Bob Marshall (pool player)

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Robert James Percival Marshall
birthday April 10, 1910
place of birth Kalgoorlie
date of death February 23, 2004
Place of death Perth
nationality AustraliaAustralia Australia
Nickname (s) bob
Active time 1927-1986
Success in snooker
World Championship -
Highest break 139
Success in English Billiards
World Championship 4 × Amateur World Championships (IBSF)
Highest series 1,056

Robert "Bob" James Percival Marshall OAM (born April 10, 1910 in Kalgoorlie , Australia , † February 23, 2004 in Perth , Australia) was an Australian politician, businessman and multiple amateur world champion in the English Billiards discipline .

Life

Marshall was born 600 km northeast of Perth in Western Australia in the twin towns of Kalgoorlie-Boulder , which also produced the professional Walter Lindrum . He later moved to Perth. He was a successful businessman and initially owned a hairdressing business, then dry cleaning, a billiards parlor and a squash court. During World War II , he served as a drill instructor with the Royal Australian Air Force for four years . He was then a member of the Western Australia Parliament for five years (1963–1968). During his political career he retired from billiards and no longer played tournaments. He started playing again in 1969, only to leave it in 1970. After a break of 15 years, he took part in the world championship again in 1985 and became runner-up, 49 years after winning his first title. He was and is the oldest finalist at this tournament.

In 1952 his daughter, 9 years old at the time, died 16 years later, his wife, both in traffic accidents. He himself died in 2004 at the age of 93 in his adopted city of Perth.

Career

His active time spans almost 60 years. In 1965 , as he watched him play , Fred Davis , himself a world champion in English billiards , snooker and pool legend, said:

"He is the most noticeable about his style is his compactness, so like Walter Lindrum, and the shortness of his back-swing, hardly more than a couple of inches."

"The most striking thing about his style is the compactness, similar to Walter Lindrum, and the shortness of his swing, just a few inches (centimeters)"

- Fred Davis (1965)

Ten years earlier, Lindrum himself had said that Marshall was one of the greatest amateur players he had ever seen.

Physical fitness has always been very important to Marshall. Before tournaments, he always went to bed at 9 p.m., got up early the next morning, did gymnastics and often a 6 km run. This training and his abstinence from smoking and drinking were undoubtedly essential factors in his ability to maintain his gaming performance for such an incredibly long time.

When he returned from Johannesburg in 1936, after winning his first title, he was welcomed in the home of Walter Lindrum. He congratulated him on the win and asked if he wanted to become a professional player now. Marshall replied:

“There's no money in it, Walter. I'm married now, and I have to think of my family. "

“There's no money there, Walter. I am married now and I have to think about my family. "

- The Guardian (online)

In the final game of the "Australian Amateur Championship" in 1953, against his great rival Tom Cleary, Marshall played a break of 702 points. It was a new world record that was only broken 31 years later, in 1984, by the Indian Subhash Agrawal (716 points).

He used the "top-of-the-table technique" for his "break-building". All of his records were set under the "two-pot rule" (explanation?), Which must still be beaten under the same conditions:

  • The highest result in a 2-hour game (time format): "1,876" points
  • The highest result in a 4-hour game (time format): "3,391" points
  • Highest average in a 2-hour game (time format): “118.7” points

After ending his political career in 1968, and probably to distract himself from his wife's death the year before, he made his first comeback in 1969. In a series of exhibition matches against Clark McConachy , he won the Australian Championship in the same year and defended it the following year. Then he retired from billiards. After a 15-year hiatus, he then won the title of the Australian Championship again. At that time he was already 75 years old. At the World Cup in India in the same year, he only had to admit defeat to the eventual series winner Geet Sethi (who was 50 years younger at the time) in the final. The Indians assumed that he would now finally retire and joked: “We are looking forward to your son.” In 1976 he took part in the Australian Championship for the last time, won it again and thus secured his own 21st title and last title, 50 years after winning the first title.

Like most English and Australians at the time, he not only played English billiards but also snooker. His greatest achievement was winning the Australian Amateur Snooker Championship in 1956. His highest break is 139, more of a footnote compared to his other successes and records.

In 1960 he was named a "Life Member" of the Western Australian Billiards Association. Three years later he was named Western Australia's Sportsman of the Year and in 1980 Marshall received the Medal of the Order of Australia ( OAM ).

successes

English billiards

  • IBSF World Billiards Championship (formerly also: "(British) Empire Billiards Championship"): "Winner" 1936, 1938, 1951, 1962 • "Second" 1952, 1954, 1985
  • Australian Championship: "Winner" 21 ×

snooker

Records

  • highest unofficial break: "1,056" in 49 minutes during a training session
  • highest official break: "702" in 37 minutes at the Australian Championship 1953 (only set in 1984 by the Indian Subhash Agrawal with 716 points)
  • Average +100: "34 ×"
  • He still holds all records of world amateur billiards under the "two-pot rules"

Awards

  • 1960: "Life Member" of the "Western Australian Billiards Association"
  • 1963 (some sources also indicate 1962) : WA Sportsman of the Year (WA = Western Australia) • Lindy Award
  • 1980: Medal of the Order of Australia ( OAM )

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Bob Marshall obituary ( Memento from October 16, 2005 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ a b c Clive Everton: Bob Marshall. Australia's world master of amateur billiards. The Guardian (online), February 27, 2004, p. 1 , archived from the original on April 17, 2013 ; accessed on April 17, 2013 .
  3. ↑ a b MARSHALL, Robert (Bob) James Percival. A legend in amateur billiards. EABA, p. 1 , archived from the original on April 17, 2013 ; accessed on April 17, 2013 .
  4. ↑ a b Bob Marshall OAM JP - Billiards. Sport Australia-Hall O fFame, December 10, 1985, p. 1 , archived from the original on April 17, 2013 ; accessed on April 17, 2013 .
  5. ↑ a b c d e Bob Marshall. WA Hall of Champions Inductee. Western Australian Institute of Sport, p. 1 , archived from the original on April 17, 2013 ; accessed on April 17, 2013 .
personal data
SURNAME Marshall, Bob
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Marshall, Robert James Percival (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Australian billiards player and world champion
DATE OF BIRTH April 10, 1910
PLACE OF BIRTH Kalgoorlie , Australia
DATE OF DEATH February 23, 2004
Place of death Perth , Australia