 Baynton in 1953, aged 16 | |
| Born | 1937 (age 86–87) England |
|---|---|
| Sport country |  England |
Maureen Baynton (born Maureen Barrett in 1937) is an English former snooker and billiards player. She held the record for winning most Women's Amateur Snooker Championships after winning eight times between 1954 and 1968, and also won seven Women's Amateur Billiards championships between 1955 and 1980. She was runner-up in the 1983 World Women's Snooker Championship.
Baynton began to play snooker and billiards at Peckham Health Centre, teaching herself, from the age of 11. Three years after taking up the games, she was the girls champion at both snooker and billiards. [1] [2] [3]
After a highly successful playing career in which she won a record eight Women's Amateur Snooker Championships between 1954 and 1968, and seven Women's Amateur Billiards championships between 1955 and 1980, she retired from competition for several years. [4] When the World Women's Snooker Championship was staged in 1976, Baynton entered, reaching the semi-final, where she lost to Muriel Hazeldene. [5] In the 1983 tournament she went one stage further, reaching the final, where she lost 5–8 to Sue Foster. [6] [7]
Throughout her career, she used the cue that she received, aged 10, for winning the Schoolgirls Championship in 1947. It is now on display at the Billiards and Snooker Heritage Collection in Liverpool. [8]
Snooker
| Outcome | No. | Year | Championship | Opponent | Score | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winner | 1 | 1954 | Women's Amateur Snooker Champion | [4] | ||
| Winner | 2 | 1955 | Women's Amateur Snooker Champion | [4] | ||
| Winner | 3 | 1956 | Women's Amateur Snooker Champion | [4] | ||
| Winner | 4 | 1961 | Women's Amateur Snooker Champion | Thea March | 4–1 | [9] |
| Winner | 5 | 1962 | Women's Amateur Snooker Champion | Rita Holmes | 4–1 | [10] |
| Winner | 6 | 1964 | Women's Amateur Snooker Champion | [4] | ||
| Winner | 7 | 1966 | Women's Amateur Snooker Champion | [4] | ||
| Winner | 8 | 1968 | Women's Amateur Snooker Champion | [4] | ||
| Runner-up | 9 | 1983 | Women's World Snooker Championships | Sue Foster | 5–8 | [6] [7] |
Billiards
| Outcome | No. | Year | Championship | Opponent | Score | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Runner-up | 1 | 1954 | World Women’s Billiards Championship | Helen Futo | 430–448 | [11] |
| Winner | 2 | 1955 | World Women’s Billiards Championship | E Morland-Smith | 451–401 | [12] |
| Winner | 3 | 1956 | World Women’s Billiards Championship | [4] | ||
| Winner | 4 | 1957 | World Women’s Billiards Championship | E Morland-Smith | 553–334 | [13] |
| Winner | 5 | 1964 | World Women’s Billiards Championship | Rae Craven | 649–336 | [14] |
| Winner | 6 | 1966 | World Women’s Billiards Championship | Vera Youle | 514–319 | [15] |
| Winner | 7 | 1968 | World Women’s Billiards Championship | Rae Craven | 434–265 | [16] |
| Runner-up | 8 | 1978 | World Women’s Billiards Championship | Vera Selby | 319–366 | [17] |
| Winner | 9 | 1979 | World Women’s Billiards Championship | Vera Selby | [18] |
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.
Herbert John Pulman was an English professional snooker player who was the World Snooker Champion from 1957 to 1968. He first won the title at the 1957 Championship and retained it across seven challenges from 1964 to 1968, three of them against Fred Davis and two against Rex Williams. When the tournament reverted to a knockout event in 1969, he lost 18–25 in the first round to the eventual champion John Spencer. After finishing as runner-up to Ray Reardon in 1970, Pulman never again reached the final, although he was a losing semi-finalist in 1977.
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.
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.
The 1955 World Professional Match-play Championship was a professional snooker tournament, the fourth edition of the World Professional Match-play Championship, held 4 November 1954 to 19 March 1955. The event was held at several venues across the United Kingdom, with the final at the Tower Circus in Blackpool from 14 to 19 March 1955. The entries did not include Walter Donaldson who reached the 1954 final, but chose not to participate at the event.
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.
Kingsley Kennerley was an English billiards and snooker player. From 1937 to 1940, he appeared in each English Amateur Snooker Championship and English Amateur Billiards Championship final. He won the Billiards Championship for those four consecutive years, and the Snooker title in 1937 and 1940. His billiards break of 549 in the 1937 event remained the championship record until 1978. In 1938, he was runner-up in the Empire Amateur Billiards Championship, losing to Bob Marshall in the final, but making the championship record break of 472.
The 1968–69 snooker season, the first season of the modern era of snooker, was a series of snooker tournaments played between July 1968 and March 1969. The following table outlines the results for the season's events.
Joyce Gardner (1910–1981) was an English professional English billiards player. She was the Women's Professional Billiards Champion from 1931 to 1933, and from 1935 to 1938.
Sue Foster is an English former snooker player. She won the Women's World Snooker Championship in 1983.
Ruth Harrison was an English snooker and billiards player. She won the Women's Professional Snooker Championship each year from its inception in 1934 to 1940, and again when it was next held, in 1948. She also won the Women's Professional Billiards Championship three times.
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.
Thelma Carpenter was an English player of English billiards and snooker. She won the World Ladies' Amateur Billiards Championship, now recognised as editions of the World Women's Billiards Championship, each year from 1932 to 1934. After turning professional in 1934, she won the Women's Professional Billiards Championship four times and the Women's Professional Snooker Championship once, retiring as the reigning champion of both in 1950.
The Women's Billiards Association (WBA), founded in 1931 and based in London, United Kingdom, was the governing body for women's English billiards and snooker, and organised the Women's Professional Billiards Championship and Women's Professional Snooker Championship as well as amateur and junior competitions. The founding meeting was held on 13 May 1931 at the Women's Automobile and Sports Association. The meeting was chaired by Teresa Billington-Greig and appointed Viscountess Elibank as the first president and Mrs Longworth as the first chairman. The WBA ran amateur and professional billiards competitions starting from 1932, an amateur snooker tournament from 1933, and a professional snooker championship from 1934.
Eva Collins was an English snooker and billiards player. She was runner-up in the 1930 British Women's Billiards Championship, and in its successor tournament, the Women's Professional Billiards Championship in 1931.
The 1976 Women's World Open was a women's snooker tournament that took place in Middlesbrough in 1976. Vera Selby won the final 4–0 against Muriel Hazeldene.
Muriel Hazeldene was an English snooker and billiards player. She was runner-up to Vera Selby in the 1976 Women's World Open snooker championship.
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.
Sue in pocket: SUE FOSTER picked up a cheque for £2,000 after clinching the women's world snooker championship, just £28,000 short of the figure Steve Davis received for taking this year's men's title. Sue, from Tamworth, beat Maureen Baynton, a 46-year-old Surrey housewife, 8-5 in the final at Brean Sands, Somerset.