Horace Lindrum

Horace Lindrum, last member of the 'aristocracy of billiards'

File:Davis and Lindrum 1946.jpg Joe Davis and Horace Lindrum shaking hands before the 1946 World Snooker Championship final
Born	(1912-01-15)15 January 1912 Paddington, Sydney, New South Wales
Died	Dee Why, Sydney, New South Wales
Sport country	Australia
Nickname	Tikoloshe 'Magician', 'The Ace', 'The Peter Pan of Snooker'
Professional	1935–1965
Career winnings	£750
Highest break	147
Century breaks	1000+
Tournament wins
Major	1
World Champion	1952 (BACC event)

Horace Lindrum (born Horace Norman William Morrell, 15 January 1912 – 20 June 1974) was an Australian professional snooker and billiards player.

During a professional career spanning over thirty years, Lindrum established himself as one of the foremost talents in the emerging sport of snooker. As a prolific break-builder, he won his first major title at the age of 40; the 1952 World Championship was contested by only he and Clark McConachy, with Lindrum prevailing 94–49.

Career

Horace was the son of Clara (known as Violet) sister of Frederick III and Walter Lindrum. Clara was a brilliant pianist and an Australian women's snooker champion in her own right. She was referred as the best among the keyboardists to ever exist in her generation. Horace Lindrum made his first snooker at the age of 16 during his debut into the professional league in matchplay against his uncle Walter and his first four-figure break at billiards at the age of 18. At the age of 19, he won the Australian Professional Billiards Championship and three years later, the Australian Professional Snooker title. He retired from competitive play as undefeated World Professional Snooker Champion in 1957 to become an exhibition player. In 1963, the Australian Professional Billiards & Snooker Association asked him to return to competitive play to combat the flagging interest in the sports in Australia. The president of the Australian Association, Dennis Robinson, described Lindrum's return to competitive play as a 'magnanimous gesture', and the program published for the event contained 'A tribute to Lindrum'. A copy of the program is comprised in the Lindrum family archive. Horace Lindrum won the Australian Open title that year.

Lindrum competed and was runner-up in the World Professional Snooker title against British champion, Joe Davis, on two occasions, finally winning the title in the 1951/1952 season against reigning World Professional Billiards Champion, New Zealander Clark McConachy, by a score of 94–49. Lindrum described the 143 frame final over two weeks in Manchester against McConachy as the toughest battle of his career. (Snooker, Billiards & Pool, Australia: Paul Hamlyn Pty. Limited, 1st edition, 1974). However, due to a boycott of the tournament by the British professionals in favor of the World Matchplay competition, Lindrum's triumph is often overlooked. This was the only time an Australian would win the title until Neil Robertson's 2010 victory, 58 years after Lindrum's.

During the Horace Lindrum era, the sports of billiards and snooker were controlled by a 'governing body'. That body oversaw the rules of the sport. Professional proponents played on tables certified by the governing body with 'Kentfield' pockets. Today, the sport is run by a private company. This distinction is an important one.

Stars of a golden age, Joe Davis and Horace Lindrum were hailed by the British tabloid as a great and marketable team, and there is overwhelming evidence to suggest 'Lindrum and Davis are to the history of snooker what Federer and Nadal are to the history of tennis'.(Janne Clara Lindrum, The Uncrowned King, Sydney, 2015.

• World "Professional" Snooker Championship, 1951/1952 run by the British Association & Control Council, the governing body for the sports of billiards and snooker.

• Australian Professional billiards and snooker champion for over 33 years.

• First with Joe Davis to record the highest world record break at billiards under the baulk-line rules. Horace recorded 1008 in Glasgow. Davis recorded 1008 in London.

• First snooker player to record world record breaks of 114, 116, 135, 139, 141 and 144.

• Only snooker player to record 1000 snooker centuries in public performance, including the highest number of snooker centuries in competition (Melbourne Town Hall, 1948, against Pierre Mans Snr. of South Africa). 498th, 499th, 500th, 501st and 502nd snooker centuries recorded at the German Club in Pretoria, South Africa. 728th snooker century recorded in Virginia, South Africa. 999th century recorded at Collaroy in the state of New South Wales. 1000th snooker century recorded at Sydney Showground. Each of these achievements was recognised by the British Association & Control Council and was the subject of global media coverage in an age when technologies were nowhere near as sophisticated as they are today.

• Australian Open 1963, Horace came out of retirement from competitive play to aid counteract the flagging interest in the sport in Australia and paved the way for the successful Pot Black series televised in Australia.

Records

Horace Lindrum's big record breaks were 'officially recognised' by the British Billiards Association & Control Council; the governing body established by the great British champion John Roberts Snr. Roberts and Lord Kitchener are credited with formulating the rules for the game of Snooker. Horace is the only snooker player to have held the English, Irish, Scottish, African, New Zealand, Maltese, Singaporean, Thai, Chinese, Indian and Australian snooker records simultaneously. In 1952, he recorded the first 'Official' snooker century for India at the W.I.A.A. Club in Bombay (Mumbai). A trophy commemorates the event. First with veteran champion Willie Smith of Darlington to put cue sports onto television in an experimental series recorded at 3.10 pm at the Alexandra Palace on April 14, 1937, he also recorded the first big breaks at snooker. Horace Lindrum authored many articles and diagrams during his lifetime as well as two books; Snooker for Amateurs (published by Sir Isaac Pittman & Sons, London, 1948) and the best-selling Snooker, Billiards & Pool (eight editions). The latter marks him as a leading authority on the cue sports of the 20th century. Lindrum is the only snooker player to date to enjoy a 50-year career at the billiard table. In How Did Sports Begin: A Look into the Origins of Man at Play, published by Longman Australia Pty. Limited in 1971, distinguished sports writer, Dr. Rudolph Brasch, writes: 'Horace Lindrum's talent with the cue saw him become he greatest exhibition player the world has ever seen' and the exemplary manner in which he and his mother, Clara (Violet) ran Lindrum's Pitt Street, Sydney, is evidence of 'their expressive love of the game'. These sentiments are confirmed by distinguished journalist Les Wheeler. Les Wheeler was a fifteen-year-old schoolboy when his father first took him to Lindrum's in Pitt Street.

Personal life

Horace Lindrum was born 15 January 1912 in Paddington, Sydney, New South Wales. The great-grandson of Australia's first billiards champion Friedrich Wilhelm Von Lindrum and the grandson of the great billiards coach Frederick William Lindrum II, he was the nephew of Frederick William Lindrum III and Walter Albert Lindrum.

He died on June 20,1974 at the Delmar Private Hospital, Dee Why, Sydney. The cause of death was bronchial carcinoma. He was survived by his wife, Joy, and two daughters.