1957 – 58

After not entering last year we see that Jack is to play the Earl of Mexborough in the English Amateur Billiards Championship. The Earl is the president of the Billiards Association and Control Council and the Yorkshire Billiards Association. Jack wouldn’t be the first to play him, as a number of years ago Jack Brindley played him. He should have then played Harold Burkinshaw last year in Yorkshire Championship but had to withdraw due to a petrol shortage. Jack was not at his best but had a lead of 672 – 356 after the first leg at Leeds, with breaks of 51, 72, 50 and 55. In the home leg it was a similar story up to the interval, though afterwards he managed to show his class with breaks of 126, 67 and 85 unfinished to run out a comfortable winner 1450 – 606.

Jack now meets his Huddersfield team mate Harold Burkinshaw, who beat John Dunning by 1265 – 842 at Thornton Lodge Bowling Club, to see who goes to London for the finals proper. Harold looked like he would run away with the game, as Jack scored only 15 points during a period of 6 visits to the table, before Harold made a magnificent break of 176 and led 331 – 77. At the interval he was 401 – 145 to the good. The second half continued in the same vein until the score reached 565 – 207 when Jack scored his first fifty break, with a run of 69, which he followed up with a fine break of 145. This better play reduced the deficit but Harold still had a healthy lead of 166, with the score concluding at 656 – 490 by the end of the first night. After being behind for most of the second evening by almost 200, Jack eventually put himself back in the game with a magnificent 160. This put him only 15 behind at 973 – 988 and he further reduced this to 7 with his next visit. Harold drew away slightly again but with about ten minutes left Jack had a run of 24 to be only 20 behind. At that point Jack had a chance if he could pot a thin white loser but he missed and Harold stepped in with a break of 52. With time running out Jack could only score 23 unfinished before the bell rang for the end of the match. Despite a fighting effort by Jack, Harold won his way to the finals proper of the English Amateur Billiards Championship for the second year in succession. A collection to help defray the winners expense for the finals raised a grand total of £2 11s

Huddersfield had five players who entered the Yorkshire Billiards Championship: Jack, Willie Mills, Jack Firth, Clifford Percival and Harold Burkinshaw and it was anticipated that they should do all well. With only 17 players entered there would be 1 first round match and Harold was the unlucky Huddersfield player to be drawn out of the hat – the rest had byes. Despite Harold being the only one to play a first round game he was the last man standing when it came to the semi-finals. Jack’s first match was against E. Hutchinson of Ossett and after the home leg he had a good lead of 400 – 231 which included a break of 149. We do not have the score from the second leg but Jack won through to play J. Foster of Stocksbridge in the next round. This is the first time that Foster had entered the competition and he must feel well satisfied as he beat Jack by 500 – 269 with breaks of 100, 87*, 105 and 81. The report said that Jack did not reveal his true form but that Foster, with 2 century breaks, must be a good player. Foster went on to play in the final against his Sheffield team mate, F. H. Almond, and secure a victory at his first attempt. The trophy was presented by the Sheffield United footballer Jim Hagan. Harold Birkenshaw would receive a semi-finalist prize and Jack took home the consolation of achieving the highest break of 149 in his game against the Ossett player E. Hutchinson

The Huddersfield Billiards Championship saw Jack have a good win over N. Simms in the first round. His next opponent was Clifford Percival in the quarter-finals and was leading by 50 points after the first leg. He went on to win and reach the semi-final were he would play his old Meltham team mate, Cyril Cadwell.

Jack reached his fourth billiards final in succession with a 500 – 439 victory over Cyril at Lindley WMC. In the first half Cyril was the better player and led 250 – 197, however after the break Jack hit back with breaks of 65 and 79 to establish a good lead. Cyril replied with a break of 55 but could not disturb Jack who made the most of his opportunities in a far more productive way than Cyril did . He would now meet Jack Firth in the final who had beaten Harold Burkinshaw – who has been ill of late – in his semi final at Berry Brow Liberal Club by 500 – 449. This will be Firth’s first time in the final.

As the headline says, Jack won his fifth Billiards Title, and retained it for the third time – thus setting a new record of four consecutive wins, beating Victor Muff who won the title three years in succession. For the more enthusiastic players reading this, they will know that that Tony Clegg won it 5 times in a row, and better than that, Tommy Donlan won it 6 times in a row. Firth was trailing by 100 points in the early stages but he fought back with a number of small breaks, as Jack had a barren spell, reducing the lead to just 9 points. Jack then revealed the mark of a champion compiling a break of 58 unfinished to lead 301 – 240. He only added 8 to the break after the interval but never relaxed his grip on the game. Another break of 57 put him 366 – 250 in front and further breaks of 39 and 46 helped him to demonstrate his superiority. Firth answered with breaks of 35 and 40 but Jack still held a lead of 545 – 417. The end was soon in sight and Jack, fittingly, ran to victory with an unfinished 47 compiled with the help of a number of cannons on the top cushion.

Along with the newspaper clippings that Jack saved, we have this. As it says, it accompanied the above photo and it was a page out of what I think was some sort of David Brown’s in-house magazine. On one side of the page it mentions this along with football, cricket and table tennis. On the other side we have a bit more on cricket with hockey, golf & darts and dominoes. It has a page number of 20, so it was quite a substantial thing.