Finalist statistics
| Rank | Name | Country | Champion | Runner-up |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ruth Harrison |  England | 8 | 0 |
| 2 | Thelma Carpenter | England | 1 | 4 |
| 3 | Agnes Morris |  Wales | 1 | 3 |
| 4 | Joyce Gardner | England | 0 | 3 |
| Tournament information | |
|---|---|
| Location | London |
| Country | England |
| Established | 1934 |
| Organisation(s) | Women's Billiards Association |
| Format | Single elimination |
| Final year | 1950 |
| Final champion | Thelma Carpenter |
The Women's Professional Snooker Championship was a snooker tournament organised by the Women's Billiards Association. Held ten times, the event was first played from 1934 to 1941, and again from 1947 to 1950. [1] [2] Across all ten editions, only four players reached the final. Ruth Harrison won eight of the events, with Agnes Morris and Thelma Carpenter winning the others.
The Women's Billiards Association was established in 1931, and instituted an amateur snooker tournament two years later, after initiating championships for English billiards. [3] Their professional snooker championship was first held in 1934, and was open to players from England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and the Irish Free State. [1] [4] At the time, women's snooker gained less coverage than women's English billiards. [5]
Harrison, who won the inaugural title, had started playing the game two years earlier. [6] In the semi-final, she eliminated her coach Eva Collins. [6] [7] In the final, she defeated Joyce Gardner, as she had in the final of the Women's Professional Billiards Championship a few days earlier. [8] Harrison won each instance of the annual event to 1940, and claimed her eighth title when the tournament was re-established in 1947, [1] after it had been suspended during World War II. [9] She did not participate in the 1949 tournament as she felt that holding the event in June meant it would fall outside of the annual snooker season, [10] and only Carpenter and Morris entered for the 1950 championship. [11]
The first tournaments were held at Burroughes Hall, London, and the events from 1947 took place at Leicester Square Hall, London. The last time that the tournament was held, in 1950, Carpenter took the title, a few days after winning the World Women's Billiards Championship event. [12] Gardner and Carpenter were the only two entries for the 1951 championship, which was due to be staged at the Albright and Wilson Recreation Club in Langley, but Gardner withdrew because of her mother's illness, [13] and that year's event was cancelled. [14] The 1950 event proved to be the last time the tournament was held, as public interest in the contest declined. [1]
The Women's World Open in 1976 and 1980 were later recognised as the first editions of the World Women's Snooker Championship. [15] Gardner, three-times Women's Professional Snooker Championship runner-up, was the top seed in 1976, [16] and Morris, the 1949 champion, reached the final in 1980. [17]
| Year | Winner | Runner-up | Final score | Venue | Notes | Ref(s). |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1934 | Ruth Harrison | Joyce Gardner | 7–6 | Burroughes Hall | There were five entrants. Ruth Harrison defeated Irene Armes 3–0 in the first round match, and then eliminated Eva Collins 7–2 in the semi-finals. In the other semi-final, Joyce Gardner whitewashed Rose Bradley 9–0. Gardner led 6–2 in the final, but Harrison took the next five frames to secure the title. | [18] [8] [2] |
| 1935 | Ruth Harrison | Joyce Gardner | 7–5 | Burroughes Hall | There were three entrants. Harrison defeated Thelma Carpenter 5–1 in the semi-final and won 7–5 against Gardner in the final. | [19] [20] [21] |
| 1936 | Ruth Harrison | Thelma Carpenter | 7–3 | Burroughes Hall | There were four entrants. Harrison won 5–1 against Collins in one semi-final, and Carpenter defeated Gardner by the same score in the other. Harrison claimed the title with a 7 -3 victory against Carpenter. | [22] [23] |
| 1937 | Ruth Harrison | Joyce Gardner | 9–4 | Burroughes Hall | There were four entrants. Gardner secured a decisive lead at 5–1 against Margaret Lennan, and won 5–4 after dead frames ; and Harrison eliminated Carpenter 8–1. Harrison won the title by defeating Gardner 9–4 in the final. | [24] [25] |
| 1938 | Ruth Harrison | Thelma Carpenter | 11–2 | Burroughes Hall | There were five entrants. Carpenter defeated Gardner 3–2 in the first round, and then eliminated Barbara Meston 6–3 in the semi-finals. Harrison won by the same score against Margaret Lennan in the other semi-final. The final saw Harrison defeat Carpenter 11–2. | |
| 1939 | Ruth Harrison | Thelma Carpenter | 8–5 | Burroughes Hall | There were five entrants, but Joyce Gardner withdrew due to influenza, giving Carpenter a walkover to the final. G.I. Rowley eliminated Barbara Meston 3–2 in the first round, before losing 0–9 to Harrison. Harrison defeated Carpenter 8–5 and won her sixth title. | [27] [28] |
| 1940 | Ruth Harrison | Agnes Morris | 11–2 | Burroughes Hall | There were five entrants. Agnes Morris defeated Margaret Lennan 3–2 in the first round, and then received a bye to the final as Gardner withdrew because her husband was ill. Harrison won 8–1 against Barbara Meston. After the first day of the final, Harrison led 6–2 against Davies and needed only one frame to win. She took the ninth frame 54–38 to secure the title. Four further frames were played, all of which Harrison won. | [29] |
| 1941–1947 | No tournament held | [1] | ||||
