Luigi Umberto "Bert" Demarco (9 June 1924 – 17 March 2012) was a Scottish 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 ...

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 ...

owner. He competed at the World Amateur Snooker Championship several times, and was a professional snooker player from 1981 to 1993.

Early life

Demarco was born on 9 June 1924 in

Leith Leith (; gd, Lìte) is a port area in the north of the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, founded at the mouth of the Water of Leith. In 2021, it was ranked by '' Time Out'' as one of the top five neighbourhoods to live in the world. The earliest ...

, the son of Umberto Luigi Demarco who owned a café in Edinburgh, and in 1939 established the Jubilee

next to it. Luigi, known as Bert from a young age, said that he learnt to play snooker aged 12, whilst on holiday with relatives that had a snooker table. He was introduced to the game by two female cousins and stood on a lemonade crate in order to reach the table. His father enforced a rule that no persons under 18, including his son, could play in the Jubilee hall, although the younger Demarco was allowed to use the

billiard table A billiard table or billiards table is a bounded table on which cue sports are played. In the modern era, all billiards tables (whether for carom billiards, pool, pyramid or snooker) provide a flat surface usually made of quarried slate, that ...

s there on Sundays when the café was closed. Demarco attended the Holy Cross Academy in Leith. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

he joined the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

as a volunteer from 1942, and served until 1946, in roles including mechanic and translator, travelling to Africa, Italy, and Palestine. In 1947 he married Maria Paoli, and the couple had three sons.

Snooker career

He won the Scottish amateur snooker championship in 1955, 1965 and 1966; and the Scottish

billiards Cue sports are a wide variety of games of skill played with a cue, which is used to strike billiard balls and thereby cause them to move around a cloth-covered table bounded by elastic bumpers known as . There are three major subdivisions of ...

title in 1972. His 1965 snooker victory led to an invitation to participate in the 1966 World Amateur Snooker Championship in Karachi, where he finished fifth out of six players. At the 1970 World Amateur Snooker Championship he was sixth of seven players in his group, and in

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using Solar time, me ...

he was last in his group of four. In

1976 Events January * January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 11 – The 1976 Phila ...

he fared slightly better, fifth of eight in the group. He also took part in the

world amateur billiards championship The IBSF World Billiards Championship (previously known as the World Amateur Billiards Championship) is the premier, international, non-professional tournament for the game of English billiards. Dating to some form to 1951, the event has been sanc ...

in 1973, but failed to win any of his nine matches. From the mid-1970s he opened a chain of snooker clubs, and also coached a number of players including

Stephen Hendry Stephen Gordon Hendry (born 13 January 1969) is a Scottish professional snooker player who dominated the sport during the 1990s, becoming one of the most successful players in its history. After turning professional in 1985 at age 16, Hendry ...

. Amongst the clubs he owned was Marco's Leisure Centre which, with 65 tables,Families asked to create wall of fame for Little Marcos
Edinburgh Evening News, 28 may 2016 was the largest snooker hall in Europe. He played professionally from 1981 to 1993, but never reached as far as the last 32 of a ranking tournament. Demarco died on 17 March 2012 following a

stroke A stroke is a medical condition in which poor blood flow to the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and hemorrhagic, due to bleeding. Both cause parts of the brain to stop functionin ...

. Snooker historian

Clive Everton Clive Harold Everton (born 7 September 1937) is a sports commentator, journalist, author and former professional snooker and English billiards player. He founded ''Snooker Scene'' magazine, which was first published (as ''World Snooker'') in ...

wrote in an obituary that he was "for about 40 years, amongst the best half dozen players in Scotland."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Demarco, Bert 1924 births 2012 deaths Scottish snooker players Royal Air Force personnel of World War II Scottish people of Italian descent People from Leith Sportspeople from Edinburgh Scottish players of English billiards