For every Mike Russell there are a couple of hundred thousand players who will never remotely approach the standard set by the World Champion. For every Mini-Prix winner there are a hundred or so players who never get into the money and rarely get beyond the first round. But if it were not for those hundred or so there would be no Mini-Prix, no prize money, and nowhere for the top men to sharpen their skills in regular competitive billiards against all type of opposition and under all manner of conditions. Jock McGregor comes into the category of the hundred or so, an ever-present, a popular gentle man, a lover of the game, and an eternal optimist where his own game is concerned, where other people's games are concerned, and indeed, about life itself.
In spite of his name Jock does not come from north of the border and was born in Brentford. There were no particular sporting connections in the family though one of his uncles was a good billiards player. Jock played his first game when he was 14 but, although the family home acquired a small table, he played infrequently. Long ago when on a holiday in Brighton, the billiards-playing uncle took him for a game in a saloon owned by Claude Falkiner. Falkiner was a friend of the uncle and when asked his opinion said that he thought the boy might make something of a player if he stuck at it. Jock had relatives in Leicester, he visited these fairly frequently and played billiards in various halls there. He remembers that the return fare from Kings Cross to Leicester was, in those days, 5 shillings, 25p in today's cash. Jock says that all his bad playing-habits are self-taught and that he had decided to get some professional tuition when the course of history determined that he, together with millions more, should be called to take part in a quite different kind of game.
On the outbreak of the war, Jock left his job in a bank and volunteered for aircrew training. He was turned down for flying duties and was trained as a Radar operator. Radar was the Allies secret weapon in the air war and a vitally important job. Jock was posted to Malta. Older readers will recall that the people and the garrison of Malta were collectively awarded the George Cross, indeed the island is sometimes known as the George Cross Island. Who held Malta held the key to the Southern Mediterranean and the island was subjected to heavy aerial attack. Jock spent his time spotting enemy aircraft on his Radar screen and dodging bombs in between times. Strange to say it was apparently not all death and destruction and he managed to get the occasional game of billiards whilst out there. He made friends on the Island and still visits a club there run by one Joe Muscat who was once a B.&.S.C.C. Ref and officiated at one of the Davis - Donaldson snooker finals.
After the war Jock returned to London and resumed playing the game, mostly at the Regent Street Polytechnic. The Poly billiards club used to run a rather famous annual handicap. Joe Davis played there and for years presented the Handicap cup at the Club's annual dinner; well, our Jock twice received the cup from the hands of the great man himself. It was not until he was aged 45 that Jock made a century break but since then has made 8 more. His best break in competition was 60 in the Karnehm and Hillman League and he reckons that his best performance was a year or two ago when he beat Bill Andress 99 - 46 in the Widnes, "Flier." Jock admires the young players of today but his memory goes back to the great players of yesterday and he is one of the dwindling band of enthusiasts who saw an Inman - Reece match. Jock was friendly with Herbert Holt who was a great friend of the Davis's. Jock once asked Holt if he knew what Joe thought about whilst sitting out some of those great Lindrum breaks. Holt said that Joe's wife had told him that her husband thought of nothing in particular but would now-and-again slip out of the room and play a couple of shots on the practice table to keep his eye in. Jock has many other interests apart from billiards. He is very fond of drawing and sketching, chess, cards, and is a passionate solver and compiler of mathematical puzzles. It was at the Grimsby Mini-Prix last year that Jock entered his eighth decade of life by becoming 70 years young, I am afraid that many of his billiards playing acquaintances will be 70 years old when and if they reach that milestone.
It would be a conventional thing to say that without the Jock McGregors there would be precious few billiards tournaments. That does not make it any the less true. Well done Jock, see you next season.