The 1950 Sporting Record Masters' Snooker Tournament was a professional

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 sponsored by the ''Sporting Record'' newspaper. Entry was restricted to past finalists in 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 ...

. The tournament was won by

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 ...

with Sidney Smith finishing in second place. It was the only time the tournament was held.

Format

The event was a round-robin snooker tournament and was played from 3 April to 10 June 1950. All matches were played at

Leicester Square 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 reopen ...

in London. Initially there were 5 competitors and a total of 10 matches were planned. The competitors were

, Fred Davis,

Walter Donaldson Walter Donaldson (February 15, 1893 – July 15, 1947) was an American prolific popular songwriter and publishing company founder, composing many hit songs of the 1910s to 1940s, that have become standards and form part of the Great American Song ...

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 ...

and Sidney Smith. Each match lasted six days and was the best of 70 frames. Three points were available for each match, one for winner of the match, one for leader after the first 35 frames and one for the winner over the last 35 frames. Each player was given a handicap at the start of the tournament. The handicaps were: Joe Davis, Fred Davis and Donaldson: 0, Smith: 21 and Lindrum: 23. The player with the higher handicap received a start in each frame, being the difference between the two handicaps.

withdrew from the event complaining about his overly generous handicap of 23 points which would give the public the wrong impression about his ability. It was also announced that Lindrum had retired from snooker but Lindrum later issued a statement stating that he had not retired "in any sense whatever." His elder daughter Jan was born in London during the period when Lindrum should have been playing his first match.

Results

The original 10-week schedule was retained, despite Lindrum's withdrawal. This meant that there were 4 weeks when no match was played. The first match was played over 5 days rather than 6 because

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fell on 7 April. The first 35 frames finished after the afternoon session on the Wednesday. After 5 days of the Sidney Smith/Fred Davis match Smith was leading 41–18 with a 19–5 lead in the second half of the match. The final score for Sidney Smith versus Fred Davis was 46–24. Table

References

{{Reflist, 2 Snooker competitions in England Sporting Record Masters Snooker Tournament 1950 sports events in London