The Women's Billiards Association (WBA), founded in 1931 and based in London, United Kingdom, was the

governing body A governing body is a group of people that has the authority to exercise governance over an organization or political entity. The most formal is a government, a body whose sole responsibility and authority is to make binding decisions in a taken ge ...

for women's

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 ...

and

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 ...

, and organised the

Women's Professional Billiards Championship The Women's Professional Billiards Championship was an English billiards tournament held from 1930 to 1950. The tournament was first organised by Burroughes Hall, Burroughes and Watts in 1930 and 1931, before the WBA ran the event until its con ...

and Women's Professional Snooker Championship as well as amateur and junior competitions. The founding meeting was held on 13 May 1931 at the Women's Automobile and Sports Association. The meeting was chaired by

Teresa Billington-Greig Teresa Billington-Greig (15 October 1876 – 21 October 1964) was a British suffragette who helped create the Women's Freedom League in 1907. She had left another suffrage organisation – the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) – as s ...

and appointed

Viscountess A viscount ( , for male) or viscountess (, for female) is a title used in certain European countries for a noble of varying status. In many countries a viscount, and its historical equivalents, was a non-hereditary, administrative or judicial ...

Elibank as the first president and Mrs Longworth as the first chairman. The WBA ran amateur and professional billiards competitions starting from 1932, an amateur snooker tournament from 1933, and a professional snooker championship from 1934. It affiliated to 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 ...

(BA&CC) in 1935. In 1936, after a proposal by the Association, the BA&CC took over the management of the WBA. The Association continued to stage professional competitions until 1950, and amateur competitions until the 1970s, when the Women's Billiards & Snooker Association, which was formed in 1976, and later the World Ladies Billiards & Snooker Association, founded in 1981, took control of the games.

Formation

The Women's Billiards Association (WBA) was founded on 13 May 1931 at the Women's Automobile and Sports Association, Buckingham Palace Gardens, London, with the objective of controlling the amateur and professional

and

championships for women, and promoting other tournaments and competitions.

Elibank was appointed president, Mrs Longworth was chairman, and

, who had chaired this initial meeting, became acting honorary secretary. Miss Marx of the Women's Sports and Automobile Association became honorary treasurer. Other council members appointed included Mrs Eddowes, runner-up in the previous amateur billiards championship,

Thelma Carpenter Thelma Carpenter (January 15, 1922 – May 14, 1997) was an American jazz singer and actress, best known as "Miss One", the Good Witch of the North in the movie ''The Wiz''. She was born in Brooklyn, New York, the only child of Fred and Mary C ...

, and Lady Constance Childe-Pemberton. The majority of the council members were subscribers to the Lyceum Club, which had a billiards "circle" (group for activities). Billington-Greig's husband sold

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 for Burroughes & Watts Ltd, and she had substituted for him at work during part of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

and again in 1923. The jurisdiction of the WBA as the

for women's English billiards and snooker covered the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

and

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

Activities

Women's Billiards Association awards 1948

Control of the professional billiards and snooker tournaments for women, and the trophies for the previous events run by Burroughes & Watts, were handed over to the Association. A subcommittee including four professional players,

Joyce Gardner Joyce Gardner (1910–1981) was an English professional English billiards player. She was the Women's Professional Billiards Champion from 1931 to 1933, and from 1935 to 1938. Early life Joyce Winifred Frances Gardner was born on 24 August 191 ...

Ruth Harrison Ruth Harrison (; 24 June 1920 – 13 June 2000) was an English animal welfare activist and writer. Biography Harrison was born in London, the daughter of the author Stephen Winsten and the artist Clara Birnberg. She was educated at Bedford ...

Margaret Lennan Margaret Lennan was a Scottish snooker and billiards player. She was runner-up in the 1936 Women's Professional Billiards Championship. Biography Lennan started playing billiards at the age of 17, and received coaching from Alec Donaldson, ...

and Eva Collins, was appointed to organise the professional championships. The Association provided

with a certificate for having made a break of 59. The Association organised the Amateur and Professional championships in snooker and billiards, girls' championships, inter-club events, and regional competitions. The WBA took over the organisation of an amateur billiards championship from Burroughes and Watts from 1932, and staged an annual amateur snooker championship from 1933. These continued to be held by the WBA, taking place most years except 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 ...

, until the 1970s. In 1930, Burroughes and Watts had organised the British Women's Billiards Championship, also known as the Burwat Billiards Cup. The WBA took over the running of the competition, renamed as the

, with the same trophy, from 1932. Gardner claimed the championship on seven on the fourteen times that it was held, with Harrison taking two titles, and Carpenter winning the last four editions. The Association encouraged the formation of "Billiards Circles", local groups of players, that would become affiliated. Some of the places where Billiards Circles were established were

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 ...

