View source for News of the World Snooker Tournament

{{Short description|Former English snooker competition}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2019}}
{{EngvarB|date=March 2019}}
{{Infobox Snooker tournament
|tournament_name = News of the World Tournament
|image =
|venue = [[Burroughes Hall]]
|location = London
|country = England
|establishment =  [[1949/1950 News of the World Snooker Tournament|1949/50]]
|organisation = [[World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association]]
|format = Non-[[Snooker world rankings|ranking]] event
|prizefund =
|final year= [[1959 News of the World Snooker Plus Tournament|1959]]
|Current Champion =
|Final Champion = {{flagicon|England}} [[Joe Davis]]
}}
The '''News of the World Snooker Tournament''' was one of the leading professional tournaments of the 1950s, widely considered as more important than the [[World Snooker Championship|world championship]] due to the involvement of [[Joe Davis]]. The event was sponsored by the Sunday newspaper ''[[News of the World]]''. The highest break of the tournament was 140 or more on four occasions, which was unusual at that time.<ref name=cajt.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/>
There were three distinct periods in the tournament's history. The first six editions, from 1949/50 to 1954/55, were held at [[Leicester Square Hall]] in London. The event was played on a round-robin basis and used a handicap system.<ref name=cajt.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk>{{cite web|last=Turner|first=Chris|title=News of the World Tournament|url=http://www.cajt.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/now.html|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120216155805/http://www.cajt.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/now.html|archivedate=16 February 2012|work=cajt.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk|publisher=Chris Turner's Snooker Archive|accessdate=10 February 2011}}</ref> Matches were played over three days as the best of 37 frames. The total prize money was £1,500 with £500 awarded to the winner. There were initially eight competitors, and later nine, requiring 28 or 36 matches to be played. With two matches played per week, this meant that the tournament extended over 14 or 18 weeks, although it was somewhat longer because of the Christmas break.
After the closure of Leicester Square Hall in January 1955, the tournament was held at a variety of venues around England and [[Jersey]] from 1955/56 to 1957/58. The number of competitors was reduced to six, meaning that only 15 matches had to be played. Generally, two matches were played over the course of one week at each of the selected venues in turn, but otherwise the format of the tournament remained unchanged.
The format changed again in late 1958. All matches were held at [[Burroughes Hall]] in London but the number of competitors was further reduced to four. Instead of a best-of-37-frame match, each competitor played the others in three separate 13-frame matches, and there were no handicaps. With only six matches to be played, two per week, the tournament was completed in three weeks. The first prize was £400. The final edition, in late 1959, was also played at Burroughes Hall. It used the [[Snooker Plus]] rules, with three competitors playing 25-frame matches and was again completed in three weeks.
==History==
The first edition of the tournament was held between September 1949 and January 1950 using a similar format to the [[1948 Sunday Empire News Tournament]] but without the "sealed handicap" aspect. Four players were involved in a qualifying competition, the winner joining seven others in the main event. The eight competitors in the main event were [[Joe Davis]], [[Walter Donaldson (snooker player)|Walter Donaldson]], [[George Chenier]], [[Horace Lindrum]], [[Sidney Smith (snooker player)|Sidney Smith]], [[Peter Mans]] and [[Albert Brown (snooker player)|Albert Brown]] who won the qualifying event. The [[1949 World Snooker Championship|1949 World Snooker Champion]], [[Fred Davis (snooker player)|Fred Davis]], did not enter because he objected to the matches being played over three days rather than the normal six.