Willie Smith (billiards player)

Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use British English Template:Infobox player of English billiards Template:Infobox snooker player Willie Smith (25 January 1886 – 2 June 1982) was an English professional player of snooker and English billiards.<ref>Tony Rennick, ‘Smith, William Robert (1886–1982)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2011 accessed 2 May 2014</ref> Smith was, according to an article on the English Amateur Billiards Association's website, "by common consent, the greatest all-round billiards player who ever lived".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

He studied previous Billiard players such as Melbourne Inman, Harry Stevenson, Tom Reece, Edward Diggle and George Gray, describing his play as "the combination of Gray's striking and Diggle's top-of-the-table play".<ref name="WS1">Template:Cite journal</ref> Smith became a professional player in 1913.<ref name="BDG18MAR">Template:Cite news</ref>

He entered the World Billiards Championship in 1920 and then again in 1923, winning it on both occasions. Arguments with the governing body prevented him from taking part in the competition more often.<ref name=bsa>Template:Cite web</ref>

In 1930 he started writing for The Burwat Billiard Review, a magazine published by the Cue Sport Manufacturers Burroughes and Watts. These were instructional articles with accompanying illustrations and photographs.<ref name="WS1"/>

He turned to snooker for purely monetary reasons but never really took to the game. His natural talent as a billiards player still enabled him to reach the World Snooker Championship final in 1933 and 1935 where he was beaten by Joe Davis.<ref name=bsa/>

References

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