D. J. Heald - " Des"
Mr Mini-Prix
I first saw Desmond J. Heald on the 12th of January, 1974. I know the exact date because on that day I played in a heat of the English Amateur at a club in Corby (I was in the Cambs area that year) and DCS was playing on the next table. I played Albert"Snowy"Salisbury and was beaten out of sight. Des was playing one of the Eady brothers, I forget which one, and he made a couple of centuries and won his game. I did not know him then but had plenty of time to watch him as my opponent played interminably off the red ball and gave me plenty of time to sit out I remember being fascinated by this rather short left-handed player who seemed to have a great range of shots available so as to avoid using the rest, who played with a calm assurance, who obviously knew the all-round game inside out, and who seemed to miss little or nothing. The next time I saw him was in 1980 when The Amateur was played at my club in Nottingham. He stayed at my house arriving about midnight from some jazz session somewhere or other, was up early next morning ready to face that fine Sheffield player Ted Birkenhead who scored prolifically and made two very good hundred breaks but DCS won. Des Heald was born in Cambridge where he started playing billiards at the age of 15 taught by his father, himself a hundred break player, and later having a little tuition first from John Barrie and then from Mark Wildman to whom he later became coach. He made his first century when 17 and a distinguished Amateur career followed. He won the Cambs Individual Championship seven times (The snooker once,) and captained the Cambridge team to victory in the Inter-County Championships. He was a qualifier for the final stages of The Amateur many times his best effort being that of getting to the Semis, this was just a couple of years ago when he lost to Peter Gilchrist and a break of 332. He has had his fair share of success in his own Mini-Prix series winning the Ilford event of August '87 beating Clive Everton in the Final with a break of 107. He was runner-up in an open event held at Windsor in 1984 making a 126 in the final but just losing to Jack Karnehm. The climax to his Amateur career and his proudest moment in the game came in 1989 when he was selected to captain the England team in the first-ever four nation international billiards match held in Killiney, Republic of Ireland, where he won all of his games and captained his team to victory. This led to an invitation to the prestigious Darley Dale tournament where he finished runner-up to Ken Shirley having beaten two World Professional Champions (Dagley and Russell) in what he considers to be his best performance to date. His top breaks as an Amateur were 167 in competition and 315 in practice.
With the opening up of Professional billiards it was natural for him to, "turn." fine player that Des is, he will be the first to admit that he was never right at the top of the game. He is a realist and knows that he is unlikely to be the World Professional Champion. However the Professional game is the right place for him and I think that he is good enough to be a potential World quarter-finalist, indeed, given the format of most competitions these days-and with a bit of luck-he could come into the reckoning for a Semi-final place sometime or other.
Des's interest in billiards extend far beyond playing. He was for years secretary of the Cambridge and District Leagues and he is a well-known and successful coach doing a lot for the younger players in his area. He is best known for his work as the inspiration (Together with Mark Wildman) of the popular Mini Prix. From a modest start these have - with a lot of help from Des's wife Carolyn - become, I think, the most important series of events in the calendar without which the game, especially the professional game, might not have made the progress that it has in recent years. DCS is a man of many parts. As a youngster he was interested in most sports and at one time coxed for the Cambridge Town, "eight." for many years he ran and was drummer in a successful Jazz Group, "The Burgundy Street Stompers," and though the group no longer plays Des retains his interest in Jazz music and values highly his friendship with Chris Barber. Returning to billiards he has great admiration for Norman Dagley and Mark Wildman with whom he has played a great deal. Of the younger players, like the rest of us, he is full of praise for Russell's billiards and likes to tell the talc of how he took the Teesside virtuoso to his club for a game only to have to field out a break of well over 600 at Mike's very first visit to the table. As regards The World Champion, Des has a game of golf with him now and again and says that if he can't thrash him on the billiard table it gives him great delight to do so on the golf course. Des is a not very large person physically but the character and personality of the man is larger than life; his contribution to the recent history of billiards is significant, long may it continue to be so.