| 1948 | Ruth Harrison | Agnes Morris | 16–14 | Leicester Square Hall | There were four entrants. In the first round, Agnes Morris eliminated Gardner 16–5 and Carpenter won against Meston by the same score. Morris then defeated Carpenter 11–10 in the playoff to determine who would face Harrison in the final. Harrison won the title at 16–10; Morris took the four dead frames, leaving the final score 16–14. | [30] |
| 1949 | Agnes Morris | Thelma Carpenter | 16–15 | Leicester Square Hall | There were three entrants. In the semi-final, Thelma Carpenter eliminated Joyce Gardner 20–11. Carpenter won nine consecutive frames (from the 8th to the 16th) and at one point was leading 15–5. The highest break of the match was 37 by Carpenter. In the final, Carpenter led Morris 4–1 after the first session; after two sessions, the pair were level at 5–5, and two sessions later were again on equal terms at 10–10. They were tied at 15–15, which forced a deciding frame. Morris then compiled the highest break of the match, 33, and took the 31st frame to win the championship. | [31] [32] |
| 1950 | Thelma Carpenter | Agnes Morris | 20–10 | Leicester Square Hall | There were only two entrants. Carpenter defeated Morris 20–10, after achieving a winning margin at 16–7. | [12] [11] [33] |
| Rank | Name | Country | Champion | Runner-up |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ruth Harrison | England | 8 | 0 |
| 2 | Thelma Carpenter | England | 1 | 4 |
| 3 | Agnes Morris | Wales | 1 | 3 |
| 4 | Joyce Gardner | England | 0 | 3 |
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 1930, he scored the championship's first century break.
Walter Weir Wilson Donaldson was a Scottish professional snooker and billiards player. He contested eight consecutive world championship finals against Fred Davis from 1947 to 1954, and won the title in 1947 and 1950. Donaldson was known for his long potting and his consistency when playing, and had an aversion to the use of side. In 2012, he was inducted posthumously into the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association's World Snooker Hall of Fame.
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.
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.
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 1937 World Snooker Championship was a snooker tournament held at Thurston's Hall in London, England from 22 February to 20 March 1937. It is recognised as the 11th edition of the World Snooker Championship. There were nine participants in the event, with debutants Fred Davis and Bill Withers competing in a qualifying match. Withers won the match to join with the remaining seven players in the main event.
The 1946 World Snooker Championship was a professional snooker tournament held from 4 February to 18 May 1946. Joe Davis won the title by defeating Horace Lindrum by 78 frames to 67 in the final, although the winning margin was reached at 73–62. It was Davis's fifteenth championship win, maintaining his unbeaten record in the tournament since its first edition in 1927. The highest break of the event was 136, a new championship record, compiled by Davis in the final.
The 1947 World Snooker Championship was a professional snooker tournament that took place from 20 January to 25 October 1947. The final was held at the Leicester Square Hall in London, England, from 13 to 25 October. The semi-finals were completed in March, but the final was delayed due to building works at the venue, which had been bombed in October 1940. Walter Donaldson won the title by defeating Fred Davis by 82 frames to 63 in the final, although he reached the winning margin earlier, at 73–49. Davis made the highest break of the tournament with a 135 clearance in frame 86 of the final.
The 1952 World Professional Match-play Championship was a snooker tournament held from 12 November 1951 to 15 March 1952, with the final taking place at the Tower Circus in Blackpool, England. The event was created following a dispute between the Professional Billiard Players' Association (PBPA) and the Billiards Association and Control Council (BACC). The BACC claimed that the championship was primarily about honour, and financial consideration should come behind this, whilst the PBPA members felt that the BACC was taking too large a share of the income from the events and established an alternative 'world championship' called the World Professional Match-play Championship, editions of which are now recognised as world championships.
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.
Agnes Davies, born Agnes Morris, was a Welsh snooker and billiards player. She was known for having a competitive playing career spanning 64 years, during which she won the Women's Professional Snooker Championship in 1949, and reached world championship snooker finals in 1940, 1948, 1950, and 1980.
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 billiards and snooker player. She won the Women's Professional Billiards Championship three times, and the Women's Professional Snooker Championship once.
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 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.
W. A. "Bill" Withers was a Welsh player of English billiards and snooker. He defeated Fred Davis in the preliminary match for the 1937 World Snooker Championship, and lost 1–30 to Joe Davis in the quarter-finals. In the qualifying competition for the 1950 World Snooker Championship, he played Willie Smith, and lost 7–28. Withers won the Welsh amateur billiards championship in March 1928.
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.
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