Talk:1955 World Professional Match-play Championship

Score in the final
Many printed sources give the score of the final as 37-34 (e.g. the Rothmans Snooker Yearbook, Morrison's Snooker: Records, Facts and Champions, and Everton's Guinness Book of Snooker). Chris Turner's site has the same. I'm confident that the final score after dead frames was 38-35, as we currently have in the article and as reported by many newspapers in 1955, including The Times (21 March 1955 p.10) and The Observer (20 March 1955 p.12). This would mean that the final was over 73 frames, again as reported in multiple 1955 newspapers, so a player would need 37 frames to win.

The most detailed account I could find of the final day's play is on page 5 of the Lancashire Evening Post, 21 March 1955, in the British Newspaper Archive. This states that Davis was 36-30 ahead going into the concluding session, and "Davis lost the first frame [of the session] ... and took the second at 94-21 to become champion in the 68th frame of the week." This would mean that a winning margin was achieved at 37-31. It reports frame scores consistent with this result and 38-35.

Both Downer's Crucible Almanac (2019 ed.) and Kobylecky's International Directory have the winning score as 36-31, but this can't be right as 37 frames were needed.

I would be happy to take the Lancashire Evening Post as the most suitable source for the decisive score, despite it being in a minority. What do others think? Regards, BennyOnTheLoose (talk) 21:22, 2 March 2024 (UTC)


 * 37-31 is correct according to my record of frame scores (although I am missing the scores from the 3rd day - frames 25 to 36, but all sources I have found stated that Fred Davis was leading 20-16 at this point). I can understand Downer and Koblecky both giving a 36-31 score as a final score of 37-34 you mentioned is printed elsewhere would suggest a 71 frame match, which would have meant that 36 frames was enough to take the title. However, this would still make Downer and Koblyecky wrong as the score at the end of the final day's afternoon session was 36-30 and not 36-31.
 * I have no problem in taking the Lancashire Evening Post as the most suitable source. Steveflan (talk) 14:06, 7 March 2024 (UTC)