Horace Lindrum - Career

Career

Lindrum made his first snooker century at the age of 16, and his first four-figure break at billiards – a 1,431 – at 21 years old. At the age of 19, he won the Australian Professional Billiards Championship and three years later, the Australian Professional Snooker title. Lindrum retained both titles for over 33 years. He returned to professional play in 1963, at the request of the Australian Billiards and Snooker Association, to aid the flagging interest in the sport in Australia and won the Australian Open Title that same year. The Australian Professional Billiards and Snooker Association published a tribute to Lindrum for doing so.

Lindrum competed and was runner-up in the World Professional Snooker title against Joe Davis five times, finally winning the title in the 1951/1952 season against reigning World Professional Billiards Champion Clark McConachy, by a score of 94–49. Lindrum described the 143-frame final over two weeks against McConachy as the toughest battle of his career. However, due to a boycott of the tournament by most of the game's professionals in favour of the World Matchplay competition, Lindrum's triumph is often overlooked. This was the only time an Australian would win the title until Neil Robertson's 2010 victory, 58 years after Lindrum's.

Lindrum's book Snooker, Billiards and Pool (later retitled Pool, Snooker & Billiards) was an international bestseller in the genre, with eight editions from 1948 to 1974.