Sidney Smith (snooker player)

Sidney Smith
Born26 March 1908
Killamarsh, Derbyshire
Died26 June 1990 (aged 82)
Amersham, Buckinghamshire
Sport country England

Sidney Smith (26 March 1908 – 26 June 1990) was a professional billiards and snooker player from the 1930s to the 1950s. He was born in Killamarsh, Derbyshire, England.[1][2] He moved with his parents to Doncaster when he was two, and stayed there until after he started playing cue sorts professionally.[1] The family had a full-size billiard table at home, and Smith started playing English billiards when he was 12, making his first century break when he was 14.[1] When he was 19, he won the Yorkshire professional tournaments for both billiards and snooker.[1]

He won the 1929 English Junior Championship, for professional players aged under 25, by defeating Joe Earlam 4,000-3,433.[1][3] In 1929-30 he was employed by the cue sports company Burroughes and Watts to referee tournaments between leading players such as Walter Lindrum, Tom Newman and Willie Smith.[1] He watched and learned from observing these players at close quarters.[1] He played a series of matches against Smith in 1929-30, and made a break of 1,292 during one contest.[1]

Smith was his opponent when he entered the 1936 World Snooker Championship, and although Sidney Smith led 15-10 in the best-of-31-frames match, his opponent took the last six frames to win.[1] Sidney Smith was the first player to make a total clearance in snooker competition, a break of 133 on 11 December 1936 in the Daily Mail Gold Cup.[2] This was a world record break, eclipsing the previous best of 119 which had been achieved by both Joe Davis and Horace Lindrum.[1] In the 1937 World Championship he eliminated Alec Brown in the quarter finals, reaching a winning score at 16–11. The final score was 18–13.[4][5] In the semi-finals he lost at 12–16, to Davis the final score being 18–13 after dead frames.[6]

Smith was the runner-up to Joe Davis in the World Snooker Championships of 1938 (having beaten Joe's brother Fred 18–13 in the semi-final)[7] and 1939,[8] and he was a semi-finalist on four occasions in total, reaching that stage again in 1940,[9] 1947,[10] 1949.[11]

Smith's most notable tournament wins were the 1948 United Kingdom Professional Billiards Championship (beating John Barrie 7000–6428)[2] and the 1951/1952 News of the World Snooker Tournament.[12][13]

Smith was the runner-up to Alec Brown in the 1938/1939 Daily Mail Gold Cup[14] and later runner-up to Joe Davis in the 1949/50 News of the World Tournament[12] and the 1950 Sporting Record Masters' Snooker Tournament.

Smith made three billiard breaks over over 1,000 points in his career, with his highest being the 1,292 against Smith.[2]

Smith died in 1990 aged 82.[13]

Performance timeline

Tournament 1935/
36 		1936/
37 		1937/
38 		1938/
39 		1939/
40 		1945/
46 		1946/
47 		1947/
48 		1948/
49 		1949/
50 		1950/
51 		1951/
52 		1952/
53
Daily Mail Gold Cup[nb 1][nb 2] NH 5 5 2 7 Tournament Not Held
Sunday Empire News Tournament[nb 1] Tournament Not Held 5 Tournament Not Held
News of the World Snooker Tournament[nb 1] Tournament Not Held 2 6 1 9
Sporting Record Masters' Tournament[nb 1] Tournament Not Held 2 Tournament Not Held
World Championship 1R SF F F SF A SF QF SF A QF A NH[a]
Performance Table Legend
LQ lost in the qualifying draw #R/N lost in the early rounds of the tournament
(N = position in round-robin event) 		QF lost in the quarter-finals
SF lost in the semi-finals F lost in the final W won the tournament
DNQ did not qualify for the tournament A did not participate in the tournament WD withdrew from the tournament
NH / Not Held means an event was not held.
  1. ^ a b c d Round-robin handicap tournament
  2. ^ Billiards event before 1936/37 season

Notes

  1. ^ Replaced by the World Professional Match-play Championship

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Lee, Roger (September 1990). "One of the True Greats". Pot Black. p. 31.
  2. ^ a b c d Andy Hunter on the Cue Collector website http://www.thecuecollector.com/files/CueCollectorArticles/Hunter_Article_16__Sidney_Smith_.pdf Retrieved 2011-Dec-7
  3. ^ "English Junior Championship". Hull Daily Mail. 28 February 1929. p. 2 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ^ "Snooker Pool – The Professional Championship". The Times. 4 March 1937. p. 6.
  5. ^ "World Championship 1937". Global Snooker. Archived from the original on 28 December 2010. Retrieved 9 February 2011.
  6. ^ "Snooker Pool – The Professional Championship". The Times. 15 March 1937. p. 5.
  7. ^ Global Snooker website "The World Snooker Championship 1938". Archived from the original on 22 February 2012. Retrieved 22 February 2012. Retrieved 2011-Dec-7
  8. ^ Global Snooker website "The World Snooker Championship 1939". Archived from the original on 22 February 2012. Retrieved 22 February 2012. Retrieved 2011-Dec-7
  9. ^ Global Snooker website "World Championship Snooker 1940". Archived from the original on 22 February 2012. Retrieved 22 February 2012. Retrieved 2011-Dec-7
  10. ^ Global Snooker website "World Championship Snooker 1947". Archived from the original on 16 January 2014. Retrieved 16 January 2014. Retrieved 2011-Dec-7
  11. ^ Global Snooker website "World Championship Snooker 1949". Archived from the original on 22 February 2012. Retrieved 22 February 2012. Retrieved 2011-Dec-7
  12. ^ a b Turner, Chris. "News Of The World Tournament". cajt.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk. Chris Turner's Snooker Archive. Archived from the original on 16 February 2012. Retrieved 10 February 2011.
  13. ^ a b The Billiards Quarterly Review : October 1990 quoted at http://www.eaba.co.uk/mags/bqr/1990/10/sydneySmith.html Archived 23 April 2012 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 2011-Dec-7
  14. ^ Chris, Turner. "Other Non-Ranking and Invition Events: First held before 1980". Chris Turners Snooker Archive. Archived from the original on 16 February 2012. Retrieved 30 June 2013.