Herbert Holt (snooker player)


Herbert Holt was an English professional snooker player.

Career

Herbert Holt was born on 1 June 1909 in Simonstone, Lancashire. His father was Willie Holt, a professional billiards player and manufacturer who invented "rail " that largely replaced the "bag" style of pockets.
Holt played in the qualifying for the 1938 World Snooker Championship, beating Charles Read 21-10 before losing 8–23 to Fred Davis. He entered the World Championship several times after that, lastly in 1950, but never progressed beyond the quarter-finals.
He was a body double for Laurence Olivier in Sleuth and for Roger Moore in The Persuaders. He set up a billiard table and cue sorts equipment business in the 1930s and sold billiard tables to celebrities including Michael Caine, John Lennon and Tom Jones. He established a snooker club in Great Windmill Street in the 1960s that went on to host the English Amateur Championship and Women's Billiards Association events.
Holt died in 2002, aged 92.