Famous mason

Eddie had a ball

As a youngster, my parents taught me many habits which still persisted as I got older but which now seem to be part of today’s modern ‘it’s old fashioned, throw it away’ system.

Australia is well known as the home for outstanding sports personalities and snooker player Eddie Charlton was always high in the rankings.

Born Edward Francis Charlton on 31 October 1929 at Merewether, Newcastle, he dominated the snooker and billiards world in Australia and England and earned the nickname of ‘Steady Eddie’.

Charlton came from a sporting family and had an early introduction to table sports through his grandfather who ran a billiards club in the NSW town of Swansea, and young Eddie began playing cue sports when he was nine years old. At the age of eleven, he defeated fellow Australian Walter Lindrum in a wartime snooker exhibition match and made his first century break when he was seventeen.

His subsequent career record included the remarkable feat of having beaten eight world champions.

Hard work were the key words to his success. He was involved in numerous other sports during his youth: he was a first-grade footballer for ten years, a champion surfer, played state-level rugby and competitive cricket and excelled in speed roller skating, rowing, boxing and tennis. In 1956, he was chosen to carry the Olympic Torch on part of its journey to the Melbourne Games.

Charlton, who worked as a coal miner until the age of 31, decided to turn professional in 1963 when he was 34, on the advice of Fred Davis, after winning four amateur snooker titles.

He won his first Australian Professional Championship the following season. For the next ten years he won the title annually and made at least the semi-finals in every subsequent meeting until its last edition in 1988. He unsuccessfully challenged Rex Williams for the World Billiards Championship title in 1974 and 1976. His third appearance was in 1984 when he lost by a handful of points to Mark Wildman. Four years later, he lost to two-time champion Norman Dagley in his last World Billiards final.

Charlton at that time was the most successful Australian snooker player and from the first year of the snooker world rankings in 1976/77, he was ranked number three in the world for the next five consecutive seasons. But he never won a ranking tournament (because, in the early years, only the Snooker World Championship counted).

However, his record will prove hard to beat. Among his victories were the following titles – World Matchplay Snooker Champion, World Open Snooker Champion, British Commonwealth Open Snooker champion, Australasian Professional Snooker champion, Australian and NSW Professional Snooker champion, World Champion of Champions, and the winner of 20 television tournaments.

Another unique record was when he made two consecutive breaks of 137 and 135 without either opponent getting a shot, making a world record running break of 272.

Photo courtesy of Michael Maggs