Willie Smith (billiards player)

Willie Smith (born 25 January 1886 in Darlington, † June 2, 1982 in Leeds ) was an English snooker and English billiards player.

Career

English Billiards

Smith was one of the greatest talents and a great all-rounder in both English Billiards and snooker. 1920 and 1923 he took part in the World Championships in English billiards, which he won and. Disputes with the board of BACC caused him henceforth no longer participate in this tournament.

Smith was the first professional who played with a brass ferrule. Although Messingferrulen were produced since the 1880s, he earned first by his peers derision and ridicule. Around 1930, however, all professional players had switched to it. In 1923, Smith equip its queue with a ferrule made ​​of gold. As it turned out, - not the best choice. 1929, in a game against Walter Lindrum, they broke.

In addition to the popularization of Messingferrulen Smith contributed to the spread of heavier cues, weighing 18 ¾ ounces (about 531.5 grams), at. Commonly and " recommended " were at that time queues with a weight of 16 ½ -17 oz (about 467.7 to 481.9 gr).

The Compositbälle were introduced in England 1928/29 season. This consists of Chrystalate balls ran better and so Smith could play 15 shots with more than 1,000 points this season. He played The highest uptake against Tom Newman in November 1928, 2,743 points. That was a new record. His second highest recording at 2,030 points, he managed a tour in Australia in 1929 against Clark McConachy.

However, his skill level came in free play to better advantage than on official tournaments. The six -time world champion Melbourne Inman, he was at a game a lead of 1,000 points. After all bets were completed took Smith to the residue and won the game by a margin of 4,000 points. This rivalry took place at the World Cup in 1920 peaked. Inman, who did not compete to defend his title last year, has named himself " undefeated champion ". Smith commented, saying: "Of course, if you do not antrittst, then you also can not be beaten. "

Snooker

For monetary reasons and because of his disputes with the BACC he began, at the end of the 1920s, to play even at Snooker World Championships. 1933 and 1935 it achieved the final. There, however, he had to admit defeat Joe Davis, respectively. He was also at the table, as Davis in 1955 played the first official maximum break of 147 points. He said at the time that he was glad to have been there, and that belong to that moment of the highlights of his career.

His last game made ​​Smith in 1960 at the age of 75 years in the Burroughs Hall his lifelong sponsor Burroughes & Watts against Joyce Gardner. After the game, for his opinion on Snooker asked Smith replied: "You should change the rules ," " All " " What rules? ".