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Thelma Carpenter (billiards player)

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Thelma Carpenter
Carpenter in 1933
Born4 December 1911
Died1998 (aged 86)
Sport country England
Professional1934-1950
Tournament wins
World ChampionEnglish Billiards:1932, 1933, 1934

Thelma Carpenter (4 December 1911 – 1998) was an English player of English billiards and snooker player. She won the World Ladies Amateur Billiards Championship, now recognised as editions of the World Women's Billiards Championship, each year from 1932 to 1934. After turning professional in 1934, she won the Women's Professional Billiards Championship four times and the Women's Professional Snooker Championship once, retiring as the reigning champion of both games in 1950.

She died in 1998.

Early life and playing career

Thelma Carpenter was born on 4 December 1911.[1] father, Brodie Carpenter, owned the Solent Cliffs Hotel in Bournemouth, which had two billiard rooms. Thelma Carpenter was educated at home, and never attended school. She met prominent snooker and billiards players including Joe Davis and Clark McConachy when they played exhibition matches at her father's hotel, which demolished in the 1970s and is now the site of the Bournemouth International Centre, which has hosted professional snooker tournaments.[1][2] She started playing billiards in 1926.[3]

McConachy, who was later the World Professional Billiards Champion from 1951 until 1968, and Claude Falkiner (twice runner-up in the World Billiards Championship) both provided coaching to Carpenter,[1] as did Welsh champion player Tom Carpenter (no relation).[4] McConachy gifted his cue to Carpenter, although he may have regretted this; multiple-time men's professional champion Joe Davis later said that he felt McConachy never played to his full ability again.[5] The journalist and author Donald Trelford speculated that McConachy was "too gallant (or too stubborn or too shy)" to request the cue's return.[5] In 1933, Carpenter wrote that she used a cue weighing 19.5 oz., which was heavier than those traditionally used by professional male players whose cues generally weighed no more than 17 oz.[6] She felt that the extra weight of the cue helped with forcing and screw shots.[6]

Carpenter won the World Ladies Amateur Billiards Championship three years consecutively, from 1932 to 1934.[2] There were 41 entrants in 1932, including Mrs McConachy, who was married to Clark.[7] Carpenter defeated Ethel Brown 1,000-730 in the final.[7] she defeated Vera Seals in the 1933 final, and, after recovering from pneumonia, which she had contacted in December 1933,[3] won the 1934 final against Seals.[3] The World Women's Billiards Championship is viewed as a continuation of this amateur championship rather than of the Women's Professional Billiards Championship.[8] In 1934, Carpenter resigned from the Women's Billiards Association (WBA) in protest at them not allowing her to play in tournaments with men that the WBA had no jurisdiction over.[1]

Joyce Gardner playing billiards, with thelma Carpenter standing to the left and an unknown referee to the right
Joyce Gardner (in play) and Carpenter (right) in 1939

From 1936 to 1939 she was runner up to Harrison three times in four years in the Women's Professional Snooker Championship, and once to Gardner in the Women's Professional Billiards Championship. In 1940 she won her first professional world title by beating Ruth Harrison 2184–1641 in the Billiards final,[9] and, the next time the event was held, in 1949, beat Gardner 3120–2518 to retain the title. 1949 also saw Carpenter lose for the fourth time in the Snooker final, this time 15–16 to Agnes Morris, despite having led for most of the match[10][11]

The 1950 Billiards final featured the same finalists as in 1949, and had the same victor, with Carpenter beating Gardner 1978–1374 to win for a third time. A few days later, Carpenter won the Snooker Championship too, this time beating Agnes Morris 20–10.[10] Following the cessation of the women's professional snooker and billiards championships after 1950, Carpenter retired from competitive play, as the reigning champion in both events, and later moved to Mudeford.[1]

Non-playing career and personal life

She wrote the "Billiards for Women" column in The Billiard Player magazine,[6] and in 1936 she was the first woman to commentate on cue sports for the BBC when she provided radio commentary for a match between Ruth Harrison and Joyce Gardner.[3][12] She married Jimmy Seeor in 1939, and had a son, born in 1940,[3] who was present for her 1950 Women's Professional Billiards victory.[13] She appeared on BBC Television in 1947, giving a demonstration of billiards alongside Sydney Lee,[14] and again the following year when her match against Harrison was broadcast.[15] She died in 1998, aged 86.[1]

Writing in 1974, former men's professional snooker champion Horace Lindrum described Carpenter as "A beautiful stylist, [who] did much to foster the women's amateur game."[16] He added that Caprenter's billiard academy for women, which she established in 1934,[3] was "certainly the first in England, probably in the world".[16]

Titles and achievements

Ten women, some holding trophies and flowers
The 1948 Women's Billiards Association awards ceremony. Pictured, (left to right), are Ruth Harrison, Carpenter, Joyce Gardner, Agnes Morris, Valerie Hobson, Evelyn Morland-Smith, Beryl Stamper, Joan Adcock, E. Peters. Back row: Gladys Burton.

