1963 – 64

As was the case last year, the headline refers to snooker, and it is the opposing players rather than Huddersfield, which tell the real story. Huddersfield made a promising start in the first match against Leeds, but we do not have the scores. That however was not carried into the Morley game, which should have been a match that Huddersfield won due to Morley’s lack of defining skill. Jack brought the side back into the game after Brian’s loss, but Harold was out of touch and Morley won their first match at Huddersfield.

It would appear that the rivalry between Huddersfield and Leeds goes back some time, and it’s not just confined to football. This report goes on to say that the spectators must have gone home feeling satisfied, having seen a hundred break at billiards, two snooker breaks over forty, and three over twenty. The billiards team got their first double over Leeds for many years, having beaten them earlier in the season on their own table. With Johnny Boyle, who made his debut in the last game, not having had the best of games and Brian only winning by 6 points, the home side were 394 to 287 down on aggregate. This meant that Jack – playing last – had a very difficult task on his hand to pull back the 107 deficit. Jack rose to the occasion in excellent style, and the highlight of the evening was his break of 104 as he won by 112 to give his team a 5 point aggregate win. You will notice from the report that the points system had gone back to just 1 for the aggregate.

The headline shows that the Huddersfield sides shared the honours: the billiards team won but the snooker team lost. Brian, up first for the billiard team, won comfortably with breaks of 38 and 35 unfinished. Harold, back on the side after a two game absence, was far too good for his opponent. Harold had passed the first hundred before the Morley man had even opened his account, and with breaks of 64 and 42 won easily. This meant that the aggregate had already been secured so it was left to Jack to win for a clean sweep, which he did.

Wharfedale had a very good billiards side and finished as Champions this year, so it was no disgrace to be ranked second best to them. Harold was playing Yorkshire ex-champion George Emmott, and was behind by 100 but managed to come back into the game with a break of 65. Emmott responded, and on 198 missed an easy cannon – this let Harold in and allowed him to run out with a 32 unfinished break to win. Brian was playing W. Burnham, a Yorkshire semi-finalist, but never found the form he had shown in previous games and so was easily beaten. Jack played the current Yorkshire Champion, Donald Cruikshank, who celebrated a break of 82 and fully deserved his victory.