<ref>{{cite news |title=Snooker champion won't play |work=Dundee Evening Telegraph |date=5 August 1949 |accessdate=25 December 2015 |url=http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000563/19490805/083/0009 |via=[[British Newspaper Archive]] |url-access=subscription }}</ref> All matches were played over 37 frames and each player was given a handicap at the start of the tournament. Davis received a handicap of −7, Donaldson zero, Chenier 13, Lindrum 13, Smith 13, Pulman 14, Mans 16, and Brown 19. The player with the higher handicap received a start in every frame, his starting score being the difference between the two handicaps. Despite being the only player with a negative handicap, Joe Davis won six of his seven matches, and the tournament. Albert Brown had seemed the likely winner going into his last match,<ref>{{cite news |title=Brown should win snooker prize |work=Portsmouth Evening News |date=7 January 1950 |accessdate=25 December 2015 |url=http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000290/19500107/061/0005 |via=[[British Newspaper Archive]] |url-access=subscription }}</ref> but he lost the match and eventually finished in third place behind Sidney Smith.<ref>{{cite news |title=Smith awaits Davis-Chenier result |work=Aberdeen Journal |date=19 January 1950 |accessdate=25 December 2015 |url=http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000578/19500119/066/0004 |via=[[British Newspaper Archive]] |url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Davis wins £500 first prize |work=Aberdeen Journal |date=21 January 1950 |accessdate=25 December 2015 |url=http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000578/19500121/057/0004 |via=[[British Newspaper Archive]] |url-access=subscription }}</ref>
The [[1959 News of the World Snooker Plus Tournament|1959 tournament]] was played under the [[snooker plus]] format, a new variant with two additional {{Cuegloss|Colour ball|colours}} (orange and purple), allowing a [[maximum break]] of 210.<ref name="SGame">{{cite web|title=Definitions of terms used in Snooker and English Billiards (search for snooker plus)|url=http://www.snookergames.co.uk/glossary7.html|work=snookergames.co.uk|publisher=Snooker Games|accessdate=9 April 2011|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140201131329/http://www.snookergames.co.uk/glossary7.html|archivedate=1 February 2014}}</ref> The format, which was developed by Joe Davis, made its professional debut at this tournament on 26&nbsp;October at the [[Burroughes Hall]] in London.<ref>{{cite news|newspaper=[[The Herald (Glasgow)|The Glasgow Herald]]|date=27 October 1959|page=10|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=p3dAAAAAIBAJ&sjid=dKMMAAAAIBAJ&pg=2895,8253550&dq=snooker-plus&hl=en|title=Snooker Plus|accessdate=9 April 2011}}</ref> There were only three players in the competition, with Davis becoming champion after winning five of his six matches. The 'snooker plus' experiment was not a success; the format was abandoned and the tournament series discontinued.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Courcoux |first1=Denise |title=Snooker Plus Oct-Nov 1959 (60 years on) |url=http://tsoit.org/snookerplus/ |accessdate=6 June 2020}}</ref>
==Winners==
Source:<ref name=cajt.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/>
{| class="wikitable" style="margin: auto"
|-
! style="text-align: center; background-color: #00af00" | Year
! style="text-align: left; background-color: #00af00" | Winner
! style="text-align: left; background-color: #00af00" | Record
! style="text-align: left; background-color: #00af00" | Runner-up
! style="text-align: center; background-color: #00af00" | Venue
! style="text-align: center; background-color: #00af00" | Season
|-
! colspan=6 style="text-align: center; background-color: #c0ffc0" | News of the World Snooker Tournament
|-
