1947 World Snooker Championship


The 1947 World Snooker Championship was a professional snooker tournament. The final was held at the Leicester Square Hall in London, England, from 13 to 25 October. The semi-finals had been completed on 15 March but the finalists agreed to delay the final until the autumn so that it could be played at the rebuilt Thurston's Hall which had been bombed in October 1940.
The World Championship was the first to be played since the "retirement" of Joe Davis who had won all 15 of the previous Championships. He had announced in October 1946 that he would no longer play in the World Championship. Davis did not, in any other sense, retire from snooker, continuing to play in other tournaments and exhibition matches for many years.
Walter Donaldson won the title by defeating Fred Davis 82–63 in the final, although he already reached the winning margin at 73–49. Davis made the highest break of the tournament with a 135 clearance in frame 86 of the final, just one short of the championship record.

Schedule

Main draw

Source:

Final

Qualifying

Qualifying matches were held at Burroughes Hall in London from 2 January to 8 February 1947. Herbert Holt had scratched from the qualifying in early December. The first match, between John Pulman and Albert Brown was a repeat of the final of the 1946 English Amateur Championship which Pulman had won. Brown led 14–9 after two days and took a winning 18–9 lead on the final day. Herbert Francis led Willie Leigh 14–10 after two days. Leigh levelled the score at 15–15 after the final afternoon session and eventually won 19–16. Sydney Lee beat Jim Lees 19–16 in the third match. In the last first-round match Kingsley Kennerley won easily against Conrad Stanbury, taking an 18–4 lead on the second evening.