's own cue ball off both the opponent's cue ball and the object ball on a single shot. The invention as well as the exact date of origin of carom billiards is somewhat obscure but is thought to be traceable to 17th-century France.
Straight rail, also called straight billiards, three-ball billiards, or the free game, is a discipline of carom billiards that is the most basic form of the game. The game is played on a pocketless unmarked billiard table, usually 10 by 5 feet in size, and three billiard balls, one, usually white, that serves as the cue ball for the first player, a second cue ball for the second player, and an object ball, usually red. The object of the game is to score points by striking the player's assigned cue ball with a cue stick so it makes contact with both the opponent's cue ball and the object ball in the same stroke, known as a carom. Games are played to a predetermined number of points.
Sang Chun Lee, most commonly known simply as Sang Lee, was a Korean-born American professional three-cushion billiards player and world champion.
William Frederick Hoppe, was an internationally renowned American professional carom billiards champion. Hoppe is widely considered one of the greatest billiards players of all time and was posthumously inducted into the Billiard Congress of America Hall of Fame in 1966.
Raymond Ceulemans is a Belgian billiards player who won 21 UMB three-cushion World Championship titles, more than any other player. Along with 48 European titles and 61 national titles. His nickname is "Mr 100". He was inducted into the Billiard Congress of America's Hall of Fame in 2001, one of the first non-Americans to receive the honour.
Ralph Greenleaf was an American professional pool and carom billiards player. Greenleaf is widely considered one of the greatest pool players of all time. Between the years 1919 and 1938, he won the World Straight Pool Championship nineteen times.
Welker Cochran was an American professional carom billiards player who won world titles in two different disciplines, balkline and three-cushion billiards.
Alfredo de Oro was a Cuban professional carom billiards and pool player who several times held the world title in both three-cushion billiards and straight pool simultaneously. He was posthumously inducted into the Billiard Congress of America's Hall of Fame in 1967, the first non-American to receive the honor. He was ranked number 4 on the Billiards Digest 50 Greatest Players of the Century.
Dingeman Jacobus Johannes "Dick" Jaspers is a Dutch professional carom billiards player who specializes in the three-cushion event.
Three-cushion billiards, also called three-cushion carom, is a form of carom billiards. The object of the game is to carom the cue ball off both object balls while contacting the railcushions at least three times before contacting the second object ball. A point is scored for each successful carom. In most shots the cue ball hits the object balls one time each, although hitting them any number of times is allowed as long as both are hit. The cue ball may contact the cushions before or after hitting the first object ball. It does not have to contact three different cushions as long as it has been in contact with any cushion at least three times in total.
Five-pin billiards or simply five-pins or 5-pins, is today usually a carom billiards form of cue sport, though sometimes still played on a pocket table. In addition to the customary three balls of most carom games, it makes use of a set of five upright pins (skittles) arranged in a "+" pattern at the center of the table. The game is popular especially in Italy and Argentina, but also in some other parts of Latin America and Europe, with international, televised professional tournaments. It is sometimes referred to as Italian five-pins or Italian billiards, or as simply italiana. A variant of the game, goriziana or nine-pins, adds additional skittles to the formation. A related pocket game, with larger pins, is played in Scandinavia and is referred to in English as Danish pin billiards, with a Swedish variant that has some rules more similar to the Italian game.
The Union Mondiale de Billard is the world governing body for carom (carambole) billiard games.
Morton Goldberg, nicknamed "Boston Shorty", was an American professional pool player. Born in Rochester, New York, Goldberg beat such famous pool players as Minnesota Fats, Irving Crane, and Willie Munson
The World Straight Pool Championship is a pool competition, that was held up until the game of Nine-ball became popularized in America. It was the most prestigious straight pool tournament up until the early 21st century, tournaments like the American 14.1 Straight Pool Championship and the European Pool Championship 14.1 that are still held annually, have gained prominence in recent years. During the tournament's early years, it was the only global professional title for straight pool. The event was revived in 2006, in part to restore the game's popularity in the United States. The World Straight Pool Championship was sanctioned by the World Pool-Billiard Association (WPA) in 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2010. The tournament continued unsanctioned from 2011 to 2019. Ralph Greenleaf & Willie Mosconi are the most successful players having both won the tournament on 19 occasions. The oldest player to win the tournament is Irving Crane at 59 years old at the time of his victory. The youngest player to win the tournament is Ralph Greenleaf at 20 years old at the time of his first victory.
The CEB European Three-cushion Championship is three-cushion billiards tournament organized by the Confédération Européenne de Billard. Held since 1932, it is one of longest-running tournaments in the sport. The 2007 event offered a total purse of €18,500 (US$26,134) with €4,000 ($5,651) for the winner.
Eddy Merckx is a Belgian professional three-cushion billiards player.
Masako Katsura, nicknamed "Katsy" and sometimes called the "First Lady of Billiards", was a Japanese carom billiards player who was most active in the 1950s. Katsura blazed a trail for women in the sport by competing and placing among the best in the male-dominated world of professional billiards. First learning the game from her brother-in-law and then under the tutelage of Japanese champion Kinrey Matsuyama, Katsura became Japan's only female professional player. In competition in Japan, she took second place in the country's national three-cushion billiards championship three times. In exhibition she was noted for running 10,000 points at the game of straight rail.
Herbert Hardt was an American semi-professional carom billiards player from Chicago, Illinois. A bank clerk by day, Hardt took second place at the 1952 United States Eastern Regional Three-cushion Billiards Championship, thereby qualifying to play as one of ten contestants worldwide in the U.S.-hosted World Three-cushion Billiards Championship of the same year. Hardt came in dead last at the world championship, though he was competing against the best players in the world.
Worst won the world title for three-cushion billiards in Argentina in 1954, the youngest player to compete in world competition.
