Bill Withers

W. A. "Bill" Withers was a Welsh player of English billiards and snooker. He defeated Fred Davis in the preliminary match for the 1937 World Snooker Championship, and lost 1–30 to Joe Davis in the quarter-finals. In the qualifying competition for the 1950 World Snooker Championship, he played Willie Smith, and lost 7–28. Withers won the Welsh amateur billiards championship in March 1928. Biography Withers won Welsh Junior championships in swimming and boxing. In the early 1920s, he played for Preece's Billiard Hall in the local English billiards league. In 1923, his team won the Western Valley second division title, with 15 wins from 16 matches. Five years later, his team again won the league, and he won the Western Valley individual championship. He also won the Welsh Amateur billiards championship, in March 1928, and turned professional afterwards. In 1928, he started representing the Queen's Saloon, based in or near Hastings, East Sussex, as a professional. Back in Wales in 1929, he made a Western Valley league record of 148, and lost 608–800 against Tom Carpenter in December. Carpenter said afterward that Withers "gave me quite a good game."