Name: Horace Lindrum
DOB: January 15th, 1912
Died: June 20th, 1974
Nationality: Australian
Professional Career: 1931-1957
Highest Ranking: #N/A
Highest Break:
Career Highlights: 1952 BA&CC World Champion, 1931 Australian Professional Champion
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Early Career
Although his famous uncle Walter was to be a star in the game of billiards, Horace instead favoured snooker and having turned professional in 1931, showed his potential immediately with victory in the Australian Professional Snooker Championship.
Following a further five years which were spent honing his game, he entered the World Championship for the first time in 1936 and was able to beat Paul Terry, Clare O’Donnell and Stanley Newman to reach the final. There he would meet none other than the seemingly unbeatable Joe Davis, though for a while it looked like he could be the man to end the defending champion’s grip on the tournament, leading 27-24 with ten frames to play. Typically however Joe was able to hit back and take the lot and another world title as a result.
Although he was obviously disappointed by this defeat, Horace continued to flourish in the game and in 1937 again made it to the final where he would have a chance to gain his revenge over Davis. It was not to be however as Joe emerged from a tight match a 32-29 winner.
Barring a round two exit to Alec Brown in 1939, this was to be as close as Horace got during the pre-war years as he focused his efforts into promoting the game outside of the UK. When the tournament resumed in 1946 however, he was to have a third and final crack at Davis for the title though again it was to be a familiar outcome as Joe won the match 78-67.
World title at last
What was to follow was a difficult period for the sport as many of the game’s main protagonists entered the breakaway World Matchplay Championship, now regarded as the true World Championship at the time. Horace though, along with Clark McConachy decided to persist with the BA&CC title and it was left to those two to contest the 1952 competition final. It was to be fourth time lucky for Lindrum and he won a one-sided match by a resounding 94-49 scoreline.
Unfortunately for Horace however, due to the absence of the other key players at the time, let alone the recently retired Joe Davis, his World Championship victory is not always given the recognition that it might have been. Ultimately though he won it and his name is on the famous old trophy still being fought over today as a result.
Following his triumph, his career at the very top came to an end and he set about touring the world in a series of exhibition events. When he finally did hang up his cue he did so with a great career behind him and despite being unable to conquer the great Davis, gave him a much tougher run than many others had managed.
Trivia
As kindly provided by Jan Lindrum from Lindrum Enterprises, here are some interesting facts that you might not have known about Horace:
1. Horace Lindrum was the first player in history to make world record breaks at snooker of
114,137, 139, 141.
He made the possible 147 at the Penrith School of Arts in Sydney in 1941.
2. He remains the only snooker player in history to hold the British, Irish, Scottish, African, Maltese, Chinese, Thai, Singaporean, Malay, South Pacific, New Zealand and Australian Snooker Records simultaneously. He broke his African and New Zealand snooker records on two occasions.
3. He is the only snooker player in history to make one thousand snooker centuries in public performance. Many of those centuries were made in world record time of 2 1/2 to 6 minutes.
His first snooker century was recorded at the age of 16, 1928.
At that time he was the Marbles Champion of New South Wales. His 500th snooker century was made at the German Club in Pretoria with three consecutive centuries in the same session.
His 1,000th snooker century was recorded in Sydney in 1970.
4. He recorded the first snooker century for India in 1952 at the W. I. A. A. Club in Bombay.
He recorded a snooker break of 136 shortly afterwards at Bangalore.
5. His first four figure billiards break of 1431 was made at the age of 21 years and he recorded
the first world record 139 at snooker in the same session.
6. In 1957, he met South African champion, Peter Mans, in a snooker challenge and recoded
25 snooker centuries including a South African record break of 143.
7. In 1948, at the Melbourne Town Hall in Victoria, he recorded an all time record in another
International challenge against Peter Mans. It was the highest number of centuries ever recorded
in two weeks of snooker match play. Ten centuries to Lindrum. Two centuries to Mans.
8. In 1949, Horace Lindrum was declared technically blind by a Harley Street eye specialist, yet
recorded more snooker centuries in the latter part of his 50 year career than he did in the beginning.
9. He is the only snooker player (and, perhaps, the only sportsman in history) to have a career
of 50 years.
10. He was one of the great entertainers of the green cloth and even the great Joe Davis
said, ‘Crikey!’ when he saw him play.
Finally, Horace Lindrum was Australian professional billiards and snooker champion for over
thirty three years and his book, Snooker, Billiards and Pool, published posthumously was
an international best seller with eight editions.
In 1951/52, he defended the governing body and, in so doing, had to play 143 frames
of snooker over two weeks on a championship table with championship pockets
against the then World Professional Billiards champion (who had defeated all the
British players to win that title), Clark McConarchy.
Tournament Victories:
Major Titles (1)
| Event | Year |
| World Championship (BA&CC) | 1952 |