Horace Lindrum vs Willie Smith (lost footage of televised snooker; 1937)

Issue 706 of Radio Times listing the 14th April match.

Status: Lost

On 14th April 1937, professional snooker players Horace Lindrum and Willie Smith faced each other in an exhibition match at Alexandra Palace. The match has television significance, as it was the first televised demonstration of snooker, being broadcast by BBC Television Service.

Background

Heading into the exhibition match, both players had already built strong reputations in the game of snooker. Lindrum was an Australian player considered to be the second best snooker player behind only Joe Davis. Indeed, he and Davis would face each other in three World Snooker Championship Finals in 1936, 1937, and 1946, with Davis winning all three. Nevertheless, Lindrum himself would earn a World Championship crown in 1952, by beating Clark McConachy. Meanwhile, while Smith generally only competed in snooker later in his career, concentrating mainly on English billiards, he did reach the World Snooker Championship Final in 1933 and 1935, both times losing to Davis. He is also regarded by the English Amateur Billiards Association as "by common consent, the greatest all-round billiards player who ever lived".

Horace Lindrum vs Willie Smith

During the 1930s, organisers began to take note of snooker's rising popularity. For many years, it was often played casually by professional billiards players, typically after a gruelling billiards game had occurred. Indeed, the attendance for a billiards game would usually halve after the announcement that a snooker game would commence. But in 1933, a national amateur competition showed organisers just how popular snooker was becoming, with at least 5,000 looking to compete. A few years later, Davis would play Canada's Conrad Stanbury, whose personality and stroke play excited the crowd significantly, further building the snooker audience. Eventually, Lindrum's games against Davis eventually began the trend towards professional snooker, eventually surpassing billiards during this time period.

This was enough for the BBC to be convinced that snooker should be televised. Thus, as part of its agenda to start broadcasting various sports, including football, cricket, and rugby, the BBC invited Lindrum and Smith to compete in an exhibition game on 14th April 1937. According to the Lindrum blog, BBC Television Service presenter Elizabeth Cowell announced the exhibition live from Alexandra Palace, with the players having to negotiate overly strong lights that caused the snooker table's cushion rails to become overly hot. Indeed, it actually burned the players' hands during the exhibition, while also curling the Formica at its joints. About a decade later, the issue was fixed by adding microphones to the table lights, so that the noise of the snooker balls colliding could be amplified. The two would compete in another exhibition match on 16th April, with the results of both matches being lost to time.

Notably, this was not the first time both players made broadcast snooker history; in December 1935, Davis and Lindrum competed at Thurston's Hall, with Smith providing commentary for the first radio broadcast of a snooker game. Despite these broadcasts, it was stated in issue 706 that it was expected that snooker's popularity was just a fad, and players would prefer billiards in the long run. The opposite proved true, as snooker became widely more popular in the UK in the coming decades. It peaked in the 1980s during the 1985 World Snooker Championship Final between Dennis Taylor and Steve Davis, which was watched by 18.5 million.

Availability

Like all early television transmissions, both exhibition matches were televised live and there were limited viable means of recording television prior to the Second World War, with recording seldom having occurred until video tape was perfected in the late-1950s. Thus, all footage of both matches is likely permanently missing. Issue 706 of Radio Times helped to document an historic moment in television and snooker history.

Gallery

Images

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  Issue 706 of Radio Times listing the 16th April match.

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  Issue 706 of Radio Times providing a report on snooker's rising popularity (page 1).

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  Issue 706 of Radio Times providing a report on snooker's rising popularity (page 2).