| align="center"| [[1949/1950 News of the World Snooker Tournament|1949/50]]
| {{flagicon|England}} [[Joe Davis]]
| style="text-align: center" | 6–1
| {{flagicon|England}} [[Sidney Smith (snooker player)|Sidney Smith]]
|rowspan=6|[[Leicester Square Hall]] in London
| align="center"|n/a
|-
| align="center"| [[1950/1951 News of the World Snooker Tournament|1950/51]]
| {{flagicon|England}} [[Alec Brown (snooker player)|Alec Brown]]
| style="text-align: center" | 7–0
| {{flagicon|England}} [[John Pulman]]
| align="center"|n/a
|-
| align="center"| [[1951/1952 News of the World Snooker Tournament|1951/52]]
| {{flagicon|England}} [[Sidney Smith (snooker player)|Sidney Smith]]
| style="text-align: center" | 6–2
| {{flagicon|England}} [[Albert Brown (snooker player)|Albert Brown]]
| align="center"|n/a
|-
| align="center"| [[1952/1953 News of the World Snooker Tournament|1952/53]]
| {{flagicon|England}} [[Joe Davis]]
| style="text-align: center" | 8–0
| {{flagicon|Northern Ireland}} [[Jackie Rea]]
| align="center"|n/a
|-
| align="center"| [[1953/1954 News of the World Snooker Tournament|1953/54]]
| {{flagicon|England}} [[John Pulman]]
| style="text-align: center" | 7–1
| {{flagicon|England}} [[Joe Davis]]
| align="center"|n/a
|-
| align="center"| [[1954/1955 News of the World Snooker Tournament|1954/55]]
| {{flagicon|Northern Ireland}} [[Jackie Rea]]
| style="text-align: center" | 8–0
| {{flagicon|England}} [[Joe Davis]]
| align="center"|n/a
|-
| align="center"| [[1955/1956 News of the World Snooker Tournament|1955/56]]
| {{flagicon|England}} [[Joe Davis]]
| style="text-align: center" | 4–1
| {{flagicon|England}} [[Fred Davis (snooker player)|Fred Davis]]
|rowspan=3|various venues used
| align="center"|n/a
|-
| align="center"| [[1956/1957 News of the World Snooker Tournament|1956/57]]
| {{flagicon|England}} [[John Pulman]]
| style="text-align: center" | 5–0
| {{flagicon|England}} [[Fred Davis (snooker player)|Fred Davis]]
| align="center"|n/a
|-
| align="center"| [[1957/1958 News of the World Snooker Tournament|1957/58]]
| {{flagicon|England}} [[Fred Davis (snooker player)|Fred Davis]]
| style="text-align: center" | 4–1
| {{flagicon|England}} [[John Pulman]]
| align="center"|n/a
|-
| align="center"| [[1958 News of the World Snooker Tournament|1958]]
| {{flagicon|England}} [[Fred Davis (snooker player)|Fred Davis]]
| style="text-align: center" | 7–2
| {{flagicon|England}} [[Joe Davis]]
|[[Burroughes Hall]] in London
| align="center"|n/a
|-
! colspan=6 style="text-align: center; background-color: #c0ffc0" | News of the World Snooker Plus Tournament
|-
| align="center"| [[1959 News of the World Snooker Plus Tournament|1959]]<ref>{{cite news|newspaper=[[The Herald (Glasgow)|The Glasgow Herald]]|date=20 November 1959|page=6|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=Wuo-AAAAIBAJ&sjid=-EwMAAAAIBAJ&pg=5126%2C2724329|title=Snooker Plus|accessdate=8 April 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|newspaper=[[The Herald (Glasgow)|The Glasgow Herald]]|date=23 November 1959|page=10|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=XOo-AAAAIBAJ&sjid=-EwMAAAAIBAJ&pg=3791%2C3062132|title=Snooker Plus|accessdate=8 April 2014}}</ref>
| {{flagicon|England}} [[Joe Davis]]
| style="text-align: center" | 5–1
| {{flagicon|England}} [[Fred Davis (snooker player)|Fred Davis]]
|Burroughes Hall in London
| align="center"|n/a
|}
==References==
{{Reflist|2}}
{{News of the World Snooker Tournament}}
{{Snooker tournaments}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:News of the World Tournament}}
[[Category:News of the World Snooker Tournament| ]]
[[Category:News of the World]]
[[Category:Snooker non-ranking competitions]]
[[Category:Snooker competitions in London]]
[[Category:Recurring sporting events established in 1950]]
[[Category:Recurring events disestablished in 1959]]
[[Category:Sport in the City of Westminster]]
[[Category:1950 establishments in England]]
[[Category:1959 disestablishments in England]]
[[Category:Annual events in London]]
[[Category:Defunct snooker competitions]]
[[Category:Defunct sports competitions in England]]