As well as playing for Meltham Conservative Club in the Non-Political League, Jack and his club mate Cyril Cadwell had been playing for Meltham Liberal Club in the Liberal League last year. This season starts with a report that Meltham are withdrawing their team from the Liberal League. The reason given was that both of them are missing from Meltham’s list of registered players. It looks as if they have decided to concentrate on bigger competitions this year, after getting a taste for big competitions last year.
The draws for the Huddersfield Area of English Amateur Billiards & Snooker Championships were made, with Jack entered in both. The first round of the billiards draw had Jack playing J. H. Wallace of Accrington. Jack was leading 594 – 488, making a break of 103 in the first leg before going on to beat him. In the semi final against Gladney Hoyle, Jack was over 200 behind after the first hour, but hit back with a couple of century breaks to lead by 50 at the end of the evening. On the second night he increased his leading to 182 with an hour to go, but within forty minutes Gladney had reduced this to just 26. Jack then ran out with a beautiful break of 111, to clinch the win by 1152 -1056.
The final against Victor Muff would be played over two days, with two hour-long sessions in the afternoon and evening of both days – a total of eight hours play, and something which does make me wonder if these men ever worked! The match would be played at Slaithwaite Conservative Club, with the price of admission reaching the princely sum of 1s 6p (7.5 pence in todays money) per session. The gulf between the good and the very best was evident in this match. Despite Jack making two centuries, 111 and 120, he lost by 1567 – 2903. Muff had breaks of 191, 107, 102 and nine between 50 and 100, highlighting the difference in class. It was noted that during twenty hours of play in the Huddersfield Area games, thirteen centuries were made, where as in the London Area’s nineteen hours only eight were made. This shows the class of play in this Town, and Victor’s progress in London will be watched with much interest. Jack has a certificate from the Billiards Association & Control Council that shows he was runner up in the Huddersfield Area final, which can be viewed on the Memorabilia page.
Jack was unable to beat Sydney Kilbank of Bradford in the first round of the English Amateur Snooker competition, but Huddersfield’s Ronnie Kershaw got revenge by beating Sydney in the semi final. Ronnie then went on to beat Victor Muff in the final, despite Victor trying to complete the double after winning his billiards final with Jack. This meant that Ronnie went on to play in the Championship proper in London and after, having a bye in the first round, lost his second round match to P. Matthews, 5 frames to 3.
The Huddersfield Billiards & Snooker Championships were now “Open” and had attracted 17 and 35 entries respectively. The handicap championships had been drawn as well and attracted 74 and 170!!!!! Jack wasn’t drawn in the preliminary round of the billiards competition but was in the snooker, and would play J. W. Lamb (I.C.I). Unfortunately there are no more reports of these competitions, as Jack has only kept ones from the English Championship and the Blackpool Inter-Town matches. The lack of reports could be due to the disappointment of not doing well in them, or it could simply be that he is more interested in higher things. There was a short report of Clifford Percival’s win in the final of the snooker championship over Gladney Hoyle. It says that Clifford’s “potting was excellent and his positional play was really good”, and with this win he equalled Jack’s record of 4 wins. From Jack’s handbook we know that Clifford won by 5 frames to 1, the first time that the winner was decided by frames won and not aggregate score. Also from the handbook we know that Gladney reached the billiards final and beat Sid Burhouse (Honley Soc.) by 1000 – 542.
Jack, Clifford Percival and Gladney Hoyle, with Selwyn Bradley as reserve, were selected for the Blackpool Inter-Town snooker knock out competition, the Oxenham Cup, which they had won for the past two seasons. This year, 18 Towns have entered the competition and it has been divided into 4 zones with the winner of each zone going through to the semi and final in Blackpool.
Huddersfield beat Manchester at Stretford Trades and Labour Club, despite only winning two of the six frames played. The match was decided on aggregate score which Huddersfield won by 337 – 313. Clifford, playing first, lost both frames by a total margin of 39. Gladney won the third frame by 61 giving them a lead of 22, but lost the fourth by 9 reducing the lead to 11. Jack lost his first frame by 21 leaving them 10 behind but he redeemed himself by winning the last frame by 34 and therefore the match by 24.
There are no more newspaper reports about the competition so I had to do a bit of delving for myself to see if they beat Farnworth and progressed into the semi-final in Blackpool. For this, I looked at one of the 250 “Billiard Player” magazines that Jack had kept, which I have done a few times in support of my reporting, but have not mentioned before now. Here is a report in issue No. 327, March 1948, of the Blackpool Tournament. This year the Championship was officially held under the Governing Body, and perhaps it wasn’t called the Oxenham Cup any more – we can’t be sure. Obviously they did beat Farnworth and could have got to the final, but didn’t go on to win the competition.
The report shown here could be a result of Jack’s lack of success in the local championships. It would appear that, though having some success in the bigger competitions, he now feels he needs to play less and practice more for the “big” games. I would guess that the heavy defeat by Victor Muff in the Huddersfield Area Final of the English Amateur Billiards Championship could have played a big part in him saying this.
It could also be that Jack was not only a billiards/snooker player but was also a human, and that perhaps meeting his future wife impacted on the time he was prepared to dedicate to the game.
On a personal note, his future wife and my mother was Miriam Ruth Renouf – an evacuee form Guernsey who left the island before the Germans invaded in 1940.
Jack Mellor 