See Also

Early BBC Sports Television

• 1931 Epsom Derby (lost televised footage of horse racing event; 1931)
• 1937 FA Cup Final (partially found footage of football match; 1937)
• 1937 International Imperial Trophy Race (lost footage of motor race; 1937)
• 1937 Wimbledon Championships (partially found footage of tennis tournament; 1937)
• 1938 Ashes Series (partially found footage of international test cricket match; 1938)
• 1938 FA Cup Final (partially found footage of football match; 1938)
• 1939 FA Cup Final (partially found footage of football match; 1939)
• 1947 FA Cup Final (partially found footage of football match; 1947)
• 1953 British Grand Prix (partially found footage of Formula One race; 1953)
• 1955 Scottish Cup Final (partially found footage of football match; 1955)
• Archery (lost early televised toxophily; 1937-1938)
• Arsenal 7-1 Hibernian (lost footage of charity football match; 1952)
• Arsenal vs Arsenal Reserves (lost footage of early BBC televised football match; 1937)
• Barnet 3-2 Wealdstone (lost footage of Athenian League football match; 1946)
• The Boat Race 1938 (partially found footage of rowing race; 1938)
• Catch-As-Catch-Can Wrestling (lost early BBC televised professional wrestling matches; 1938-1939; 1946-1947)
• Charlton Athletic 1-0 Blackburn Rovers (lost footage of FA Cup match; 1947)
• Darts and Shove Ha'penny (lost early BBC televised darts matches; 1936-1939)
• England 0-1 Scotland (partially found international football match; 1938)
• England 1-1 Scotland (partially found footage of international football match; 1947)
• England 16-21 Scotland (partially found footage of rugby match; 1938)
• England 3-0 France (partially found footage of international football match; 1947)
• England 3-0 Rest of Europe (partially found footage of international football match; 1938)
• Falkirk 3-2 Newcastle United (lost footage of football match; 1953)
• Scottish Universities 1-1 English Universities (lost footage of international football match; 1952)
• Woods and Jack (lost early televised lawn bowls; 1937; 1946)

Early BBC Television

• Alexandra Palace's wartime television demonstrations (lost footage of private television transmissions; 1943, 1945)
• An Inspector Calls (lost television adaptation of play; 1948)
• Ann and Harold (lost early BBC drama television series; 1938)
• BBC Election Night (lost coverage of British general elections; 1950-1951)
• The Care of Your Car (lost early BBC motoring show; 1947)
• Cook's Night Out (lost early BBC cooking show; 1937)
• Craftsmen at Work (lost early BBC documentary show; 1938, 1946)
• Dish of the Month (lost early BBC cooking show; 1937)
• First Aid (lost early BBC medical show; 1937)
• Foundations of Cookery (lost early BBC cooking show; 1939)
• Marcel Boulestin television shorts (lost early BBC programs; 1937-1939)
• Masks through the Ages (lost early BBC history talk show; 1937)
• Opening of the BBC Television Service (partially found coverage of inaugural day of high-definition television service; 1936)
• The Orchestra and its Instruments (lost early BBC music talk show; 1937)
• RCA recording of BBC Television Service (found footage of pre-Second World War BBC television broadcast; 1938)
• Sea Stories (lost early BBC talk show; 1936-1937)
• Spelling Bee (lost early BBC game show; 1938)
• Telecrime (lost early BBC crime drama; 1938-1939; 1946)
• The Wasp's Nest (lost early BBC television adaptation of Agatha Christie short story; 1937)
• Weaponless Self-Defence (lost early ju-jitsu television program; 1936-1937)
• The World of Women (lost early BBC talk show; 1937)

Early Sports Television Media

• 1934 Philo T. Farnsworth broadcasts (lost early television demonstrations; 1934)
• 1936 Summer Olympics (lost television coverage of Berlin Games; 1936)
• 1938 Pennsylvania Quakers football season (lost early televised college football games; 1938)
• 1960 Daytona Races (lost CBS and NBC televised footage of NASCAR prelude events to Daytona 500; 1960)
• Bill Longson vs Whipper Billy Watson (lost footage of professional wrestling match; 1947)
• Brooklyn Dodgers 2-5 6-1 Cincinnati Reds (lost footage of MLB doubleheader; 1939)
• Brooklyn Dodgers 23-14 Philadelphia Eagles (lost footage of NFL game; 1939)
• Columbia Lions 1-2 Princeton Tigers (partially found footage of college baseball game; 1939)
• Fordham Rams 34-7 Waynesburg Yellow Jackets (lost footage of college football game; 1939)
• Indianapolis 500 WFBM-TV Broadcasts (lost racing footage; 1949-1950)