There is a once popular old-time music hall song which ended with those lines. The couplet neatly sums up Terry Ward's billiard career. A career which has seen the York player in six English Amateur semi-finals, two finals and two appearances in the World Amateur for good measure. A record to be envied.
I knew something of Ward but had never seen him play until the final stages of the 1995 Championship held at the Whitworth Institute, Darley Dale. Ward had reached the semis despite a three year absence from competitive play. His progress had included a very fine win over David Burgess. Burgess had made a break of 159, but it was the Northerner who scraped home to book his place in Derbyshire. The other semi-finalists that year were Martin Goodwill, Chris Shutt and David Causier. The wiseacres shook their heads and gave Ward no chance, and that was the way of it. He was well beaten by Causier, who made five centuries to win by just a single point short of 1200. Causier had always seemed destined for a place in the Billiards sun and no-one was very surprised at the scale of his victory. In that game, Ward made only one break over the half century, but I was not alone in admiring the way he stuck to his hopeless task and the way he made the most of his very limited time at the table, achieving an average of over 12. All amateur players, save those who have very strong imaginations, are well aware that a double figure average in any competitive match is quite commendable (if anyone should doubt it, then I can only recommend keeping your average over your next few games and see how you get on!). Many players, including me, would have surrendered after the first half hour or so. Ward did not. In conversation after the match he said, " enjoyed every minute of it". Now i had a better idea of how this player of, it should be said, fairly modest technique had achieved such a fine record.
His first appearance in the final stages of what used to be called the "competition proper" was in 1985. His area heats had included a desperate finish against that well-known Yorkshire amateur Steve Crosland, Terry winning by just one point. His semi-final match was against that very good player and future champion Ken Shirley. Terry led by 132 after the first session, by 134 going into the final session and eventually lost by only 100 or so. Other semi-finals followed over the years against such fine players as David Edwards, Peter Shelley and Martin Goodwill. He lost to Goodwill in the 1990 semi-final by a mere couple of hundred.
Terry reached his first final just a year ago where, at the Atack Club, Nuneaton, he faced Chris Shutt, the latest Teesside prodigy. Shutt, with the CIU Championship already under his belt, was a hot favourite. Shutt's winning margin was 671, of which 566 were made in one break! Ward actually out-pointed the 18 year old beanpole in the second session. This year it was yet another of the Hanson brigade, one Paul Bennett, who like the rest of the Teesside tribe is a get-'em-at-the-top, pot everything in sight merchant. Ward was perhaps a shade unfortunate to see his chance of taking the title sink under a 160 break from Bennett at a vital stage.
Terry's record over the years twice brought him an invitation to the World Amateur Championship. In 1987 it was held in Belfast and won by Geet Sethi. Terry found himself in Sethi's group and for a time headed the section with five wins out of five. His last three opponents were David Edwards, David Elliott and Sethi himself. Edwards and Sethi were real tough ones, Sethi made three triple centuries, with Terry achieving the very respectable average of 17 in the first session. There was nothing in it after one session with Edwards, but the Welshman was a little too good. Terry confesses to being rather disappointed at losing his match with the Northern Ireland champion David Elliott. He lead by 254 at the interval, but faded in the second session. He had finished fourth in the group and made five centuries.
It was a couple of years earlier that the most wonderful moment of his billiards career arrived when he was invited to the World Amateur in Delhi, also won by Geet Sethi. Terry has more than once spoken to me about how much enjoyed this once in a lifetime billiards odyssey, of his fascination with the venue and the people, of the great billiards on display and above all of his admiration for the 75 year old Bob Marshall. Marshall was the undefeated winner of his group, Terry was sixth from eight, winning two games and making a highest break of 106. Marshall beat him by over 1000 making eight centuries, with a highest of 249. The York player considered it a privilege and could take satisfaction from a second session with three breaks over 50 and an average of 14, not bad considering that his
opponent was monopolising the table and had a match average of 40! The second English representative, Bob Close, finished third in his group. Marshall went on to the final, out-pointed Sethi in the first session, but not surprisingly ran out of steam and was eventually well beaten. Just to have been part of such a tournament is something for which most players would give a year or two of their life.
Like most of us, Terry's love affair with the billiard table began with snooker, but the three ball bug struck and he made his first century break at the age of 15. Progress was steady rather than spectacular, and encouraged by Stan Brooke and the late Alex French, he began to spread his wings. He became a member of the team that won the 1990 inter-county championship with Steve Hardcastle and Steve Crosland. He won the British Rail National Billiards Championship nine times, and perhaps more impressively, the Yorkshire Open on no less than six occasions. Many local titles have come his way and as if this were not enough, he is no novice at the 22 ball game, winning both the Railway Championship and the Yorkshire Open five times. He has a top break of 248, had his cue stolen but got it back after a local TV appeal and, wonder of wonders, once played in an exhibition game with Willie Smith - there are very few billiard players who can say that!
Terry is a section manager for a privatised railtrack company in Leeds. Norah, his wife, is a chiropodist, and they have four children. Clearly he doesn't have too much time for billiards, but reckons that his greatest assets are those of being able to play a reasonable game without a lot of practice, knowing his limitations and having a large innate dose of typical Yorkshire bloody-minded never-give-upitis. He is not, however, the archetypical Yorkshireman in that he is quietly spoken and modest of manner. I have often wished that I could know as much about just one thing as many Yorkshiremen seem to know about everything. Terry Ward is not like that.
At 48, some would say that he is in the veteran stage, others might say he is in his prime. I would scribe to this latter view and reckon that he has plenty of years left to remain near the top of the amateur game. Who knows, provided there are not too many of those terrible Teessiders in the pipeline, provided that Championship Billiards is played in the way that we old 'uns think (mistakenly) that it should be, Terry Ward may yet strike a blow for decrepitude and change his status from that of 'blooming bridesmaid' to 'blushing bride'.