This year there are five newspaper cuttings to report on, and only one refers to Jack – calling him the “North Ward man”. This makes sense as I know that he and my mother ran the North Ward Liberal Club, which was situated on Southgate near the junction with Fitzwilliam Street.
The first report is of the Huddersfield side, now playing in the Yorkshire Inter-District League, heading to Bradford. As you can see Jack was playing snooker, and pulled his team through with a last frame victory. The next report is of Jack playing billiards in the Yorkshire Championship, and coincidentally playing the same payer, D. Devitt, with the same result: a win. After that piece, when referring to the Huddersfield Billiards Championship, it said “Jack Mellor also reached the semi-final by easily beating J. Broadhead, of Oakes WMC. Mellor, at present, is in good form, and it is a debatable point as to which is his best game.”
The third report starts with Huddersfield’s Yorkshire Inter-District League match at home to Keighley at Golcar Con., played in front of a large crowd. Jack, in the snooker side, beats D. L. Holmes in both frames – a fact which was of interest to Ronnie Kershaw, as he was due to play Holmes in the Yorkshire Snooker Championship. The snooker side was made up of Jack, Ken Birks and Selwyn Bradley and the billiards side was Gladney Hoyle, Ronnie Kershaw and Frank Beaumont. I mention this because the sides would change before the end of the season.
One of the reasons for the change could be the next piece in the report, which tells of Jack’s victory over Frank Beaumont in the semi-final of the Huddersfield Billiards Championship. It was a very tight game with Jack leading at the interval 250 – 217, before Frank came back to lead 480 – 443 in the 500 up match. After making 16 and taking his score to 496, Frank had the misfortune to foul, and after the balls had been spotted, Jack ran out with a good break of 57 (unfinished). Jack would now meet Ronnie Kershaw in the final at I.C.I. Rec Club.
The fourth report concentrates on the Yorkshire Billiards Championship, with Huddersfield well represented with five players in the round of 16. Unfortunately four of them were playing each other. Clifford Percival beat Harold Burkinshaw, Bill Bolton beat Jack (the report is here on the right), and Gladney Hoyle joined them as the players through to the quarter-finals. In the Snooker Championship Ronnie Kershaw made light work of D. L. Holmes, winning the first three frames. Also in the report is the final of the Huddersfield Billiards Championship, here on the right. Jack and Ronnie were both making their second appearances in the final. Jack had previously lost to Victor Muff in 1946 and Ronnie had lost to Fred Moorhouse in 1944. As we can see it was two losses from two appearances for Jack, as Ronnie won his only billiards title to go along with his only snooker win also in 1944.
In the last report it says that Ronnie Kershaw added the Yorkshire Snooker Championship to his Huddersfield Billiards title, and that he can look back upon 1950 with great satisfaction. The last few lines of the report say that Huddersfield will play their fourth game in the Yorkshire Inter-District League at home to Keighley. The team would be Gladney Hoyle, Jack Mellor & Harold Burkinshaw with Cyril Cadwell as reserve. The snooker team would be Ronnie Kershaw, Selwyn Bradley & Clifford Percival with Harry Smith as reserve. Those were very different to the teams that turned out against Keighley in the away fixture earlier in the season. Jack, swapping places with Ronnie, and Harold coming for Frank Beaumont in the billiards team, with Clifford coming for Ken Birks in the snooker team. Only Gladney Hoyle in the billiards team and Selwyn Bradley in the snooker team retained their places. I think that marked the change for Jack from a snooker player to a billiards player, and those teams would represent Huddersfield for most of the decade with much success.
For the past three years 1947-48, 48-49 & 49-50 Jack has not been in the headlines. Nor has he won anything or really come close. I’m sure this is due to his personal life and and I feel it is a self-imposed sabbatical to get his family life on track, recharge his batteries and rekindle his love for the game.
Jack Mellor 