1927 – 45

This story doesn’t start with Jack Mellor or even with the game of billiards. In fact, the story starts with the greatest snooker player that ever lived, Joe Davis. He won the first 15 World Championships that were played, between 1927 and 1946 and was undefeated in the competition. He also played billiards and won the World Championship four times between 1928 and 1932. The newspaper report here tells us of his visit to Huddersfield to play another great of the time, Willie Smith.

Willie Smith is considered by many to be the greatest all-round billiards player who ever lived. He entered the World Billiards Championship in both 1920 and 1923, and won on both occasions. Arguments with the governing body prevented him from taking part in the competition more often, however as far as the reports go, it seems he was a true professional who toured the country; giving exhibitions against other professionals and challenging the best players in any town where he played, as reported here.

Again, before I start with Jack’s story, it seems important to introduce the names of those that were his role models, and whom he came very close to emulating during his career. These names include Victor Muff, Gladney Hoyle and J. Lamb – three players who had been picked to represent Huddersfield in the Yorkshire Inter-City League at billiards. The name of the competition was later changed to the Yorkshire Inter-District. Selected to play for the snooker team were another set of players we will come across in the coming pages, Clifford Percival, Herman Foster and Selwyn Bradley. The Huddersfield Billiards & Snooker reports were written by Frank Fisher, who was himself a very good player and who later came to be recognised as an official of the league both locally and for the Yorkshire Association.

As you can see by the report, the Huddersfield team were doing well in the Yorkshire League and individually in the county competitions. Jack was learning his trade at the age of 24 in the Huddersfield & District Liberal Club’s League, playing for Berry Brow Liberal club. Even at this stage of Jack’s career, he came away with a notable result when playing against S. Shuttleworth of Sheepbridge, who were top of the league: 150 – 13 with a break of 85 in the game.

As I read through the 450 newspaper reports, I underlined the parts referring to Jack so I could easily pick them out when in the future. You will notice these markings throughout each image on the site.

In those days The Billiards Association and Control Board, based in London, gave out certificates if players achieved a 100 break, and Jack has three such awards. The first two were in 1939 made at the Sisson’s Billiards Hall, Market Avenue, Huddersfield and were of 105 and 153.

These certificates can be viewed more clearly in the Memorabilia section of the site.

Jack won the first of his 15 Huddersfield Championships, but he wasn’t playing billiards. In fact this first win came while playing snooker against his Sisson’s club mate, Herman Foster. From the report it would appear as if the results were based on aggregate rather than frames won, as Foster beat Selwyn Bradley in his semi-final by 223 – 137 over four frames. A 1952-53 Huddersfield and District Billiards Association handbook shows that Jack beat Herman by 226 – 217.

The handbook can be viewed more clearly in the Memorabilia section of the site.

Jack hasn’t saved any newspaper reports for this year – something which may have been because of the war, but could just as well be the result of something else unknown to me.

Again, Jack hasn’t saved any reports from the newspaper, but we know from the Huddersfield Handbook that he won his second snooker championship this year. His opponent was R. Jackson of Lockwood Liberal Club and he beat him by 354 – 230. Here is a newspaper report from a later year looking back to 1942, mentioning the “All Stars” team who were raising money for various comfort funds needed during the war. That was the first time the word “star” was used when referring to Jack but it certainly wasn’t be the last – as you will see as we travel through the coming years.

Jack hasn’t saved any newspaper reports for this year either, but don’t worry – there are plenty of reports in the coming years.

A few reports from this year show Jack playing for Netherton Conservative Club with names that appear in many of the coming years, such as Cyril Cadwell, Harold Burkinshaw and Ronnie Kershaw. In one report, it says that the young Cadwell of Meltham went to Marsden in the first round of the Invitation Billiards Championship and was supported by 32 followers who had made the journey by taxi.

Again just a few reports saved but they show that Jack is now entering the local competitions. In the “Invitation” Billiards Championship, he led F. Haigh 502 – 222 after the first home leg and went on to win the away leg 359 – 322, giving him a match score of 861 – 681. This meant he was in the semi-final and would play the holder Fred Moorhouse. The handbooks show that Jack didn’t get to the final and that Fred lost to Victor Muff in the final. In the “Invitation” Snooker Championship Jack was drawn to play S. Denton of Fartown in the first round. The “Open” Snooker Championship was, at this stage, in its the fourth round and there is no mention of Jack, so we presume he has been knocked out of the competition. In the “Open” Billiards Championship Jack is drawn to play C. Sykes. The letters refer to the clubs they play for: S is for Sisson’s Snooker Hall, and R is for Rastrick Cricket Club. The reports also show their handicaps – Jack owes 10 and Sykes receives 50. This means that in a 200 game, Jack must score 210 and Sykes only has to score 150, at a difference of 60. In the Non-Political Billiards League, Sisson’s “A” team in Section “B” have played 5 matches, winning 8 of the 15 games and winning the aggregate 3 times. In the latest game they played their “B” team winning all three games, and Jack had breaks of 93 and 76.