The 1956 World Professional Match-play Championship was a snooker tournament that took place from 9 January to 10 March 1956 with the final being held at the Tower Circus in Blackpool, England from 5 to 10 March. Fred Davis won his eighth and last world snooker title by defeating John Pulman by 38 to 35 in the final. Pulman led 31–29 going into the last day of the final on 10 March, but Davis won 8 of the first 10 frames on that day to take a winning lead of 37–33. The event, organised by the Professional Billiards Players' Association, is now recognised as an edition of the World Snooker Championship.
There were four participants. Rex Williams made the highest break of the tournament with 141, a championship record, in frame 48 of his semi-final match against Fred Davis in Aston. Pulman defeated Jackie Rea in the other semi-final, which was held in Belfast.
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 1956 World Professional Match-play Championship: John Pulman, Jackie Rea, Rex Williams, and Fred Davis, who had won the world championship in 1948, 1949 and 1951, and the four previous editions of the World Professional Match-play Championship, each year from 1952 to 1955. Joe Davis and Walter Donaldson played in the 1955/1956 News of the World Snooker Tournament, that took place from October 1955 to February 1956, but did not enter the Match-play Championship.
Summary
Semi-finals
John Pulman and Jackie Rea played in the first semi-final, at the R.A.O.B. Club, Belfast, from 9 to 13 January 1956. Pulman won the first three , making a 55 in the second frame and a 70 in the third frame. He finished the first 4–2 ahead, and led 7–5 at the end of the first day. Each player won three frames in the second day's afternoon session. Rea added the first of the evening, before Pulman took four consecutive frames to lead 14–9, compiling a break of 87 in the process. Rea made a break of 89 in winning the 24th frame. Pulman extended his lead to six frames by winning the first two of the third day, and was still six ahead at 18–12 by the session's conclusion, and his lead over the evening to eight frames, at 22–14. On the fourth day, Pulman won seven of the twelve frames to lead 29–19, including four of the six in the afternoon session. The correspondent for the Northern Whig commented that "the snooker was not of very good quality ... Pulman impressed as the more consistent player of the two. Rea being far too impetuous at times and breaking down when he should have scored from good positions." Pulman secured victory at 31–25 after winning the second and third frames on the final day, and finished 36–25 ahead after were played.