1959 – 60

10 individual championships, 5 runner-up finishers, 11 team titles, plus the 3 trips to London to play in the All England Championship proper, and numerous records in the Halifax Parish League. This is quite some record of achievement for a mere eight years, and is why I, and others, call Jack a STAR.

The headline that ends many years of Huddersfield players representing Yorkshire at the championship proper in London. The first report we have comes from way back in 1947 when Victor Muff beat Jack to go to the championships. Gladney Hoyle followed Victor in 1949, with Jack and Harold sharing the honours from 1952 through to last year – apart from one year when Albert Birkby of Halifax won through.

In the Huddersfield zone of the Yorkshire Billiards Championship, Jack would play D. Barry of St. Mary’s Club, Halifax. We have no report of the game but he must have won as he played J. Dennison of Heckmondwike in the next round. After the first away leg Jack was 250 – 400 behind, but at Paddock he won 550 – 100 giving him an overall victory of 800 – 500 with a best break of 128. As I said above the four winners of the Huddersfield zone are now put into a draw with the four winners from the Leeds/Bradford zone.

In the quarter-final of the new pool Jack was drawn against an old rival who he had played in all competitions, including the Halifax League and Knock Out events: Albert Birkby. In the first leg played at Paddock Jack led by 400 – 250 and went on to win in the away leg at Sowerby Bridge WMC. Despite the Halifax Association more or less banning Jack from playing in their competitions by bringing in the residential rule, Albert can’t avoid him, and must have wished he would retire as he seldom beats him.

The semi-final saw Jack against last year’s runner-up J. H. Lunn of Leeds, and at the interval was leading by 300 – 185 – but the second half was completely different. Lunn produced form which he had not shown before and with the balls not running for Jack he seemed to lose heart and lost what had looked to be a comfortable victory for him. J. H. Lunn represented Yorkshire at the English Amateur Championship in London this year.

As mentioned last year, Jack is once again in the Champion of Champions competition – why I don’t know, but he was drawn against C. Drake who apparently beat him in the final last year. Drake had also beaten him earlier this year in a Yorkshire Inter-District League game whilst playing for Leeds. Jack had a bit of revenge this time by beating him, but I do not have any reports of the match. The semi-final against George Emmott was possibly the fastest 400 points Jack has ever scored and with Emmott only managing 54 points was possibly the fastest semi-final on record. Jack achieved breaks of 60 and 118, to lead 235 – 54 and then ran to game with a unfinished break of 168. He now meets Geoff Lockwood in the final. Jack was not at his best in the final at Back Lane WMC, Heckmondwike and lost easily by 210 – 400.

The headline says it all with regards to Lockwood, who must be the best player in Yorkshire at this moment in time. To win all four major Yorkshire trophies in the same year is truly a great feat. Lockwood also won the Bradford billiards championship but couldn’t win the snooker title. He was beaten by Harry Holroyd, who himself was a well known player both at local and national level. Lockwood had been a member of the Bradford snooker team in the Yorkshire Inter-District League for some years but his form in billiards this year is a shock to most.

The Huddersfield Billiards Champion, Cyril Cadwell, will not be defending his crown this season as he has moved to the Bolton district. The first reports of the Championship is at the semi-final stage where Jack meets his old friend Harold Burkinshaw at Thornton Lodge Bowling Club. Both players were not at their best and in somewhat of a laborious match, Harold won 500 – 361.

I don’t know if Jack entered the Huddersfield Snooker Championship, but the first report here is from the quarter-final draw and he isn’t in it. It would be surprising if he didn’t enter as there was a record 45 entrants and Paddock Con. had 4 of them. He entered last year but was beaten in an early round so it could be the same case this year. Like most people I think, Jack keeps most of the reports of his victories but not many of his defeats – unless it was in the later stages of a competition.