Jack didn’t save any reports for this season but kept a hand written record of not only his competitive games but also his practices. I think he was young, free, and single at this time of his life and therefore the green baize made up a great part of his life.
Here we see the first hand written page of many that details the playing days in the life of Jack. His records show he had 37 century breaks from October 1945 until the end of May 1946, the highest being 170 in practice. In this period, he was playing for Meltham Conservative Club in the snooker league and practiced a lot with Cyril Cadwell, who was also a member of the
Meltham club.
The Huddersfield Snooker Championship was played over eight frames: four at home and four away, with the final held at a neutral venue over two nights and the aggregate score deciding the result. I believe the billiard games were a two hour session played home and away, again with the final at a neutral venue and the total aggregate score deciding the result.
After the first practice night, Jack played a league game at home to Linthwaite Hall which they won 5 – 0; Jack getting a break of 59. After that is the preliminary round of the Billiard Handicap competition which he won with breaks of 72 and 73 unfinished. Jack is on minus 15 so has to score 215, whilst his opponent is on plus 75 so only has to score 125. However he must have only managed to score 5 as he finished at just 80.
All these pages can be seen on the webpage dedicated to his hand written pages and notes.
In January 1946 Jack beat Selwyn Bradley 465 – 398 in the Huddersfield Snooker Championship semi-final. The following month, February, he retained the Championship by beating Arthur Mitchell of Moldgreen Conservative Club by 460 – 341. This gave him four snooker titles, beating Clifford Percival who had won it three times.
On the 14th March, Jack played professional Fred Davis in an exhibition match. He was given 28 start by Davis but he didn’t need it as he beat him 97 – 42. This was two years before Fred won the World Snooker Championship for the first time in 1948, beating Walter Donaldson 84 frames to 61. The game was played over two weeks of 145 frames, and although the winning score was 73 – 49 on the eleventh day they played the dead frames as tickets had been sold for the full two weeks. It was played at the rebuilt Thurston’s Hall which was bombed in the blitz and renamed Leicester Square Hall.
This “Trip to Blackpool” was to play in the Oxenham Cup and, as Jack’s hand written pages show, Huddersfield won it.
In April Jack won his billiards semi final game at Scapegoat Hill Liberal Club against Ronnie Kershaw over two nights. The first leg was won by 438 – 312 and the second leg by 381 -341, giving him an aggregate score of 819 – 653 to reach his first billiards final.
Before the final he played a few exhibition games with Gladney Hoyle, and both of them made several century breaks. Over the two nights of 29th and 30th April he met the great Victor Muff who beat him to win his sixth of his seven titles. Unfortunately, Jack hasn’t put the scores down – was that because of his disappointment or embarrassment at the result? From a 1952-53 league handbook that Jack kept, we can see the scores of the finals which show he lost by 897 – 569.
Jack on this page has very neatly written out the century breaks starting from October of season 1945-46 and ending on December of the following season, 1946-47.
Not wishing to detract from his previous achievements, I think I can say with some certainty that this was the start of Jack’s first burst of “glory years”, where he was involved in many semi’s, finals and team competitions – both on a local and county level. I say his first burst because it lasted for only three years, and then there was a gap of two lean years before a second spell around season 1951-52.
Jack Mellor 