Snooker

Outcome No. Year Championship Opponent Score Ref.
Runner-up 1 1936 Women's Professional Snooker Championship Ruth Harrison 3–7 [17]
Runner-up 2 1938 Women's Professional Snooker Championship Ruth Harrison 2–11 [18]
Runner-up 3 1939 Women's Professional Snooker Championship Ruth Harrison 5–8 [19]
Runner-up 4 1949 Women's Professional Snooker Championship Agnes Davies 15–16 [20]
Winner 5 1950 Women's Professional Snooker Championship Agnes Davies 20–10 [10]

Billiards

Outcome No. Year Championship Opponent Score Ref.
Winner 1 1932 Women's Amateur Billiards Championship Ethel Brown 1,000-730 [21][22]
Winner 2 1933 Women's Amateur Billiards Championship Vera Seals 1,000-552 [23][24]
Winner 3 1934 Women's Amateur Billiards Championship Vera Seals 1,200–915 [25][26]
Runner-up 4 1938 Women's Professional Billiards Championship Joyce Gardner 1,824-2,313 [27]
Winner 5 1940 Women's Professional Billiards Championship Ruth Harrison 2,184-1,641 [9]
Winner 6 1948[a] Women's Professional Billiards Championship Joyce Gardner 2,659-1,670 [28]
Winner 7 1949 Women's Professional Billiards Championship Joyce Gardner 3,120-2,528 [29]
Winner 8 1950 Women's Professional Billiards Championship Joyce Gardner 1,978-1,374 [13]

Notes

  1. ^ No contest was held between 1940 and 1947

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f "Obituary of Thelma Carpenter Women's snooker and billiards champion whom only the best men could beat". The Daily Telegraph. 15 May 1998. p. 31.
  2. ^ a b Everton, Clive (1985). Guinness Snooker – The Records. Guinness Superlatives Ltd. pp. 154–156. ISBN 0851124488.
  3. ^ a b c d e f "Big breaks, battles and pneumonia: the unsung story of Thelma Carpenter's glistening cue-sport career". West of England Billiards and Snooker Foundation. Retrieved 29 August 2024.
  4. ^ "Billiards: Women's Amateur Championship". Gloucester Citizen. 3 February 1931. p. 12.
  5. ^ a b Trelford, Donald (1986). Snookered. London: Faber & Faber. pp. 36–37. ISBN 978-0-571-13640-7.
  6. ^ a b c Carpenter, Thelma (September 1933). "Billiards for women". The Billiard Player. p. 4.
  7. ^ a b "Women's Billiards Championship". The North-China Herald and Supreme Court & Consular Gazette. 19 January 1932. p. 95.
  8. ^ "World Ladies Billiards Champions". World Billiards. 22 June 2015. Archived from the original on 16 August 2019. Retrieved 4 October 2019.
  9. ^ a b "New Women's Billiards Champion". The Observer. 18 February 1940. p. 16.
  10. ^ a b c "Bath City Signings". Western Daily Mail. 25 June 1950. p. 5.
  11. ^ Dale, Dominic (July 2020). "Women's snooker: 90 years of downs and ups". Snooker Scene. pp. 9–11.
  12. ^ "Saturday Contrast: 4". BBC Programme Index. Retrieved 29 August 2024.
  13. ^ a b "Thelma Still Champion". Dundee Courier. 23 June 1950. p. 5.
  14. ^ "Billiards". BBC Programme Index. Retrieved 29 August 2024.
  15. ^ "Nomination Billiards". BBC Programme Index. Retrieved 29 August 2024.
  16. ^ a b Lindrum, Horace (1974). Horace Lindrum's Snooker, Billiards and Pool. Dee Why West, Australia: Paul Hamlyn Pty. p. 121. ISBN 978-0-7271-0105-1.
  17. ^ "Women's Snooker Championship". The Times. 4 May 1936. p. 5.
  18. ^ "Women's Snooker Championship". The Times. 23 May 1938. p. 16.
  19. ^ "Ruth Harrison Wins Snooker Title". Daily Record. 17 April 1939. p. 27.
  20. ^ "Bath City Signings". Snooker Title Won on Last Frame. 20 June 1949. p. 5.
  21. ^ "Women's Billiards". The Billiard Player. February 1932. p. 12.
  22. ^ "Women's Championship". The Manchester Guardian. 18 January 1932. p. 4.
  23. ^ "Women's Amateur Championship". The Billiard Player. February 1933. p. 23.
  24. ^ "Women's title retained". Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer. 30 January 1933. p. 16.
  25. ^ "Women's Amateur Billiard Championship". The Billiard Player. February 1934. p. 5.
  26. ^ "Women's Championship final". The Manchester Guardian. 29 January 1934. p. 3.
  27. ^ "World Billiards » Blog Archive » World Ladies Billiards Champions". www.world-billiards.com. Archived from the original on 19 January 2018. Retrieved 22 March 2018.
  28. ^ "A Really Grand Finale!". the Billiard Player. June 1948. p. 8.
  29. ^ "Still Champion". Western Morning News. 13 June 1949. p. 6.

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