| Born | 25 April 1936 Grimsby, Lincolnshire, England |
|---|---|
| Sport country |  England |
| Professional | 1978–1995 |
| Highest ranking | 28 (1980–1982) [1] |
Ray Edmonds (born 25 April 1936 in Grimsby, Lincolnshire) is a former English professional player of English billiards and snooker. [2] He twice won the World Amateur Snooker title, and won the World Professional Billiards Championship in 1985.
Edmonds first played snooker as an amateur, winning the World Amateur crown in 1972 and 1974. [3] After turning professional he reached the main stages World Snooker Championship on four occasions, in 1980, 1981, 1985 and 1986, on each occasion losing in the first round. [4] He was as a semi-finalist at the 1981 English Professional Championship, [2] and runner-up in the invitational 1982 Bass and Golden Leisure Classic. [5]
Edmonds became World Professional Billiards Champion in 1985. [6] At the 1988 Grand Prix (snooker), he reached the last-16 round. [7]
In the qualifying competition for the 1994 World Snooker Championship, he lost 3–5 to Surinder Gill, and the following year he lost 4–5 to Darren Limburg. [2] [1] In 1995, he resigned from the board of the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association after serving on it for 14 years. [8]
Edmonds set up the Ray Edmonds Snooker Centre in Grimsby in December 1983. [3] He also worked as a snooker commentator with both ITV [3] and the BBC, [6] before retiring in 2004. [3]
Joe Johnson is an English former professional snooker player and snooker commentator for Eurosport. He became the British under-19 champion in 1971 as an amateur, defeating Tony Knowles in the final. After reaching the finals of the 1978 English Amateur Championship and the 1978 World Amateur Championship, Johnson turned professional in 1979. He reached his first ranking final at the 1983 Professional Players Tournament, and reached the semi-finals of the 1985 Classic.
Raymond Reardon is a retired Welsh professional snooker player. He turned professional in 1967 and dominated the sport in the 1970s, winning the World Snooker Championship six times and more than a dozen other tournaments. Reardon was World Champion in 1970, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, and 1978, and runner-up in 1982. He won the inaugural Pot Black tournament in 1969, the 1976 Masters, and the 1982 Professional Players Tournament.
Pierre "Perrie" Mans was a South African professional snooker player. He first won the South African Professional Championship in 1965 and lifted the title 20 times. Mans won the Benson & Hedges Masters in 1979 and reached the final of the World Championship in 1978.
John Spencer was an English professional snooker player. One of the most dominant players of the 1970s, he won the World Snooker Championship three times, in 1969, 1971 and 1977. He worked as a snooker commentator for the BBC from 1978 to 1998, and served for 25 years on the board of the sport's governing body, the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA), including a stint as chairman from 1990 until his retirement from the board in 1996.
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.
Edward FrancisCharlton, was an Australian professional snooker and English billiards player.* He remains the only player to have been world championship runner-up in both snooker and billiards without winning either title. He later became a successful marketer of sporting goods launching a popular brand of billiard room equipment bearing his name.
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.
Clifford Wilson was a Welsh professional snooker player who reached the highest ranking of 16, in 1988-89. He was the 1978 World Amateur Champion and won the 1991 World Seniors Championship. He was a successful junior player, known for his fast attacking snooker and potting ability, and won the British Under-19 Championship in 1951 and 1952. In the early 1950s both Wilson and future six-times World Professional Champion Ray Reardon lived in Tredegar, where they played a succession of money matches that attracted large enthusiastic crowds.
Markham Wildman is an English retired professional snooker and English billiards player and cue sports commentator. He won the World Professional Billiards Championship in 1984, and was runner up in 1980 and 1982. He made a televised snooker century break in 1960.
Robert Chaperon is a Canadian retired professional snooker and billiards player.
Clive Harold Everton is a sports commentator, journalist, author and former professional snooker and English billiards player. He founded Snooker Scene magazine, which was first published in 1971, and continued as editor until September 2022. He has authored over twenty books about cue sports since 1972.
Eugene Hughes is an Irish former professional snooker player. In 1985, 1986 and 1987 he was a member of the successful all-Irish team in the World Cup, alongside Alex Higgins and Dennis Taylor.
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.
George Scott was an English professional snooker player.
Joe Grech was a Maltese snooker and billiards player. A professional snooker player for various years from 1988 to 2000, he won the IBSF World Billiards Championship in 1997. First competing as an amateur in the 1979s, he competed in amateur and professional snooker and billiards championships in a career spanning nearly 40 years. He won the Maltese English Billiards Championship on 21 occasions including 13 successive titles from 2003 to 2015.
Norman Dagley was an English world champion player of English billiards. He won both the world amateur and world professional titles twice.
Ian Williamson is an English former professional snooker and English billiards player.
Sid Hood (1933–2006) was an English former professional snooker player. He was the runner-up at the 1970 World Amateur Snooker Championship.
Jonathan Barron is a retired English snooker player. He won the 1970 World Amateur Snooker Championship and was the first player to win the English Amateur Championship in three consecutive years.
Douglas French is an English former professional snooker player.
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