Well last year was much the same as the previous year, with the Huddersfield Billiards Championship and, the now customary, Yorkshire Inter-District Billiards League. There was one other team trophy of note; that of the Huddersfield Snooker League for Paddock Conservative Club. As for century breaks, we have reports of only four, but they were big ones: 126, 146, 160 and 149. It appears that either Jack doesn’t score as many as he used to when he was in the Halifax League, or we simply don’t have as many clippings as we did when he “assisted” Rastrick Constitutional.
The English Amateur Billiards Championship saw the same three entries as last year, Jack, Harold Burkinshaw and the Earl of Mexborough. The draw saw Jack get the bye into the final, to play Harold or the Earl: it is anticipated that Harold will beat the Earl just as Jack did last year. The Earl is the President of the Association and Control Council as well as the President of the Yorkshire Association, and enters more through duty than with any expectations of winning. As expected, Harold did beat the Earl quite easily 1350 – 630 and now meets Jack in the final at Almondbury Liberal Club to see who will travel to London for the Championship proper.
After the first night Harold had a lead of 565 – 505. Neither were playing really well, with Jack’s break of 70 being the highlight. The second night saw them start in the same vein as neither player settled down and didn’t produce the kind of billiards the competition deserved. Despite Jack having breaks of 125, the highest of the match, and 62, Harold had more consistent play and still led 802 – 778 at the interval. Play was very keen after this point, with both players showing improved form, and with fifteen minutes left Jack had reduced the deficit to just 20. Jack had the chance to take the lead but, at 49, he failed at an easy pot, and from this stage the Oakes player took command and ran out a 1165 – 1033 winner. He now goes on to play in the finals proper for the third year in a row; last year he was beaten in the first round and he had the misfortune to repeat that again this year.
As can be seen by the report here, Harold was an excellent player and I have to say that he probably was as good as Jack. So much so that it must have been a great rivalry between the two of them. Not only did they meet each other in league games but also in many semi and final matches of Huddersfield, Yorkshire and English competitions. Not forgetting that they were occasionally team mates when playing for the same club, though not often, and along with Gladney Hoyle and Jack Brindley were members of the invincible Huddersfield team playing in the Yorkshire Inter-District League.
The Yorkshire Billiards Association were perturbed at the loss of some of the Districts, which was felt due to lack of anyone wanting to put the effort into organising them. To try and create interest in these lost Districts and perhaps generate new ones, they had introduced a new competition, The Champion Of Champions. It would have the champions of the Associations affiliated to Yorkshire playing a knock out competition on neutral tables in the Districts in which the interest is lagging. Huddersfield would have Jack, the billiards champion and his club mate, Frank Stringer, the snooker champion competing. If the competition proved successful it would become a regular feature in the County Association.
Frank played the Ossett snooker champion S. Waring of Heckmondwike in his first game and Jack played T. Wood of Morley. We have no reports of either game but Frank isn’t mentioned again while Jack is reported as through to the semi-final. Jack would travel to Thornhill Briggs WMC in the first leg of his semi final against N. Holliday and is expected to win through to the final where Clifford Drake of Leeds awaits. As predicted Jack won easily, 400 – 212, with his 84 break being the highest of the night.
Unfortunately we do not have any reports about the final which is so strange when you consider Jack’s love of keeping reports – so who won? Since the first day of “lockdown” due to Covid-19, March 24th 2020, until today, the first day of another “lockdown”, January 5th 2021, I had it in my mind that Jack had won. The reason for that was in next years reports where I found reports that Jack was in the final again. As it’s the Champion of Champions event and Jack hadn’t won a championship this year, I assumed that he was in the competition next year because he was the defending champion from this year. I thought that was a reasonable assumption and I do recall Jack telling me that he won the Champion of Champions competition once. So today I decided to do a bit of investigating and used the Billiard Player magazine as my source of enquiries. I now wish I hadn’t, as I found this little piece in the October issue No. 464, that shows that Clifford had won by the narrowest of margins. Jack must have thought he would win, as I assume he was in play, when whatever break he was on finished 9 short of victory. Clifford then ran out with a 29 unfinished break to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. As disappointed as I am, it is probably nowhere near the disappointment Jack most have felt. What I do know is that Jack, being the sportsman that he was, wouldn’t want me to claim something that he hadn’t achieved and so here lies the truth.
The Yorkshire Association think the drop in numbers entering their competitions is due to the travel involved, and so have split the competition into four zones. The Huddersfield area had 8 local players, Bradford and Wharfedale 8, Leeds, Wakefield, Morley 8 and South Yorkshire 7. The winners of each local mini competition would then go into a draw for the Championship semi-final. There isn’t any real difference overall, it just means that in the early rounds players will not be travelling the length and breadth of Yorkshire. The only real travelling will occur in the semi-final, home and away, with the final venue situated somewhere midway between the two finalists. It does mean that players will be playing the same men they play in their own local games though, which in my opinion defeats the object of the competition.
The Yorkshire Billiards Championship would have four Huddersfield players entered by the the Association, Jack, Cyril Cadwell, Harold Burkinshaw and Jack Firth. In the first round Jack led Trevor Sisson by just 37 points after the first leg. We have no news of the second leg, but Jack went on to win as in the next round he faced his mate, Harold Burkinshaw (who he lost to in the area final of the English Amateur Championship). Jack was in a good position to reverse his loss as after the first half of the match he led Harold by 400 – 271 which included a break of exactly 100. In the second half Jack scored 200 points before Harold made any break of note. Jack had a break of 125, which was the highest break of the competition so far and meant an easy victory was achieved by nearly 300 points.
The next round, effectively the Huddersfield Area final, saw Jack play A. Thornton, of Lower Hopton WMC. Thornton had beat Jack Firth in the previous round, and Jack led him by 400 – 327 after the first night. On the second night Thornton, with a break of 72, soon wiped out his arrears but after that could do little right and Jack ran out an easy winner to reach the semi finals.
His opponent will be S. H. Lunn, a member of the Leeds team, and one whom Jack had beaten comfortably in the league game earlier in the season. However Lunn has shown better form of late and cannot be taken lightly. In the first half neither player produced any outstanding form but Lunn had a lead of 300 – 194 at the interval. After this the standard of play improved considerably and Lunn had the highest break of the night with 84. Jack with breaks of 52, 63 and 58 reduced the lead to twenty seven points, 566 – 539, but Lunn ran to game with a 34 unfinished break. Lunn lost to Arthur Spencer in the final, 1000 – 733.
There are no reports to indicate that Jack entered the Yorkshire Snooker Championship this season.
Jack Mellor 