Thelma Carpenter

Thelma Carpenter (4 December 1911 – 1998) was an English billiards and snooker player. She won the Women's Professional Billiards Championship three times, and the Women's Professional Snooker Championship once. Biography Carpenter's father, Brodie Carpenter, owned the Solent Cliffs Hotel in Bournemouth, which had two billiard rooms. Thelma Carpenter was educated at home, and never attended school. She met prominent snooker and billiards players including Joe Davis and Clark McConachy when they played exhibition matches at her father's hotel. The hotel was demolished in the 1970s and is now the site of the Bournemouth International Centre, which has hosted professional snooker tournaments. McConachy, who was later the World Professional Billiards Champion from 1951 until 1968, and Claude Falkiner (twice runner-up in the World Billiards Championship) both provided coaching to Carpenter, as did Welsh champion player Tom Carpenter (no relation).