UK Open Billiards Championship

The UK Open Billiards Championship, formerly known as the United Kingdom Professional English Billiards Championship, is an English billiards tournament, first contested in 1934. Joe Davis won the inaugural UK Professional English Billiards Championship title with a 18,745–18,309 defeat of Tom Newman. The tournament was originally organised by the Billiards Association and Control Council (BA&CC). After a dispute over a world championship challenge match, the Professional Billiard Players Association (PBPA) — which had been re-established in 1968 by reigning world billiards champion Rex Williams and seven other players – disaffiliated from the BA&CC. The PBPA changed its name to the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA) in 1970, and declared itself the governing body for the professional games of snooker and English billiards.

After 1934, the UK Championship was the premier event of the billiards season in the UK, in the absence of any contests for the world championships. Walter Lindrum had won the World Professional Championship in 1933, and insisted that the competition should be held in Australia for his defence. Lindrum retained the world championship in 1934, and it was not contested again until 1952. The Championship was staged three more times before being in abeyance from 1952 to 1978. After a further hiatus from 2002, World Billiards, a WPBSA-affiliated organisation, reinstituted the tournament as an open event in 2015. From 1987, it has sometimes been played as a "short format" event, for example in January 1988 the matches before the final were the best-of-seven games of 150-up (i.e. the first player to reach 150 points won the game), and the final was the best-of-thirteen games of 150-up.

David Causier won the 2019 title, with a 632–315 victory over Mark Hirst in the final. The competition was cancelled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and, as of April 2023, has not been held since. The tournament has been staged 35 times and produced 17 different champions. Mike Russell has won the title a record eight times, one more than Joe Davis's total. Causier has taken three titles, and the only other players to have won the tournament more than once are two-time champions Williams, Robby Foldvari, and Roxton Chapman.

Finals

Multiple champions

Notes

References

Citations

Bibliography
*
*{{cite book, last=Everton , first=Clive , date=2012 , title=A History of Billiards, publisher=englishbilliards.org , location=Malmesbury , isbn=978-0-9564054-5-6

Recurring sporting events established in 1934
Cue sports competitions
English billiards