Player Profile: Bob CLose
A Great Enthusiast
I was opposing Ken Shirley in a Mini-Prix somewhere or other and doing reasonably well. Playing a short drop cannon into the left corner of the table I missed on the outside of the second object ball. Shirley preceded to slaughter me. Sitting watching the game was a rather short, slightly chubby, round-red-faced chap. His eyes twinkled with enthusiasm and interest. He spoke with a lilting north-eastern accent and with the authority of someone who really does know what he is talking about. After missing the cannon there must have been some expression of disgust about me for this chap said, in a slightly critical tone, "Ah, now, you didn't spot wide enough, I thought to myself just as you were playing, not wide enough." He then went on to give me a verbal lesson as to how this particular type of cannon, at that particular type of angle across the table, generally needs to be played a little wider than at first sight appears necessary. It was some years later that the same man, very little changed in appearance, went out of his way to congratulate me on making a break of 150 odd in an ABC pro/am. By then I knew him much better. The man was, of course, Bobby Close, and that is the kind of man he is. Always ready with a word of advice for those who know so much less about the game than he does, and with a word of praise and encouragement for the player who achieves something which, for him, is a great performance, but which would be quite ordinary for the modest Hartlepool professional.
I first watched Close playing at my own club in Nottingham a dozen or more years ago. At that time there was, in the Midlands, a league called the Powerglide League. I don't know how it came about or who organized it, but it was played on a similar basis to the present day Midland Counties League. The Powerglide Trophy had been presented by Herbert Beetham. Bob Close played for Nottingham and travelled every Sunday of the season from his home in the north-east, usually to Nottingham, for an hour-and-a-half's billiards. The other members of his team were, Bill Ward (Ex CIU champion) and that well-known local snooker player Alf Burdett; Reg Lacey, a capable Nottingham amateur was reserve. I marvelled at Close's enthusiasm, it's a long way from Hartlepools to Nottingham. But I went out of my way to see him play for here was a man who, if not in the class of Dagley, could play the game better than any other amateur I was able to watch, all-round, top-of-the-table, and who seemed to have a stroke for every occasion.
He did not have the classic cue-action, his delivery seemed short, jerky, and with little follow-through. He seemed to rather jab at the balls - but it was hard to criticise a player who regularly "Jabbed up," two and three hundred breaks with the nonchalance that I, "stroked up!" twenty breaks. I once remarked of Close that I enjoyed watching him play, particularly as he hardly ever made a century without getting into some kind of difficulty, and I always found it interesting to speculate as to how he would recover. "Ah!" he replied, with a chuckle, "I do it on purpose."
Bob Close started his billiards not quite fifty years ago at the age of eleven, he was taught the rudiments of the game from a local named Harry Armstrong who was a good red-ball player, and was further encouraged in his efforts by George Cooper, the man who organised billiards and snooker at the Western Social Club where Bob has been a member all of his playing life. Progress was rapid, his first century came at fourteen and he soon became a serious contender for local honours, and for the CIA individual championship which he was to win four times.
It was the English Amateur Championship that gained Bob Close - as it has done many another player - national recognition. He missed the Beetham, Driffield, Edwards era, by a few years, and ran slap-bang into the Norman Dagley era. Bob's first appearance in the final coincided with Dagley's ninth which was the Earl Shilton player's eighth success. Close lost by a mere 224 points - just a ten minute break at that level. It was the beginning of Bob's greatest years. The following year saw Clive Everton produce the game of his life to put out Dagley, but he could not retain the impetus in the final, and though he made a 287, Close replied with his best break in competition at that time - 259 - to take the title though by the narrow margin of just 219. Bob retained his title the following year with a win of nearly a thousand points over Herbert Beetham after the Derby veteran had pulled off a great win against Dagley in the semi-final. Dagley then proved unstoppable taking his tally of amateur championship titles to fifteen before turning professional.
