1935 World Snooker Championship

The World Snooker Championship is a professional tournament and the official world championship of the game of snooker.^[1] The sport was developed in the late 19th century by British Army soldiers stationed in India.^[2] Professional English billiards player and billiard hall manager Joe Davis noticed the increasing popularity of snooker compared to billiards in the 1920s, and with Birmingham-based billiards equipment manager Bill Camkin, persuaded the Billiards Association and Control Council (BACC) to recognise an official professional snooker championship in the 1926–27 season.^[3] In 1927, the final of the first professional snooker championship was held at Camkin's Hall; Davis won the tournament by beating Tom Dennis in the final.^[4] The annual competition was not titled the World Championship until the 1935 tournament,^[5][6] but the 1927 tournament is now referred to as the first World Snooker Championship.^[7][8] Davis had also won the title every year from 1928 to 1934.^[9]

In late June and early July 1934, Joe Davis had travelled to Australia to play in the World Billiards Championship. Davis left Tilbury on 26 June^[10] and started his tour playing Clark McConachy in an exhibition billiards match in Sydney starting on 9 July.^[11] Davis received a bye to the final of the Billiards Championship and played Walter Lindrum, the defending Champion, in Melbourne, from 14 to 27 October. Walter Lindrum won a close match 23,553–22,678.^[12]

Davis had been due to leave Australia on 30 October but accepted an offer of a snooker match against Horace Lindrum, delaying his departure until 7 November.^[13] An 81-frame snooker match was arranged to be played at the Tivoli Billiard Theatre, Bourke Street, Melbourne from 29 October^[14] to 6 November with two sessions of five frames played each day.^[15] Davis insisted on using the same table that had been used for the World Billiards Championship final.^[16] The match was reported in both The Age and The Glasgow Herald as being the unofficial world championship.^[17][18]

Lindrum won the first two frames of the match, but Davis led 6–4 at the end of the first day. Davis made a break of 56 in the fifth frame.^[17] Davis extended his lead to 12–8 on the second day^[19] and then won eight frames on the third day to lead 20–10. Davis made breaks of 56 and 54 on the third day.^[20] Davis extended his lead to 27–13 on the fourth day^[21] but Lindrum won 6 frames on the fifth day to leave Davis 31–19 ahead.^[22] On the Saturday, the sixth day, Davis won 8 frames to lead 39–21, including a 50 break.^[23] Davis won frames 1 and 3 on the Monday afternoon to take a winning 41–22 lead. With the result decided the match became more open and Lindrum had breaks of 54 and 80, the highest of the match.^[24] The final Tuesday afternoon session was abandoned, because it clashed with the Melbourne Cup. After a final evening session of 5 frames Davis finished 46–29 ahead.^[18][25]

In late November, Fred Lindrum, Horace Lindrum's uncle, criticised Davis for demanding a £100 side-bet and for insisting on the use of the match table that had been used for the World Billiards Championship final against Walter Lindrum. Horace had just successfully challenged Fred for the Australian Professional Billiards Championship.^[26] In 1974, Horace Lindrum wrote that although the money that he lost was approximately equivalent to his fare to England and this had deprived him of the opportunity to enter the following professional championship, the contest provided "match experience against a top class overseas player. It was experience I urgently needed."^[27]

There were five entrants to the 1935 World Snooker Championship: defending champion Joe Davis, Willie Smith, Alec Mann, Tom Newman, and Conrad Stanbury, who became the first ever Canadian to enter the championship. Davis and Newman had been the only entrants in 1934.^[9][28] All of the matches in the 1935 tournament took place at Thurston's Hall,^[28] whereas in previous years players had been required to arrange venues for some matches themselves.^[29][30] The final was to be 49 frames played over five days, with the other matches all being 25 frames played over three days each.^[28] Stanbury was drawn to play Smith, with the winner meeting Mann in one semi-final, and Davis was drawn to play Newman in the other semi-final.^[28] On 6 April, Davis retained the UK Professional English Billiards Championship, by completing a 21,733–19,910 defeat of Newman at Thurston's.^[31]

Match results are shown below. Winning players and scores are denoted in bold text.^[45]

	Round 1 Best of 25 frames					Semi-finals 25 frames					Final 49 frames
						Joe Davis		15
						Tom Newman		10
											Joe Davis		25
											Willie Smith		20
						Alec Mann		7
	Willie Smith (ENG)		13			Willie Smith		18
	Conrad Stanbury (CAN)		12

Final

Final: Best of 49 frames. Thurston's Hall, London, England, 22–27 April 1935.[46]
Joe Davis  England	25–20	Willie Smith  England
Day 1: 56–52, 65–41, 95–9, 66–37, 44–68, 62–48, 65–27, 40–55 Day 2: 26–88, 109–9, 26–77, 84–1, 53–27, 51–64, 35–85, 27–76 Day 3: 88–15, 72–44, 70–42, 60–46, 48–76, 69–45, 30–67, 43–56 Day 4: 35–69, 62–45, 104–11, 26–93, 71–34, 58–63, 50–54, 81–29 Day 5: 20–77; 35–83; 35–77, 65–55, 80–39, 100–28 (92), 44–53, 76–18 Day 6: 52–62; 64–51; 101–24 (75); 28–89; 58–39
"Dead" frames were played. Davis had secured victory at 25–20.

The 110 break by Joe Davis in his semi-final match against Tom Newman was the first century break in the eight-year history of the tournament.^[47]

• 110 – Joe Davis