Sometimes it can be nice to take a look back at the history of snooker, but most people will turn to the 80’s as the cornerstone of the game’s history, but the game has a far extended history going way back to the mid 1920’s when the first snooker world championship took place.
1927 was one of the most historical years in snookers history when the first snooker world championship was held, although at that time it was known as the professional snooker championship.
The first snooker world championship was organised by the legendary Joe Davis and Bill Camkin the year before the tournament took place in 1926.
The championships were held over several dates and venues, mainly to suit players from different regions of the UK as travel in those days was not quite as easy as it is now!!
Although Davis organised the event, it was consented by the governing body at the time (billiards association and control council) and ran from the 29th November 1926 to May 9th-12th 1927.
The final of the first snooker world championship took place in Camkins hall Birmingham where Joe Davis took the title by 20-11 by beating Tom Dennis over the period of three days.
Albert Cope made the highest break of the first snooker world championship which was a break of 60, to which he received a commemorative certificate from BAAC.
Albert Cope’s high break record was not beaten until 1929 where Joe Davis made a break of 61 in the final.
But lets not forget, the game was in its infancy in the 1920’s and only a couple of snooker/billiards clubs existed in the UK. Most tables in fact where kept in homes of the aristocrats of the time, so snooker/billiards was very much an exclusive game, made for the rich.
It wasn’t really until the late 60’s that snooker started to take a foothold when the likes of Alex “hurricane” Higgins came into snooker, to which he had a revolutionary effect on the game and how it was played. Alex made snooker cool and it appealed to a much younger generation of peers.
And comparing snooker in 1926/27 to present is a very hard task, but without such passionate players back in the 1920’s such as Joe Davis, who set up the first snooker world championship, we might not even have the game we love so much today.