It was his win over Beetham that earned Bob an invitation to the World Amateur Championship of 1977 held in Melbourne. The two seeded favourites were defending champion Dagley, and Indian champion Michael Ferreira. It was perhaps, the peak of his career. He came second in his group losing only to Michael Ferreira, which meant he had to play the leader of the other group - Norman Dagley - in the semi. He scored a 234 and four other centuries to lead by 519 at the interval He extended his lead to 700, but Dagley never did give in easily and came within less than 200 points before Close claimed victory by 131. Thus to a final with Michael Ferreira. Bob made the highest break of the match - 231 - and took an overnight lead of 124. He increased his lead but, with Ferreira gaining confidence, the Englishman faded a little and he went into the last session with a deficit of 323. It was not over. Never one to lie down and die, Bob played with immense determination and closed the gap to just 27 points before Ferreira figuratively fell over the tape to take the title by the nothing figure of 119. This was perhaps Bob Close's finest hour.
With Norman Dagley out of the way there was no other amateur quite in his class. Bob won the amateur title for the third, and his last time, at Chester in 1985. It is not that the other qualifiers couldn't play. Ken Shirley, Bill Andress, Peter Shelley, 'Nip' Wright, Des Heald, Jim McCann, were all in the last sixteen and he had one or two narrow victories, notably by only 30 against Peter Shelley in the quarter-finals. But though some of his matches were close-run things (no pun intended) he never really looked like losing. It was after this victory that Bob decided that there was not a lot of future for him in the amateur game and that he decided to turn professional. This is hardly surprising. He had a practice break of 720 to his credit, and a highest in competition of 398 unfinished. He made centuries and double centuries almost at will. The professional game was beginning to perk up a little and Bob felt that that was where his billiards future lay.
Since turning Pro, Bob has been a regular supporter of the one-day pro-am tournaments whether Mini-Prix or ABC Pro-Am, and has had many successes in these events. One of his best was at Grimsby in 1989 where he beat Russell in the final after getting past such good players as Howard Griffiths, John Murphy, Ken Shirley, and David Rees. Russell was not very old at the time but was nevertheless an extraordinarily good player. I remember remarking to Close after the match that he must have been pleased to win that one. "h yes,' he answered, "Well, it gives 'em something to think about." I also remember him winning a Mini-Prix at Leeds from a field that included Russell, Sethi, Gilchrist, and him making a break of 358 in the Semi against Des Heald. These are just two memories of very good wins amongst many.
Bob has always been in many ways an amateur. He has never been a full-time player and still works as contracts manager for the Teesside engineering company that has employed him for twenty-four years. He is also a family man, his wife Olive, has supported and encouraged him for years, Bob says she has been his inspiration; well, I am not qualified to comment on that but I do know that if she weren't there to look after him at the Pro-Ams, then I don't know where he might finish up! For the last few years Bob Close has been a member of the WPBSA Professional Billiard Players Committee, a body that has had a deal of criticism from many quarters. Be that as it may, there is no doubt that the professional game is in a better state than for many years, and Bob is the first to give credit to Mark Wildman, and Clive Everton for the efforts they have put into the game, and for the help and advice he has received from them.
He admires all the younger players and wishes them well, but his favourite players are/were the late Herbert Beetham and the still-alive-and-kicking Norman Dagley. Of Norman he says that it was a pleasure to play him. He has lost count of the times they have met on the table and says that, whether wining or losing, Norman's behaviour was never anything other than that of a great sportsman.
Bob is a keen follower of many other sports and a regular bowls player. The other sports include snooker at which he has a top break of 138 and has been three times semi-finalist in the northern area of the amateur championship. He reckons Stephen Hendry is the best he has seen. Billiards is, of course, his first love, his only regret being that he did not start to play at the top-of-the-table until he was about forty. Might be a lesson for the younger generation there!
It is one of the game's ironies that such a fine player, since turning professional, has not won a title. Perhaps advancing years, perhaps the advent of Russell, Gilchrist, and Co., have had something to do with it. Though the zenith of the talented left-hander's career may have been in his amateur championship winning days, he is far from finished - as was made abundantly clear recently to all those who saw his fine win over Foldvari in the recent UK championship. I can tell you that anyone who beats the Australian Steamroller at anything - if it were only tiddley-winks - is far from being finished. All true billiards enthusiast will hope that before he puts his cue away for the last time, the Hartlepools man will add a major professional title to his impressive list of amateur successes. When that day comes I shall raise my glass to Bob Close, billiards player, sportsman, gentleman.