Sheffield Sheffield is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is Historic counties o ...

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingd ...

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the See of Norwich, with ...

Torquay Torquay ( ) is a seaside town in Devon, England, part of the unitary authority area of Torbay. It lies south of the county town of Exeter and east-north-east of Plymouth, on the north of Tor Bay, adjoining the neighbouring town of Paignton ...

and

Bournemouth Bournemouth () is a coastal resort town in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council area of Dorset, England. At the 2011 census, the town had a population of 183,491, making it the largest town in Dorset. It is situated on the Southern ...

. On 14 December 1933, the WBA Council announced that any players entering open events not organised or sanctioned by the WBA would be prohibited from entering WBA competitions, that no permissions would be granted where tournaments differentiated between men and women, and that any players accepting payment would lose their amateur status. The following year, leading player Carpenter resigned from the Association, as she was not granted permission to play in the Junior Amateur Championship organised by ''

The Billiard Player ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

'' magazine. She claimed that the sport would not thrive under the Association's control. The WBA held a Women's Professional Snooker Championship tournament ten times from 1934 to 1950, with a break from 1941 to 1947 due to World War II. Harrison won the first eight of the ten championships, followed by Agnes Davies taking the title in 1949 and Carpenter in 1950. The first seven championships were held at

Burroughes Hall Burroughes Hall was an important English billiards, billiards and snooker venue in Soho Square, London from 1903 until it closed in 1967. The hall was in the premises of Burroughes & Watts Ltd., who had been at 19 Soho Square since 1836. Burroughes ...

, with the tournaments from 1947 taking place 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 ...

Relationship with the Billiards Association and Control Council

In 1933 John C. Bissett, Chairman of the

(BA&CC), the governing body for the men's games, praised the work of the Women's Billiards Association, and said that the BA&CC had "no desire to interfere" in the running of the woman's game. In 1935, the WBA affiliated to the BA&CC. In May 1936, the WBA's executive committee proposed to the membership that the BA&CC should be requested to take control of the organisation's affairs, and on 10 June 1936, the Billiards Association and Control Council agreed to take over management of the WBA. Lord Lonsdale, president of the BA&CC, also became president of the WBA. Bisset, chairman of the BA&CC, was elected chairman of the WBA in 1939, with Miss G. M. Burton as the new vice-chairman. Bisset resigned as chairman in 1948, noted at the WBA Annual General Meeting held on 13 December that year, which started twenty minutes late due to the late arrival of the Honorary Secretary, Joy White. The meeting re-elected the absent film star

Valerie Hobson Babette Louisa Valerie Hobson (14 April 1917 – 13 November 1998) was a British actress whose film career spanned the 1930s to the early 1950s. Her second husband was John Profumo, a British government minister who became the subject of the Pro ...

as president, but did not attract enough candidates to fill all the vacancies on its council. The 1950 Women's Professional Billiards Championship and Women's Professional Snooker Championship were the last professional championships to be organised by the WBA. As at 1971, the WBA's headquarters was at the Billiards and Snooker Centre in

Great Windmill Street Great Windmill Street is a thoroughfare running north–south in Soho, London, crossed by Shaftesbury Avenue. The street has had a long association with music and entertainment, most notably the Windmill Theatre, and is now home to the Ripley' ...

Successor organisations

Burroughes and Watts continued to provide support to women's cue sports until the firm's takeover by the Riley company in 1967, following which the amateur competitions suffered from a lack of sponsorship and organisation. The Women's Billiards & Snooker Association (WBSA) was formed in 1976, and appointed Wally West as Secretary 1978. However, although the WBSA revived 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 ...

, within a few years it had lost control of the game to the World Ladies Billiards & Snooker Association (WLBSA), founded in 1981 by

Mandy Fisher Mandy Fisher (born in April 1962) is an English former professional snooker player and a World Women's Snooker Championship winner in 1984. Fisher founded the World Ladies Billiards and Snooker Association (now known as World Women's Snooker) ...

. The Women's Professional Billiards Championship has not been held since 1950. The Women's Amateur Billiards Championship was not held between 1979 and its revival by the WLBSA in 1998. The WLBSA was restructured as a subsidiary of the

World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association The World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA) is the governing body of professional snooker and English billiards based in Bristol, England. It owns and publishes the official rules of the two sports and engages in promotion ...

in 2015, and became a full member of the World Snooker Federation in 2017. In November 2018 the WLBSA was renamed, as World Women's Snooker, and is responsible for women's snooker and billiards and the women's ranking list.

References

External links

World Women's Snooker
{{DEFAULTSORT:Women's Billiards Association Snooker governing bodies Sports organizations established in 1931 Snooker in the United Kingdom