Agnes Davies: The Welsh woman who snookered men for 64 years

BBC News

15 hours ago

"I've just lost to a granny with her arm in a plaster." Promising London amateur Roger Brown arrived at the 1976 Pontins Snooker Championship full of hope for a strong tournament. But he was sent packing in the first round by the aforementioned granny, Agnes Davies, a forgotten snooker legend from Saron, near Ammanford in Carmarthenshire. In a 64-year career spanning from 1937 to 2001, Davies amassed more than 20 ranking titles against men, women and in mixed doubles. Born Agnes Morris in 1920, she is now being remembered with a purple plaque, commemorating remarkable women in Wales, on a single-table snooker hall her father opened in a corrugated iron lean-to next to their family home.
Davies' father opened a ramshackle snooker hall to provide income for his family with compensation after contracting a lung disease called silicosis while working in the coal mines. Her son, Eiddon Davies, said: "Mam was the youngest of six, so even though she'd wanted to carry on with her schooling, she had to drop out and help run the snooker hall and their little shop.
"When there were no customers she passed her time by playing on the table, and became fascinated with the game. "She was completely self-taught and by the mid '30s she could beat anyone in Saron."Encouraged by fellow villagers, she won the 1937 Welsh women's championship at her first attempt, before repeating the feat in 1938 and 1939.
In the same year of 1939, she also won the British amateur title - a de facto world championship at the time - and turning professional in 1940, Agnes narrowly lost in the equivalent world final.Giving birth to Eiddon in 1941, she thought she had hung up her cue but returned for more success on the baize. She won the women's world professional title in 1949 at a glittering ceremony at London's Leicester Square, in which all the women competed in floor-length gowns.The trophy was presented to her by actress Valerie Hobson, who would go on to become the wife of MP John Profumo, who later became embroiled in scandal.
Snooker hit the doldrums soon after, but was revived in the 1960s by BBC Two commissioner David Attenborough, who used the sport as a way to promote the advent of colour TV. "In the '70s the invitations began to roll in again, and the likes of Guinness, Coral and Pontins began holding tournaments with prize money and free holidays etc," Eiddon said. "In '76 Mam broke her wrist vacuuming the stairs, but as we'd already paid for the week at Pontins Prestatyn she decided to compete anyway."It was here she beat Brown and went on to fall just before the round of 16, where famous male players entered the mixed tournament. She would go on to claim the Pontins women's title in 1982 and also became world champion for her third and final occasion in 1978, aged 58.
Her competitive streak was not limited to tournaments, her son said. "Even playing with us you could tell she was a different, steely-eyed person as soon as she leaned over the table."I didn't beat her until she was in her 80s, when she threw a strop and blustered 'look, you wait until you've had a heart attack. I've got angina, arthritis, and also got cataracts, so let's see how you'll play then'."
She was still competing for Wales as late as 1999 in the Home Nations Championship, telling The Guardian it had helped her get over the death of her husband, Dick, three years earlier. Agnes played her final season in 2001, in the Gwendraeth League. She died a decade later, aged 90.
Purple Plaques Wales honours outstanding Welsh women in a similar manner to blue plaques. Chairwoman Sue Essex said: "In common with many of the women who are represented with Purple Plaques, Agnes was champion among men and women - but her glittering career is little known. "She beat both women and men at their own game, once winning a game with her wrist in plaster and beating a man several decades her junior. "We take our hats off to her achievements."