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Willie Smith

“Willie Smith is the Bernard Shaw of Billiards—the fact-facer and the fact-stater.” The Burwat billiards view. February 1930

Willie Smith (25 January 1886 – 2 June 1982) was a professional English billiards and snooker player. He has authored numerous books on billiards and snooker, in addition to developing a variant of the game Pari-Snooker. Smith was the inaugural professional to utilise a brass ferrule fitted to his cue. Although the innovation had been known since the 1880s, several of his fellow professionals initially regarded it with disdain, but by 1930, all of the leading professionals had adopted this feature, which subsequently became ubiquitous at all levels of play. In 1923, Smith modified the brass ferrule on his own cue to a gold one. Alongside Horace Lindrum, Willie was one of the pioneers of televised snooker, featuring in the first ever broadcast of the sport. He died at a grand old age in 1982. Snooker commentator Clive Everton said: “He was one of the all-time greats. He played the billiards of the common man, and he was always identified with the common man.”

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