POPULARITY OF SNOOKER

Coventry Herald, Friday 30 March 1934

DEPLORED BY CHAMPIONSHIPS COMMITTEE PRESIDENT

Snooker is much more popular than billiards. This fact was deplored by Mr W. Shortley, at the first annual dinner of the Coventry and District Amateur Billiards and Snooker Championships Committee, held at the “General Wolfe,” Foleshill, on Tuesday. Mr. Shortley. who was in the chair, said that he regretted the passing popularity of billiards in favour of snooker, for that game, with all its advantages, could not be compared with the artistry of billiards. He said that only recently when he visited a large billiards hall outside Coventry in which there were 40 tables, snooker was being played on 39 and billiards on the one remaining table. He attributed the lack of interest in the game to the very large breaks that were being made by some of the experts of the present day, which he said were all very well, but did not compare with the needle matches that used to be played between Reece and Inman. Mr. Shortley recalled the time when Coventry clubs competed in the Birmingham Billiards League, and later still in the Coventry League. He regretted that the latter had now lapsed, but he could see no reason why a snooker league should not be formed locally.