The 1957 World Professional Match-play Championship was a professional snooker tournament held from 1 to 13 April in Saint Helier, Jersey. This was the 1957 edition of the World Snooker Championship first held in 1927. John Pulman won the event for the first time by defeating Jackie Rea 39–34 in the 73– final. Rea led in the early stages but Pulman pulled ahead and took a winning lead of 37–29 after the final afternoon .
There were four participants. All three matches were played at the Jersey Billliards Association Match Room. Fred Davis was the defending champion, having won the 1956 World Professional Match-play Championship 38–35 against Pulman in the final, but declined to take part in the 1957 event. The world snooker championship was not contested again until 1964 due to a decline in the popularity of professional snooker making the tournament unviable.
Background
The World Snooker Championship is a professional tournament and the official world championship of the game of snooker. The sport was developed in the late 19th century by British Army soldiers stationed in India. Professional English billiards player and billiard hall manager Joe Davis noticed the increasing popularity of snooker compared to billiards in the 1920s, and with Birmingham-based billiards equipment manager Bill Camkin, persuaded the Billiards Association and Control Council (BACC) to recognise an official professional snooker championship in the 1926–27 season. In 1927, the final of the first professional snooker championship was held at Camkin's Hall; Davis won the tournament by beating Tom Dennis in the final. The annual competition was not titled the World Championship until 1935, but the 1927 tournament is now referred to as the first World Snooker Championship. Davis also won the title each year until 1940, when the contest was cancelled during World War II, and again when the championship resumed in 1946, accumulating a total of 15 titles before retiring from the event.
In 1952, the World Professional Match-play Championship was created following a dispute between the Professional Billiards Players' Association (PBPA) and the BACC. In response to player complaints that the BACC was taking too large a percentage of income from the tournament, the BACC claimed that the championship "has always been, and in theory is to be, regarded as an affair of honour and a test of merit", and that "every effort is made to arrange terms advantageous to the professionals competing in the championship, compatible with securing an equitable return for the promoters of it, the B.A.& C.C." The PBPA members established an alternative competition which became known as the World Professional Match-play Championship, now recognised as world championships. There were four entrants for the 1957 World Professional Match-play Championship: John Pulman, Jackie Rea, Rex Williams, and Kingsley Kennerley. Defending champion Fred Davis, who had won the world championship in 1948, 1949 and 1951, and the five previous editions of the World Professional Match-play Championship, each year from 1952 to 1956, did not enter the 1957 tournament.
In March 1957, Pulman won the 1956/1957 News of the World Snooker Tournament, which had been a handicapped competition. With Fred Davis declining to enter the World Matchplay competition because he was taking a "rest" from it, Pulman, who had been the runner-up in the tournament in the two-previous years, was said by the Hartlepool Northern Daily Mail to be a "hot favourite" to win it in 1957.
Summary
The 1957 World Professional Match-play Championship was held at Saint Helier, Jersey, from 1 to 13 April 1957, organised by the Jersey Billiards Association for the PBPA. All matches were played at the Jersey Billiards Association Match Room, Le Geyt Street, and were refereed by S. A. de Gruchy.
Rea was 4–2 ahead after the opening , and achieved a 9–3 lead over Kennerley after the first day. The Jersey Evening Post reported that the first day's play was "generally disappointing", with the highest in the afternoon session being only 34, made by Kennerley. The first session had an audience of only four people, and there were twelve spectators for the evening session. Rea won all six on the second afternoon, for 15–3, making an 85 break in the 19th frame. With the six evening frames shared between the pair, Rea led 18–6 after the second day. Rea won the first frame on the third day to achieve a winning margin at 19–6, and after , won 25–12. During the dead frames, which had an audience of around 80 people, Rea compiled the highest break of the match, a 92, in the 23rd frame.