| Born | Canada |
|---|---|
| Sport country |  Canada |
| Highest ranking | 2 (Women's snooker) |
Maryann McConnell is a Canadian snooker and pool player. She was runner-up in the 1984 Professional World Women's Snooker Championship and has won numerous pool tournaments in Canada.
McConnell started playing at the age of 24, at the University of Guelph in Ontario where she studied from 1974 to 1980. [1] She later drove daily to a pool hall in nearby Kitchener, where she played snooker, practicing for as much as eight hours a day. [2]
In 1980, 1981, and 1983, she was a quarter-finalist in the World Women's Snooker Championship. In 1984, separate amateur and professional events were staged. McConnell entered the professional event, and reached the final, losing 2–4 to Mandy Fisher. At one time, McConnell was the second-ranked woman player. [2] [3]
She was the runner-up in the 1984 National Express Grand Prix ladies snooker series, [4] and spent the summer of 1985 living in Saudi Arabia. [5]
In 1991, she took part in the 1991 World Masters, losing in her first matches in both the women's singles, and the women's doubles (with J. Page). In the mixed doubles she fared slightly better, partnering Alain Robidoux to wins over Neal Foulds and J. Page, and over seeded Terry Griffiths and Mandy Fisher, before losing to James Wattana and S. Smith. [6] [7]
In 1992, she beat Sherri Richardson 4–2 in the semi-final, and Rhondda Jackman in the final to win the Canadian Women's Championship, retaining the title that she had won at the previous staging in 1983. [8]
McConnell has a degree in fine art [1] and runs a pool hall, Alberni Valley Billiards. [2] She has four children. Her late husband Robin Woodward died in 2013, and had worked with McConnell managing the business. [9]
Snooker
Nine-ball Pool
Eight-Ball Pool
Scotch Doubles (Pool)
Snooker is a cue sport played on a rectangular billiards table covered with a green cloth called baize, with six pockets, one at each corner and one in the middle of each long side. First played by British Army officers stationed in India in the second half of the 19th century, the game is played with twenty-two balls, comprising a white cue ball, fifteen red balls, and six other balls—a yellow, green, brown, blue, pink, and black—collectively called the colours. Using a cue stick, the individual players or teams take turns to strike the cue ball to pot other balls in a predefined sequence, accumulating points for each successful pot and for each time the opposing player or team commits a foul. An individual frame of snooker is won by the player who has scored the most points. A snooker match ends when a player reaches a predetermined number of frames.
Clifford Charles Devlin Thorburn is a Canadian retired professional snooker player. Nicknamed "The Grinder" because of his slow, determined style of play, he won the World Snooker Championship in 1980, defeating Alex Higgins 18–16 in the final. He is generally recognised as the sport's first world champion from outside the United Kingdom—since Australian Horace Lindrum's 1952 title is usually disregarded—and he remains the only world champion from the Americas. He was runner-up in two other world championships, losing 21–25 to John Spencer in the 1977 final and 6–18 to Steve Davis in the 1983 final. At the 1983 tournament, Thorburn became the first player to make a maximum break in a World Championship match, achieving the feat in his second-round encounter with Terry Griffiths.
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Women's cue sports in Australia is a sporting topic that has received some Australian media coverage since the early 20th century. Coverage began with English billiards and today is more often about the sport of snooker and various pool games such as eight-ball.
Robby Foldvari is an Australian player of snooker, English billiards, and pool. He is a multi-year World Billiards Champion, and a national-level champion in both snooker and nine-ball pool (2012), as well as a World Games competitor (2013). Outside of competition, he is a coach and television commentator. Foldvari won the Australian Open 8 Ball Pool Championship (2015), completing the royal flush of national titles in every cuesports discipline. In June 2016 he won the Australian Open 10 ball Pool Championship
Vidya Viswanathan Pillai is an Indian professional snooker player. Vidya Pillai grew up in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. In recognition of her achievements, the Government of Karnataka bestowed her with the Ekalavya award in 2016 for outstanding performance in Sports. She has won several International medals for India and in 2013 won the gold medal in the IBSF World Team Snooker Championship, Gold in the IBSF Australian Women's Ranking Snooker Championship in 2016 and was the first Indian woman to reach the finals of the WLBSA World Women's Snooker Championship in 2017. She is also a 9-time winner of the National Championship Title.
The World Women's Snooker Championship is the longest-running and most prestigious tournament on the World Women's Snooker Tour. Staged 41 times since the inaugural edition in 1976, it has produced 15 different champions, six of whom have won the title more than once.
Francisco Sánchez Ruíz is a Spanish professional pool player, nicknamed "The Ferrari" and by his initials "FSR". He won both the 2022 WPA World Eight-ball Championship and the 2023 WPA World Nine-ball Championship.
Mandy Fisher is an English former professional snooker player and a World Women's Snooker Championship winner in 1984. Fisher founded the World Ladies Billiards and Snooker Association in 1981 and currently serves as the president.
Stacey Hillyard is an English former professional snooker player, who won the 1984 amateur World Women's Snooker Championship at the age of 15, making her the youngest winner of the tournament. She reached the final of the competition on five further occasions.
Lesley McIlrath is an Australian former snooker player. She won the Women's World Open Championship in 1980.
Natalie Stelmach was a Canadian snooker player. She was runner-up in the 1984 Amateur World Women's Snooker Championship.
Sue LeMaich is a Canadian snooker player. She was runner-up in the 1986 World Women's Snooker Championship.
Kim Shaw is an English snooker and pool player. She was runner-up in the 1995 World Women's Snooker Championship, and was the first player to compile a century break in a World Ladies Billiards and Snooker Association tournament.
Anastasia Nechaeva is a Russian amateur snooker and professional pool player. She was runner-up in the 2014 and 2015 IBSF World Snooker Championships.
Mario Morra is a Canadian professional pool player and former professional snooker player. He reached the tournament finals of the 1984 Canadian Professional Championship, the 2008 Canadian Nine-ball championship, and the 2010 Canadian Ten-ball championship.
The 1991 Women's World Snooker Championship was a women's snooker tournament played at various venues in the United Kingdom in 1991. Allison Fisher beat Karen Corr 8–2 in the final to win the title, and made a championship record break of 103 in the qualifying rounds.
Daria Sirotina is a Russian amateur snooker and professional pool player. She won the European Ladies Team Championship, partnered with Anastasia Nechaeva, each year from 2012 to 2016. She was runner-up in the women's 2013 IBSF World Six-reds Championship, failing to score in three of the four frames in the final, losing 0–4 to Ng On-yee.
The 1981 Women's World Open was a women's snooker tournament that took place in May 1981 at Thorness Bay, organised by the Women's Billiards Association and sponsored by Guinness. It is recognised as the 1981 edition of the World Women's Snooker Championship first held in 1976. Vera Selby defeated Mandy Fisher 3–0 in the final to win the title, receiving £2,000 prize money as champion.
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