The UK Boys' Championship (1924)

Tuesday 22nd April, 1924

Lawrence Steeples receives the trophy from Tom Newman.

The boys' billiard championship opened at the Burwat Hall, Soho Square, London, W.1 (kindly lent by Messrs. Burroughes and Watts), on Easter Tuesday, April 22. Heats were 250 up, semi-finals 500 up, and the final 750. Ivory balls were used. All competitors are required to be under the age of sixteen on 1st May 1924.

Lawrence Steeples entered as favourite having recently won the Boy's Billiard Championship arranged by the newly formed Sheffield & District Association showing great prowess at red-ball play by which means he is credited with having scored a break of 219 in practice. Full results with the age of each player being given in parenthesis.

Contemporary notes by Harry Young:

The most impressive performance of the first round, to my mind, was that of little Alec Brown, the son of the North London professional, Alec Brown. Signs of old Alec's careful coaching were apparent all the time, and as my old friend, Mr. C. P. Lidbetter, said "There was not a stroke on the table that he did not know." Some remarkable screws, cushion cannons, jennies, and match-winning run-throughs were made equally as well as a Newman or Smith would have made them, but, curiously enough, the very ordinary losing hazard more often than not caused his undoing, so perhaps the young gentleman considers himself too far advanced to bother much about them. Whatever may be the result of the present tournament I can certainly see in Brown the making of a great player. He at no time looked like losing, and was 84 in front of his opponent, Bertie Almond, who came from Sheffield with a tremendous reputation. Brown again did well in the second round, and is certainly London's best.

Little Sidney Lee, the hope of South London, is only just recovering from a severe illness so is not likely to be at his best this season.

The eight-year-old Sheffielder, Terence Steeples, will I expect win several of these championships before reaching the age limit, but at the time of writing I have not yet seen his brother Laurence, who, I am told, is the certain winner this year.

Ivor Davis, of Cardiff, is another who impressed, his victories being very easily achieved. Since reaching the semi-final round last year he has won the Welsh Boys' Championship and has an excellent chance of gaining the even greater honour. He was not at his best on Monday, having travelled up from Cardiff during the night, but played a better game on Saturday when getting through the second round.

Unfortunately I did not see last season's runner-up, Frank Edwards, of Stourbridge, play his first round heat, but saw quite sufficient of him when he took part in the second round and gained a record victory to be able to say that he acquitted himself very much like the winner.

I have seen some wonderful battlers in the pit in my time, notably Billy Mitchell, Joe Sala, Tom Taylor, Melbourne Inman, and Willie Smith, but none of them has ever exceeded this thirteen-year-old boy in pluck. In the first place, he is a very diminutive boy even for his age, whereas Steeples is a young giant. This did not frighten him a bit, as he won the string for break, but when Steeples opened the game with 91, the highest ever made in a boy championship, I, for one, thought the little boy would disappear as gracefully as possible under the table. Not a bit of it. His father, Mr. Harry Lee, who was sitting next to him, said sympathetically, "Never mind, Sid. Make a 50 break and I'll give St. Dunstan's a tenner and you a fiver for your money box." Alas! there was not a two break left on and a safety miss impossible. The boy did what he could, played on to a ball and kept Steeples out. Then came the surprise packet of the show, for Lee, making a beautiful thin loser, got a game on and, playing billiards worthy of any of the great masters of the game I have mentioned, made a 48 break. The house rose to him and even the big Sheffield crowd cheered the pluckiest effort I have ever seen. He held his own nicely after this, but the 91 had won the game, and when Steeples reached 250 Lee's score was 201.

Lee had only got up from a long and serious illness in time to win his heat in the first round, and this makes his fine effort the more surprising and meritorious. When Tom Newman presented the cup and medals he had some nice things to say about all the competitors, but the nicest thing said was by the cup donor, Mr. Harry Lee, who said that in future years as long as he lives he will give a replica of the challenge cup to the winner to win outright, so that the boys, in addition to their medals, will have something to put on their sideboards in years to come.

It was a remarkable feat to beat the championship best ever recorded with a break of 91 at his first visit to the table and, although he faltered somewhat later in this game, his display in the final heat could not have been improved upon. The Isle of Wight boy, Cooper, had been going well until then and, despite a crushing defeat, his display was highly creditable. He may go a step further next year, because Anno Domini will have put Steeples out of the running, but in already searching for the winner I am going for the first one defeated by Steeples, little Sidney Lee.

From the sporting point of view the third annual competition for the Boys' Championship proved an overwhelming success. I cannot say as much for the financial aspect, however, and fear that St. Dunstan's will reap but very slight benefit as a result. Fortunately, nothing. went in expenses. Messrs. Burroughes and, Watts gave us the free use of their pretty little Burwat Hall with standard table, lights, and attendance. Jack Ayres marked and refereed the games as a labour of love, and Mr. Harry Lee and J. P. Mannock provided the prizes. This year the competition introduced us to a real smasher in Lawrence Steeples, of Rotherham, and I rate him a far better player than either of the previous winners, W. Donaldson, of Glasgow, and W. E. Leigh, of Derby.