by badtemperedcyril » 02 May 2022 Read
The “closed shop” situation in the professional game came down not to a fear of losing but to money. The BA&CC had been the self appointed authority of the game since the early days of the billiards championship (late 1800’s) but in 1952 the professional players broke away due to a disagreement over the distribution of prize money for the 1951 world snooker championship. From there on the PBPA took control over the professional game. Everything revolved around Leicester Square Hall (the rebuilt temple of the game - formerly Thurston’s, that had been bombed during the blitz) and the sponsorship of the News of the World. Joe Davis may have retired from the World Championship in 1946 but he certainly didn’t retire from playing. He remained the main attraction for the next decade and controlled the professional game with an iron fist. He was a director of Leicester Square and the principal negotiator with sponsors. Joe retired from championship play to protect his “unbeaten” record but his omission soon devalued it. Regardless of who won the championship, the public still regarded Joe as number one. Indeed, one of the “perks” of winning the championship was the right to play Joe off level over a week or 2 week match. This annual extravaganza was a bigger attraction than the world championship itself. The snooker season was dominated by the News of the World tournament, played at Leicester Square, with the championship fitting in around it. Joe conceded handicaps to everyone, except Fred. Rex Williams (the English Amateur champion) was admitted as a professional in 1951, just prior to the “break away” - thereafter, there would be no new professionals until 1968. By the mid-1950’s, the public were getting bored with watching the same few professionals playing week long matches - the game was crying out for fresh blood - but rather than open the News of the World tournament up, Joe’s opinion was that there wasn’t enough money to go around and so in 1956, following the closure of Leicester Square Hall, even the likes of Williams, Jackie Rea, John Barrie and Kingsley Kennerley were shut out as the News of the World was reduced to a “four man” round robin between Joe, Fred, Donaldson and Pulman. The professional game was dying a death but Joe refused to let anyone in. By this time the amateur game was thriving. The likes of Cliff Wilson, Pat Houlihan, Geoff Thompson, Ray Reardon, Ronnie Gross and of course, the afore mentioned MARCUS OWEN and brother Gary, were packing halls out all over the country. If only Joe had had the foresight to let them in to the professional ranks the record books would have looked very different. The PBPA was never a governing body in those days, rather it simply organised the News of the World and World Championship for its “private” professional club. Meanwhile, in 1965, Houlihan beat Spencer for the English Amateur title in front of 1,300 at Blackpool Tower Circus whilst Pulman and Williams were embarking on a farcical 49 match tour of South Africa for the resurrected professional title. There’s no doubt the best players of the late 50’s and 60’s were the amateurs, so although people today think of Reardon and Spencer as 70’s players, they were actually amongst the best amateurs throughout the 1960’s as well. In defence of Pulman, he showed was a great player he was by reaching the 1970 World final after the game was opened up. He beat David Taylor (1968 World Amateur champion) 31-20 and then demolished Gary Owen (twice World Amateur champion) 37-13 before losing an epic encounter with Reardon 37-33, having recovered from 13-27 down. To conclude, there’s no doubt Joe did much good to the early development of snooker but his control over the professional game ended up being part of its downfall. I do believe it was more a case of not wanting to share what little prize money there was on offer rather than shying away from the opposition. The professionals also had to contend with the advent of television taking away much of its audience - funny that when colour television was introduced it would contribute so much to the games renewed popularity.