The 1937 World Snooker Championship was a

snooker Snooker (pronounced , ) is a cue sports, cue sport played on a Billiard table#Snooker and English billiards tables, rectangular table covered with a green cloth called baize, with six Billiard table#Pockets 2, pockets, one at each corner and o ...

tournament held at

Thurston's Hall Thurston's Hall was a major billiards and snooker venue between 1901 and 1955 in Leicester Square, London. The hall was in the premises of Thurston & Co. Ltd which relocated to Leicester Square in 1901. The building was bombed in 1940 and reope ...

in London, England from 22 February to 20 March 1937. It is recognised as the 11th edition of the

World Snooker Championship The World Snooker Championship is the longest-running and most prestigious tournament in professional snooker. It is also the wealthiest, with total prize money in 2022 of £2,395,000, including £500,000 for the winner. First held in 1927 Wor ...

. There were nine participants in the event, with debutants Fred Davis (brother of defending champion

Joe Davis Joseph Davis (15 April 190110 July 1978) 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 i ...

) and

Bill Withers William Harrison Withers Jr. (July 4, 1938 – March 30, 2020) was an American singer-songwriter and musician. He had several hits over a career spanning 18 years, including "Ain't No Sunshine" (1971), "Grandma's Hands" (1971), " Use Me" (1972) ...

competing in a qualifying match. Withers won the match to join with the remaining seven players in the main event. Joe Davis won his 11th championship title by defeating

Horace Lindrum Horace Lindrum (born Horace Norman William Morrell, 15 January 1912 – 20 June 1974) was an Australian professional snooker and billiards player. A dominant snooker player in Australia, he lived in Britain for long periods and played in the maj ...

by 32 to 29 in the final, despite trailing 13–17 and 19–21 during the match. The highest of the tournament was 103, compiled by Joe Davis in the 31st frame of the final.

Background

World Snooker Championship Trophy edited

The

is a professional tournament and the official

world championship A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

of the game of

. The sport was developed in the late 19th century by British Army soldiers stationed in India. Professional

English billiards English billiards, called simply billiards in the United Kingdom and in many former British colonies, is a cue sport that combines the aspects of carom billiards and pool. Two (one white and one yellow) and a red are used. Each player or team us ...

player and

billiard hall A billiard, pool or snooker hall (or parlour, room or club; sometimes compounded as poolhall, poolroom, etc.) is a place where people get together for playing cue sports such as pool, snooker or carom billiards. Such establishments commonly serve ...

manager

noticed the increasing popularity of snooker compared to billiards in the 1920s, and with

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

-based billiards equipment manager

Bill Camkin William Alexander Camkin (1894 – 26 April 1956) was a billiard hall owner who came to prominence in the early years of the World Snooker Championship, when many of the tournament's matches were held at his clubs. He was involved in various aspe ...

, persuaded the

Billiards Association and Control Council The Billiards and Snooker Control Council (B&SCC) (formerly called the Billiards Association and Control Council (BA&CC)) was the governing body of the games of English billiards and snooker and organised professional and amateur championships ...

(BACC) to recognise an official professional snooker championship in the 1926–27 season. In 1927, the final of the first professional snooker championship was held at Camkin's Hall; Davis won the tournament by beating Tom Dennis in the final. The annual competition was not titled the World Championship until the 1935 tournament, but the 1927 tournament is now referred to as the first World Snooker Championship. Davis had also won the title every year from

1928 Events January * January – British bacteriologist Frederick Griffith reports the results of Griffith's experiment, indirectly proving the existence of DNA. * January 1 – Eastern Bloc emigration and defection: Boris Bazhanov, J ...

1936 Events January–February * January 20 – George V of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India, dies at his Sandringham Estate. The Prince of Wales succeeds to the throne of the United Kingdom as King E ...

Summary

The BACC introduced a qualifying competition for the first time. If necessary, they would select players from the entrants to play in the qualifying event, the winner to advance to the competition proper. With nine entries, Bill Withers and Fred Davis were chosen to play a qualifying match, the winner to join the main event. The Championship proper was played at

over a four-week period from 22 February and 20 March. All matches were played over 31 frames, except the final, which was played over 61 frames.

First round

The first match of the competition proper took place from 22 to 24 February and was between

and Sydney Lee. Lee won the first , but Lindrum took an 8–2 lead after the first day by winning both the afternoon and evening 4–1. This was extended to 15–5 after two days, just one frame from victory, as he won three of the five afternoon frames and all but one of the five evening frames. Lindrum took the first frame on the final day to win the match 16–5. The final score was 20–11. The second match of the first week was played by Willie Smith and Tom Newman from 25 to 27 February. Smith took a 4–1 lead from the afternoon session, but Newman was level at 5–5 after the evening's play. Newman took an 11–9 lead on the second day. On the final day Newman led 14–13 before claimed the next two frames to lead 15–14. Newman made a 57 in the next frame to level the match. Smith won the last frame 85–23 to secure victory. Sidney Smith faced

Alec Brown Alec Thomas Brown (born July 23, 1992) is an American professional basketball player for BC Budivelnyk of the European North Basketball League and the Champions League. He played college basketball at the University of Wisconsin–Green Bay. Br ...

