Sidney Smith and the United Kingdom Billiards Championship Trophy
This Sidney Smith Champion cue was made to commemorate Sidney Smith’s award of the United Kingdom Billiards Championships in 1947 and 1948. Smith won this tournament less times than he received the trophy. He was awarded it twice but won it once.
Photo by David Smith
The first post-war competition for the UK Billiards Championship was in 1946, with three entries, Joe Davis, John Barrie and Willie Leigh.
Barrie beat Leigh in the qualifier, but had to forfeit to Davis due to illness, and shortly afterwards Davis announced his retirement from championship play, returning the trophy to the BA&CC. Sidney Smith missed the closing date for this championship (31 October 1945) as he wasn’t demobilised from the Army until November that year.
Once he returned to ‘civvies’ Smith was closely involved with Davis and others in forming the Professional Billiard Players’ Association (PBPA), and opening the Leicester Square Hall, with the final of the professional snooker championship being held over until the completion of the latter in October 1946.
When the entries were put forward for the next billiards championship (Feb-Mar 1948), Sidney Smith was listed as ‘champion’ with the other competitors playing off to meet him. I don’t know how he gained this status, and can only assume that the title was conferred on him by the PBPA at some time after the resignation of Davis, and this status was accepted by the BA&CC.
I’m pretty sure the trophy remained with the BA&CC between its return by Davis in October 1946 and Smith’s first win in May 1948. He also won in 1949.
Peter Ainsworth
Originally posted to the Cues n Views facebook page 7th October 2022
