Sidney Smith (snooker player)

Sidney Smith (26 March 1908 – 26 June 1990) was a professional billiards and snooker player from the 1930s to the 1950s. He was born in Killamarsh, Derbyshire, England.^[1]

Sidney Smith

Born	26 March 1908 Killamarsh, Derbyshire
Died	26 June 1990 (aged 82) Amersham, Buckinghamshire
Sport country	England

He was the first player to make a total clearance in snooker competition, a break of 133 on 11 December 1936 in the Daily Mail Gold Cup.^[1]

Smith's most notable tournament wins were the 1948 United Kingdom Professional Billiards Championship (beating John Barrie 7000–6428)^[1] and the 1951/1952 News of the World Snooker Tournament.^[2][3]

Smith was the runner-up to Joe Davis in the World Snooker Championships of 1938 (having beaten Joe's brother Fred 18–13 in the semi-final)^[4] and 1939,^[5] and he was a semi-finalist on four occasions (1937,^[6] 1940,^[7] 1947,^[8] 1949^[9]).

Smith was the runner-up to Alec Brown in the 1938/1939 Daily Mail Gold Cup^[10] and later runner-up to Joe Davis in the 1949/50 News of the World Tournament^[2] and the 1950 Sporting Record Masters' Snooker Tournament.

Smith made three 1000+ billiard breaks in his career, with his highest being a break of 1292.^[1]

Smith died in 1990 aged 82.^[3]

Performance and rankings timeline

Tournament	1935/ 36	1936/ 37	1937/ 38	1938/ 39	1939/ 40	1945/ 46	1946/ 47	1947/ 48	1948/ 49	1949/ 50	1950/ 51	1951/ 52	1952/ 53
Daily Mail Gold Cup[nb 1][nb 2]	NH	5	5	2	7	Tournament Not Held
Sunday Empire News Tournament[nb 1]	Tournament Not Held								5	Tournament Not Held
News of the World Snooker Tournament[nb 1]	Tournament Not Held									2	6	1	9
Sporting Record Masters' Tournament[nb 1]	Tournament Not Held									2	Tournament Not Held
World Championship	1R	SF	F	F	SF	A	SF	QF	SF	A	QF	A	NH
World Professional Match-play Championship	Tournament Not Held											A	A

Performance Table Legend
LQ	lost in the qualifying draw	#R/N	lost in the early rounds of the tournament (N = position in round-robin event)	QF	lost in the quarter-finals
SF	lost in the semi-finals	F	lost in the final	W	won the tournament
DNQ	did not qualify for the tournament	A	did not participate in the tournament	WD	withdrew from the tournament

NH / Not Held

means an event was not held.

1. Round-robin handicap tournament
2. Billiards event before 1936/37 season

References

1. Andy Hunter on the Cue Collector website http://www.thecuecollector.com/files/CueCollectorArticles/Hunter_Article_16__Sidney_Smith_.pdf Retrieved 2011-Dec-7
2. Turner, Chris. "News Of The World Tournament". cajt.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk. Chris Turner's Snooker Archive. Archived from the original on 16 February 2012. Retrieved 10 February 2011.
3. The Billiards Quarterly Review : October 1990 quoted at http://www.eaba.co.uk/mags/bqr/1990/10/sydneySmith.html Archived 23 April 2012 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 2011-Dec-7
4. Global Snooker website "The World Snooker Championship 1938". Archived from the original on 22 February 2012. Retrieved 22 February 2012. Retrieved 2011-Dec-7
5. Global Snooker website "The World Snooker Championship 1939". Archived from the original on 22 February 2012. Retrieved 22 February 2012. Retrieved 2011-Dec-7
6. Global Snooker website "The World Snooker Championship 1937". Archived from the original on 28 December 2010. Retrieved 28 December 2010. Retrieved 2011-Dec-7
7. Global Snooker website "World Championship Snooker 1940". Archived from the original on 22 February 2012. Retrieved 22 February 2012. Retrieved 2011-Dec-7
8. Global Snooker website "World Championship Snooker 1947". Archived from the original on 16 January 2014. Retrieved 16 January 2014. Retrieved 2011-Dec-7
9. Global Snooker website "World Championship Snooker 1949". Archived from the original on 22 February 2012. Retrieved 22 February 2012. Retrieved 2011-Dec-7
10. Chris, Turner. "Other Non-Ranking and Invition Events: First held before 1980". Chris Turners Snooker Archive. Archived from the original on 16 February 2012. Retrieved 30 June 2013.

External links

• Billiards with Sidney Smith – video from the British Pathe Archive
• Sidney Smith How To Play Snooker on YouTube – video