in the first match of the second week, staged from 1 to 3 March. Smith won the last frame of the afternoon session to take a 3–2 lead into the evening, and added the sixth frame. Brown won frame seven on a , and took the following two frames for a 5–4 lead, before Smith levelled the match at 5–5 after compiling a break of 55. Smith had the best of both sessions on the second day, winning four of the five frames in each, for a 13–7 lead. The correspondent for ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' felt that Smith's play had been excellent, whilst Brown's was not up to his usual standard. Brown won three of the afternoon frames on the final day but still needed to win all six frames in the evening to win the match. Brown took the first evening frame, but Smith won the second by 87–29 to win the match 16–11. The final score was 18–13. From 4 to 6 March, Joe Davis met Withers in the last quarter-final. Davis won the first frame, and, after trailing 0–35 in in the second frame, produced a break of 59 and went on to take the frame. Withers made a 47 break in the third frame and was leading by 36 points with just the colours (worth 27 points) left but, by gaining 16 points in , Davis managed to level the score with just the left. Withers, however, the black to win the frame. Davis led 9–1 at the end of the first day, after breaks of 77 in the eighth frame and 64 in the tenth frame. Davis added the five frames from the second morning session, and, with an 84 break, the first frame of the second evening. He claimed victory at 16–1 by taking the following frame. He also won the remaining 14 to finish at 30–1, having taken 28 frames in succession. Davis made breaks of 97 and 99 on the final afternoon. The five official afternoon frames having been completed quickly, the players played an exhibition frame during which Davis made a new record break of 135, beating the 133 scored by Sidney Smith during the

1936 Daily Mail Gold Cup The 1936 Daily Mail Gold Cup was a professional snooker tournament sponsored by the '' Daily Mail''. Despite giving a handicap to all the other players, the cup was won by Joe Davis who won all his five matches. The Australian Horace Lindrum fini ...

earlier in the season. Davis's break was a total clearance during which he took the 15 , 8 blacks, 4 , a , 2 and all the colours.

Semi-finals

Lindrum played Willie Smith in the first semi-final, from 8 to 10 March. Lindrum led 6–4 after the first day, and extended his lead to 14–6 after two days. In the 17th frame, Smith potted the final black, but then touched the before it had stopped moving, and was called for a foul that lost him the frame. Although Smith won the first two frames on the final day, Lindrum won the next frame to lead 15–8. In the following frame, Smith led 57–9 but Lindrum made a 50 clearance to win the frame 59–57 and the match 16–8. Lindrum finished the match 20–11 ahead. In the second semi-final, played from 11 to 13 March, Joe Davis trailed 2–3 after the first session, but led 6–4 against Sidney Smith after the first day. Smith had the best of the second day to level the match at 10–10. Davis took a narrow lead after the final afternoon session, taking the last frame to lead 13–12. In the evening Davis won the first three frames to secure the match 16–12, the final score being 18–13 after dead frames.

Final

The final between Joe Davis and Lindrum, from 15 to 20 March, was a repeat of the previous year's final. Davis recorded breaks of 38 and 50 in winning the first frame, and a 53 when taking the third frame to lead 2–1. Lindrum compiled an 81 break in the next frame to level the match, before Davis claimed the fifth frame for a 3–2 lead after the first session. In the evening, Lindrum equalised at 5–5, having registered a 75 break in frame eight. On the second day, Lindrum won the eleventh frame after clearing the colours and then potting the re-spotted black, and finished the afternoon session 11–9 up. He extended this to 17–13 at the half-way stage, making an 80 break in the 21st frame. The fourth day started with a break of 103, which was the highest of the tournament, by Davis in frame 31. Davis fouled on his first visit to the table and, after a break of 29 by Lindrum, Davis cleared the table on his second visit. Two frames later, he constructed a break of 93, and by the end of the day, had reduced his deficit to 19–21. He then won eight of ten frames on the fifth day to lead 27–23. After the final afternoon session Davis still led 29–26, with Lindrum needing to win five of the six evening frames. Lindrum won the first two frames, but Davis claimed the following two frames to win the match at 31–28. The last two frames were shared to give a final result of 32–29. Lindrum later wrote that "years later I am still pondering the loss of that 1937 crown." He felt that he was in good form during the match, and reflected that "It didn't seem possible but when play began at night, frame after frame slipped slowly from my grasp." ''Billiards and Snooker'' magazine's commentary on the tournament stated that the standard of play was higher than in any of the preceding championships. Praising Joe Davis, the article suggested that "It may be doubted if any game was so completely, so perfectly interpreted as is snooker by Davis."

Main draw

The results for the tournament are shown below. Match winners are denoted in bold.

Final

Qualifying

Withers and Fred Davis played at Thurston's Hall from 7 to 9 January. It was the championship debut for both players. Joe Davis was playing Tom Newman in a 71-frame handicap match on the same days which meant that the Withers and Fred Davis match was played earlier in the day than usual with two sessions at 11:30 am and 5:15 pm. Withers took a decisive 16–13 lead on the final evening, and the match ended with him 17–14 ahead.

References

{{World Snooker Championship

1937 Events January * January 1 – Anastasio Somoza García becomes President of Nicaragua. * January 5 – Water levels begin to rise in the Ohio River in the United States, leading to the Ohio River flood of 1937, which continues into Fe ...